Open House Picks

As has been stated many times on this site, Bedford Stuyvesant is a relatively large “area”–I’d be hesitant to apply the “% price drop of the area” reported by Trulia and others to any serious analysis of a particular property in this neighborhood.

Recent sales in closer proximity to the property might be more helpful. March, 2009 sales in the general vicinity of the Stuyvesant Heights/Bedford Corners blocks clustered around the Fulton corridor: 271 Madison (3200sf, 3 Family) sold 3/5/2009 for 850K. 165A Stuyvesant Avenue (252sf, 2 Family) sold 3/19/2009 for 740K. 335 Macon Street (3000sf, 3 Family) sold 3/5/2009 for $781,000. $265/sf, $293/sf and $260/sf respectively. 411 Stuyvesant is in a more desirable location than any of these properties. Using the average $/sf of these three very recent sales, $272/sf, the comparable sales price of 411 Stuyvesant should be at least $663K.

lookingforabrownstone

Take your time and look, but an advise form a prospect buyer in myself. If you happen to run into a special house (which you would know once you see it), you better act quickly because buyers like yourself looking for a Landmarked Brownstone, with details and not much work to be done are out there in the Dozens. The best way to buy in the area is to walk around the blocks that you like and speak to the neighbors. Ask them if they know of someone that is selling and they will point the way. Negotiate with the owner, but dont try to pull a fast one or they will call your bluff, especially if you’re white. Most owners of the special houses in the area are African American that their house is already payed off and trust me they are not in a rush to sale.

Good Luck!!!!

a long debut post…

hi everyone. i’m cautiously looking to buy in bed stuy right. i’m still at an early stage and to be honest haven’t yet got a proper sense of comparative prices. a few observations however having inspected the stuyvesant property a short while back…

the location indeed is good, across from the park, although personally for me it is a bit too close to fulton.

the house itself is not renovated…i think that is rather misleading. its basic, but does have a charm. the overriding problem for me however is that there is no back yard and it backs almost right onto the neighboring property, so I found it rather dark and gloomy…bordering on depressing. i guess for the right price you could put in some $ and do some creative work with skylights etc, but personally I think there are better properties around with better ‘bones’.

for what it is worth, trulia and the press (read bkln heights courier article today) are quoting 25% price drop in the area in the last quarter!, so i guess form its original asking price of around 900k that would put it in the high 600ks.

its so hard to know the price of things right now. a lot of the reported results are from houses signed in dec and jan. even since then there has been huge movement and changes in perceptions. agents are still listing things very high, but i really don’t see the point. having been to a dozen or some open homes and more often than not being the only one there other than nosey neighbors i personally don’t feel any urgency at all to move quickly. i even had an agent admit to me the other day about a rather nice home (larger, renovated, orginal detail and with full yard, good block) which has already had a price drop of 200k, that even since the price drop he had not had a single offer in two months, let alone a low ball offer. when i do find a place that i’m fully happy with, to be candid, i will negotiate very hard and can honeslty say i will be totally relaxed about walking away if the sellers don’t move. to be frank there are so many options right now for me as a buyer and i don’t see the risk of major u-turn quickly that would compel me to do otherwise.

it will be good all round when the true comparables start to come out as that will in fact make buyers like me more comfortable in making decisions to start making offers and in turn from sellers’ perspective perhaps the market will start ticking over a bit.

thanks btw to everyone who posts here. from a potential buyers perspective i do find all the debates very helpful. so appreciated guys. no offense to any one though, i would be curious to hear the views of more serious potential buyers not just existing owners…

cheers everyone.

Awesome, Amzi. I’ll see you at the walking tour. That’s on SUNDAY at 2 pm, right? And I’ll check out the open house.