OHP-6-months-071108.jpg
Comment: Other than Stratford Road, pretty dismal.
Open House Picks 7/11/08 [Brownstoner]
Previous Six Months Later Posts [Brownstoner]


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. Ah. I’m not sure Crown Heights is subprime either. Maybe it’s like Bed Stuy. It looks to me like there are scattered places going into foreclosure, but the whole neighborhood is not on sale.

    I have a theory: Bed Stuy was already a neighborhood of homeowners, with houses in the same family for generations. They’d be more likely to fall victim to real estate fraud or take out HELOCs than to buy with ARMs in the last three years.

    I don’t know why it is the case, but Bushwick and apparently Flatbush and parts of Queens are full of places purchased in the last three years with ARMs that reset or other problems.

    FWIW, the prices I have seen for brownstones in Bed Stuy are considerably less than what you describe. I haven’t looked in Crown Heights at all.

    Also, I don’t know about you, but foreclosed properties sound troublesome. I’m not sure you can inspect them, don’t know about auctions, and don’t they require all cash? Short sales seem promising. They’re basically the same as a normal sale but you wait longer for the bank to OK it.

  2. I think I omitted something from the earlier post.

    I don’t really see any huge movement on the lower end brownstones / buildings in the areas I’m looking at. I’m not sure if Crown Heights is subprime or not.

    I’ve seen a few scattered declines. But not whole sale. People are still trying to get $700-800k for old brownstones that need to be renovated. Those prices don’t seem to be coming down, except for slightly at the margins. (One place did foreclose for like $450k, which I posted on this site). Honestly, while I might make an offer that is 10% off asking price, it’s not even worth it at these prices. I know we have nothing to lose by making a low ball, but it’s got to be a low ball that I feel has a chance of going forward. I’m starting to learn more about finding foreclosed properties.

    The weird thing is that there are not many new listings these days where I’m looking.