Open House Picks: Six Months Later
Comment: Still not much to celebrate. Open House Picks 3/13/09 [Brownstoner] Previous Six Months Later Posts [Brownstoner]
Comment: Still not much to celebrate.
Open House Picks 3/13/09 [Brownstoner]
Previous Six Months Later Posts [Brownstoner]
Maly you might be right. Even at that percentage hard to say if it’s meangingful because houses are unique. The Hicks Street house is somewhat larger and needed less work, but Orange Street house is beter located. I don’t think the difference in width matters all that much, the Orange Street house even at 20′ is quite small by BH standards where 25′ is the norm and the houses/lots are much deeper. They’re both nice houses.
In the end I agree there are lots of people with lots of money out there which I think was BH76’s original point – when there are only 15-20 sales per year, it doesn’t take too many rich people to support the market.
NH, that’s true but couldn’t it be justified by the fact it was 20′ wide instead of 16.5′ and that it was better situated? I just don’t think this particular sale shows a decline. The sales went from 2.4 to 2.7M for the last 3 years. FWIW I do believe IB is correct that sale prices seem out of whack with rental prices, but this sale tells me it will take a very long time if ever to make sense to us mere mortals. There are a lot of people with lots of money out there.
One last comment to those cheering for a big collapse in prices: you’re also cheering for the financial ruin of thousands of people. I know there are plenty of people on this site who are more than happy to root for the pain and suffering of others, but it does come off as insensitive to say the least. A real collapse in prices means a lot of people will be underwater and won’t be able to sell if they lose their jobs, etc. So we’re talking foreclosures and the devastating side effects to the people who have to go through it. The prospect of this can be stressful for the 100s of thousands of homeowners in NYC as the RE market slides down. Most of whom are hard working regular folks just like you, not flippers, and not millionaires.
On the other hand, if the collapse does not happen, the worst that happens to the aforementioned cheerers is that they don’t get their dream home at a discount. Which, comparatively, is no big whoop.
DIBS, even for bankers who complain their bonuses dropped alot vs prior yrs, we’re still talking about a big stack of $$$ that many regular folks can only dream of and most certainly allows them to buy pricey properties if they “choose” to do so
The Goldman Sachs bonuses this year will be huge.
“This bubble however was much bigger and economy/unemployment far worse so it might take 15-20 years from now before a bottom. It sounds crazy but this is how RE works. The longer a buyer waits the better.”
I like that, so if I am in the market for a house, I should wait twenty years? I could pay off a 15 year mortgage and live five years for free.
BH76
what you are saying is historically wrong. No market is immune. Every property will have proportional price cuts.
Lower prices in condos in fringe neighborhood will bring down prices in brownstones in fringe neighborhoods which will bring prices down in condos in prime neighborhoods which will bring prices down for brownstones in prime neighborhoods.
And don’t forget Manhattan.
Like Ringo, I will leave my commenting to Brooklyn Heights (and the townhouse market only), which is what I know, and leave the other neighborhoods for the rest of you to speculate on.
I think Minard is being a little optimistic on the inventory and a little pessimistic on the pricing (“The good news is that houses are selling in Brooklyn Heights, the bad news is that they are selling quite a bit lower than they were pre-lehman.”)
There were only about 20 houses sold in each of 2002-6, and only 15 houses in each of 2007 and 2008 when the market peaked. This year the sale rate is on track to be less than 10. But to the extent you can extrapolate any trends from what is literally a handful of sales this year, there’s been a couple of sales at peak pricing (0% off) and a couple at 20-25% off peak. On the outliers, an extra large (5500 sf) house sold for 33% below similar comps from the past 2 years, and a shell that sold for the same price as what shells have sold for in the past few years. All in all, I think the most you could say for Brooklyn Heights is that prices might be down about 15% on average.
Maly, on a per square foot basis, the Orange Street house you mention sold for about 17% higher than this Hicks Street house.
No one commented on IronB’s statement that one could by a 20-unit apartment house in the Heights for $2.7 million just 10 years ago…
Could THAT possibly have any validity or is it just mouthing off? Ten years ago, people were paying 600K to 1m+ for Fort Greene houses that needed varying amounts of work/renovation. I guess the prices dipped down for houses that needed total rehabs but honestly, $2.7m for an apartment house in Brooklyn Heights in 1999…? Is that possible barring any extreme case of a rent controlled/stabilized building with a low rent roll and tenants likely to stay put?
Just wondering…