Open House Picks: Six Months Later

Either you have a short memory (stoner much?) or you were all riled up by ML. yesterday’s HOTD asking 2.9 mio:

“Back in 1995 when we were expecting our first child, we looked at this house. It was a quirky place. Most everything was original including the plumbing. There were sinks in the closets in the bedrooms. The house was very narrow. The garden was not at all dark back then. For those who remember, before the theater there was a strip of boarded up storefronts on Court that ran the length of the block which was only one story high so there was plenty of light. Despite the quirks, my wife loved the house. If I remember right, the asking price was around $375k. I offered $300k and I think we agreed on something like $350k. While the contract was in negotiation, we found out about the potential demolition of the storefronts and construction of a large building on Court. We worried about living next to a construction site for what could be a very long period with an infant. So in the end we decided to pull out. Bought another place in the Heights instead. After watching how long the development took, we were glad that we decided to pull out. I heard that the people who bought the house had lots of problems when the contruction on the theater started and got involved in a law suit because of damage to the house. This was a good one to miss at the time. Though if the owners get close to their price, it looks like things will have worked out.”

Posted by: intheshorts at October 1, 2009 4:05 PM

“People are so caught up in the bubble mindset that they forgot that the 3mil brownstone of today was 300K back in 95 in Brooklyn Heights.”

Anyone in BH care to refute this claim?

I know really nice houses in PS were selling for a million in the late 90’s, so I have a feeling this isn’t true.

These sellers aren’t crazy, they’re on planet 2007. They haven’t changed, but the market has. Manhattan is just a bigger and more transient market, so people have more data and adjust to changing conditions a bit faster.
If sellers/developers are listening, here is the best advice I can give: take your dream comp, the neighbor who got top price in your market and have a good look at your listing. Is it unique and wonderful, in a historic district, with all the details, the light, the top notch everything? Take 15% off the dream comp. Is there a bit of work, or is it located in an up-and-coming location (yes, I am talking to you 121 Lefferts Place and 624 Macdonough), take 25% off. If you’re trying to hock new development condos (hello there, 65 Clifton, Verdi, Absolute and all your friends) in all the wrong places, the going rate will be $250,000 to 275,000 for a 1br, $300,000 to 399,000 for a 2br. If your loan is too big, check if you can go rentals. If not, do the neighborhood a favor and let it go back to your lender, so it can find the market and get occupied.

“Ultimately, he said the firm expects prices to drop an additional 5 to 10 percent.”

OMG, the horror!! 5-10% further down? Bring out the National Guard!!!

Posted by: 11217 at October 2, 2009 1:49 PM
———-

Nicely done excerpting of a quote to support your perspective!!

I hope we can agree that something like 10% off on a 1.5 million dollar property is a lot of scratch. A horror for many folks to lose actually.

But is this the worst case? Let’s consider the source of the quote:

“Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, which is marketing several distressed assets in Brooklyn…”

After giving sympathy his unfortunate last name (particularly for the lovely Mrs Knakal…) I, wonder if he has any reason to see the rosier side of the picture?

Deutsche Bank famously predicted 40% down from June levels this year, and many a Bull here laughed at it as imlausible.

So who’s correct? Could it be somewhere in the middle, closer to the 20% I imagine. Now THAT’S a horror!!

While we’re at it on price declines, I wonder how much sellers are conceding on closing costs and mansion taxes that don’t show up in the sale prices these days.

Methinks a lot.

Where is DIBS?