Open House Picks

the numbers you probivided, 9:11 were from ONE individual brokerage firm…citihabits.

the article i posted first was speaking to the ENTIRE nyc rental market, which is a very different and more all-encompassing data reference.

your example is like saying that because hillary clinton won new york, she will automatically win the presidency.

Those two houses on Berkeley: contract signed yesterday per the agent.
The houses have issues. Too bad. Frankly, the price and the fact there were some empty apartments…and the location-location-location…got me thinking we could have swapped out our house for these and moved from to prime Slope.

Wasn’t meant to be. Anyway, I where we are.

Now, I know the house on Cumberland pretty well…at least I did when it had a LOT of its old, original flavor with some (unfortunate-ish) late 80’s reno here and there.

Frankly, it was a very surprising layout that almost felt like a warren because of the multi-level thing going on.

The cutest and really (seemingly) most authentic feature was the back kitchen that felt like a big shack or lean-to. It had a cast iron stove (small) in the middle of the room with a pipe rising to the high ceiling. I seem to remember the floor was a rolled out linoleum sheet from the 1930’s with some areas that had sheet metal tacked down. An old fashioned, I seem to remember enameled tin lap hung down. It was very quaint. Felt like an ol’ ramshackle Vermont or Upstate NY sugar shack (not a version of “Love Shack” but the building where maple syrup is made).

Behind it there was a smaller woodshed lean-to usually with logs in it. From outside (in the yes, small backyard) it looked remarkably picturesque and very much like one of the (two) famous Francis Guy paintings of Brooklyn Heights from c.1820 (Winter Scene in Brooklyn).

Ultimately, that entirely reconfigured back which was probably trying to meet landmarking requirements more-or-less, explaining the current shape, looks sort of like a modular-home version of what it was before—it could have been a lot sweeter with some planning…could still be with the right touches…

Sadly the backyard photo looks like a double-wide and its adjoining patio…with the chairs facing the dull wall…and the mulch and the chimera…and the lattice slapped up on the fence…ugh, ugh, ugh…they need some better stuff out there and I hope they slap in some greenery, bushes or spring flowers for the open house. This is a poorly designed little patio but I guess they use the glum deck off the kitchen…I wonder if the breeze whips through the deck/alleyway…not to knock it though. It’s convenient to the kitchen and of decent proportions.

One other (while I’m at it) issue with the backyard is that the brick apartment house with its fire escapes on the north side of the house (the house shares a party wall with apartment bldg.) rather looms over the house and yard and unfortunately, a bunch of years ago (in the 00’s) new owners of a couple of different houses with yards nearby on the north side of this houses yard cut down a huge Northern White pine, some firs and, though a weed tree in most instances, an incredibly well grown ailanthus which had pink seed cases and very graceful, rococo curved branches. It had ivy or climbing hydrangea on it so it carried greenery all year. Too bad it was taken down though I’m sure it was a seed-vector for all the yards. It gave birth to other ailanthus that appear to be taking its place but not as nicely. The original one may have been, believe it or not, planted on purpose…chalk it up to another era ..

(BTW ailanthus trees were brought to North America in the 1770’s so these urban weed trees have been around for a long time and are making it even into more remote areas. They were planted in Washington Square Park originally as the square’s main shade tree…stinky…ugh…but apparently the fragrance was not regarded with as much disdain then as it is now.)

The house had some REAL work done to it, yes, but I still wonder if the not-too-thick walls were that insulatable (sp?). I’m sure cellulose was blown in…can’t imagine wanting to rip out interior walls to lay in insulation material… I remember watching work progress (maybe under two successive owners since the late 90’s) but had no idea that the entire back was redone this way. What is the kitchen now was a dining room/catch all room. It looks like they got away with extending the second floor back further than it was back “in the day”.

Yes, the house DOES have a flowering (right now) pink dogwood out front which is in the photo. The house sits up on an original hill that was cut back for the later narrow townhouses to the right and that afore-mentioned 1920’s dark apartment house on the left. So, it sits up on a little rise which makes it sweet but, be aware that the retaining walls need a good deal of work/redoing… probably not a cheap job.

Despite the photos on the real estate site, the house can be dark inside. The alley is dark up against the neighboring brownstone and three 16 ft wide brownstones stand between it and the former Brooklyn Ear & Ear Infirmary (hospital) on it’s south side which has been low income senior apartments for over well over 20 years. Whatever. It still gets light in the front. And the back, now there are windows…the old kitchen addition didn’t have a back window that I remember (or they were blocked by the wood shed), so maybe there is morning light now.

Personally, I prefer our house which is on a north-south axis than these east-west houses. We get tons of winter sun while east-west houses don’t get that much.

I like the mod kitchen but “miss” the quaintness of the old one from years past.

I would live in the house without renting the upstairs. I can’t imagine how they accommodated the original layout to two separate living spaces without having to share the staircase.

I’m sure the house will show really well…I wonder if it means we’ll get another golden lab and a Volvo in the neighborhood! 😉 just kidding!

Welcome to “somebody”—see you in the nabe! (This house WILL sell! Maybe to Nikolissa and co.)

Happy openhousing tomorrow and Sunday everyone!

7:20 this is for you
“The rental market continues to show weakness. In the first quarter of the year, the average rent for studios through three-bedrooms dropped 1.4 percent, according to a report from Citi Habitats. January’s average was $3,221, February’s was $3,180 and March’s was $3,177. The decline between February and March was smaller than the drop the prior month.

But between first-quarter 2007 and first-quarter 2008, the average rent dropped a larger 3.9 percent, according to the market report from Citi Habitats, to $3,193 from $3,322. ”

also in case you cant read very well the second article is about rent stabilized apts. which have nothing to do with the real market.

Time to ask the landlords for lower rents ladies and gents

7:45 Guess what all of NYC is run by the MOB including Park Slope. Wake up.