Open House Picks
Cobble Hill 368 Clinton Street Douglas Elliman Sunday 2-4:30pm $3,200,000 GMAP P*Shark Park Slope 771A Union Street Gail Morin Sat 2:30-4:30 Sun 3:30-5pm $1,890,000 GMAP P*Shark Windsor Terrace 106 Vanderbilt Street Nancy McKiernan Sunday 2-4pm $750,000 GMAP P*Shark Lefferts Gardens 274 Lefferts Avenue Corcoran Saturday 12-1:30pm $615,000 GMAP P*Shark Kensington 723 Ditmas Avenue Aguayo &…
Cobble Hill
368 Clinton Street
Douglas Elliman
Sunday 2-4:30pm
$3,200,000
GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
771A Union Street
Gail Morin
Sat 2:30-4:30 Sun 3:30-5pm
$1,890,000
GMAP P*Shark
Windsor Terrace
106 Vanderbilt Street
Nancy McKiernan
Sunday 2-4pm
$750,000
GMAP P*Shark
Lefferts Gardens
274 Lefferts Avenue
Corcoran
Saturday 12-1:30pm
$615,000
GMAP P*Shark
Kensington
723 Ditmas Avenue
Aguayo & Huebener
Sunday 1-3pm
$599,000
GMAP P*Shark
Linus, Again, Clinton Street for 3,200K is a completely different shopper than Vanderbilt for 750K. The sf comparisons for such varied prices are meaningless. And show me a 2-family in WT closer to the park for 1M or less–I’ll buy it myself! You owe me a beer when the Vanderbilt place goes first.
One more number to throw out: the Clinton St. house — 25 x 50 over 4 floors — is priced at about $640/s.f. If someone can make the case that Vanderbilt Street at the southern edge of Windsor Terrace is rightfully a more expensive location than Clinton Street in Cobble Hill, I am dying to hear it. (Maybe Clinton St. should be advertised as “Windsor Terrace alternative! Priced out of the Prospect expressway area? Check out edgy, hip Cobble Hill!”)
The more of these HOTDs I see, the more I think that a lot of up-and-coming neighborhoods (I hate to use such a snobby term, but I live in a subprime location myself), which were a good deal just a couple years ago, are not anymore. In neighborhoods where you used to expect a discount for taking a chance on future improvements, or doing without certain amenities, you’re now expected to pay as if 5 or 10 years of “improvements” have already occurred.
Maybe Kensington is an exception. I don’t know that stretch of Ditmas really well, but it is the nicest looking house of the bunch and does seem a lot more realistic on the price.
Linus, Yeah, WT south of the expressway is no Center Slope, even on Union Street. But you’re missing something with the psf focus: the total price of the house. Far more people can afford the Vanderbilt house at 750K than the Union Street house at 1,890K. (Even with two renters on the Union Street house, 1,890K is a scary number for most of us who don’t have the capital.) So given the price disparity–250%–the idea that both properties will be considered by the same buyer is mistaken.
In Windsor Terrace, the best small, one-family houses are going for high nines. So 750K is decent for a small two or convertible three bedroom that’s been renovated well. (You can build on to this house, but not onto a co-op.)
The Kensington house is very interesting. It has some nice detail, especially in the dining room,and the price certainly seems right. I don’t know much about the area, I’ve only passed through on occasion. Any takers?
Will,
OK. So what’s Windsor Terrace on the *other* side of the Prospect expressway worth? $900/s.f.? And extending the logic, a house on Union Street in Park Slope should be worth, what, $1000/s.f.? $1200? But in fact, if you crunch the numbers on the Union Street house above (again, omitting the finished basement), you get an asking price somewhere in the mid $600s per square foot.
Like Babs, you make a decent point about similarly sized co-ops, but that’s simply a function of the fact that — whether house owners like you and I like it or not — co-ops command an even greater p.s.f. in the current market than houses do. I don’t get it, but that’s the way it is. But comparing this house — or the PLG one or any other — to a co-op is an apples-to-oranges comparison. Compared with what you can get for your dollar *in another house*, there are better deals than both of these.
BTW, I do think the house looks nice. And I like the neighborhood — very nearly bought a house there. But the location reasonably carries a discount, notwithstanding a new cafe, dance studio and and dry cleaner. I mean, this is pricey even by the standards of the most expensive parts of Windsor Terrace.
that lefferts house stinks. i walked through it months ago as well…the worst renovation. The kitchen sink is something you’d see behind a bar or better yet in the bathroom of the bar. they didn’t even bother to connect it. whic whackity flippin, if you ask me.
Linus, the Windsor house on Vanderbilt is a decent deal, and I’m not just saying that because I live two blocks away….
You’re near the park, great public schools, and three bus lines to Park Slope. Plus, the commerce in the “outer reaches” of Windsor Terrace has changed in the past four years. Since then, we’ve gotten a great cafe that sells beer and wine, a dry cleaner, and a dance studio run by an amazing Alvin Ailey teacher.
Yeah, the Vanderbilt house is a dollhouse, but it looks great, and similarly sized co-ops in the area have sold for comparable prices last fall. And for most people, a house is just far more appealing.
This house is basically just a 2 bedroom apartement with a basement rec room. Nothing personal Babs, but I’d rather live on Eastern Parkway than Lefferts between Rogers and Nostrand. For that matter, 615,000 will get you a 1600 square foot house on an acre in the woods in northern westchester–and when you get richer, you can add on. But if you are dead set on the city, I’d go with a nice apartment over this house.
Could that Union St. duplex possibly be any uglier? And don’t forget that it’s on the wrong side of Union so not in the ps 321 district.