Park Slope Face-Off: You Be the Judge
Today two similarly priced houses in Park Slope go into head-to-head competition and you’re the judge. What do you think is the better deal? Corcoran’s 3-story “dream” brownstone on “one of the Slope’s prettiest streets” for $1,750,000 or Warren Lewis’ listing for a 4-story, 3-family “North Slope Gem” for $1,850,000? We know what we think,…
Today two similarly priced houses in Park Slope go into head-to-head competition and you’re the judge. What do you think is the better deal? Corcoran’s 3-story “dream” brownstone on “one of the Slope’s prettiest streets” for $1,750,000 or Warren Lewis’ listing for a 4-story, 3-family “North Slope Gem” for $1,850,000? We know what we think, but we’ll wait ’til later to weigh in.
2nd Street Dream [Corcoran]
North Slope Gem [Warren Lewis]
NYC levies income tax and does not rely as heavily on property taxes as ohter municipalities.
Also property taxes in NYC are not earmarked for
schools as a major portion of R.E. taxes in ohter area.
To suggest that schools are better in other NYC neighborhoods such as Tribeca or W. Village because of higher r.e. taxes is misinformed. All those taxes go to city not to neighborhood public schools.
Also PS321 is not the only good public elementary
school in Brooklyn – but many of the others are in other very expensive neighborhoods or in areas
that Brownstoner readers would not consider fashionable enough.
Property taxes in Brooklyn are insanely low, that is why they don’t pay for good public schools. Look at some of the $3 million houses on the market – their taxes are only $4K/year. That is a joke. Most places with really good public schools (West Village, Tribeca, the nicer suburbs in Westchester and New Jersey, etc…) have taxes of $20K and above for $1 million dollar homes. The taxes in Brooklyn have not yet caught up to the market values of the homes, that is the issue.
is p.s. 321 the ONLY public school in brooklyn that is even remotely acceptable? if that is the case and I assume it is because it is the only school i ever hear about then something is terribly wrong with brooklyn… how can there only be one school zone that is acceptable and why don’t property tax values at the very least secure some sort of quality school district as they do in other cities… certainly not that that is even fair but i am looking for a starting point to understand why public schools in brooklyn are all places you wouldn’t want to send your children- where does property tax money go anyway? this is probably a discussion for another blog but I have always wondered why public education works this way here- basically that it doesn’t work at all.
Leaving aside the issue of whether PS 321 is the only school in Park Slope you can send a child to without “having to” use a private school: you don’t get the savings for 10 years. You get them for 6 (K-5). 7 if you count pre-K but you are by no means guaranteed to get in to pre-K. The zoned middle school, MS 51, is very good, but it has a much broader catchment area. And middle school is a whole different ballgame — you’re not guaranteed admission, and not all PS 321 kids get taken there.
Of course you’re paying the extra mortgage for more than 6 years, unless you move immediately after the kids leave PS 321. (Or — as many do — you move into the district, put your kid in 321, then move again but leave the kid in the school.) Maybe it’s still worth it, but whether you number the savings per child at $20K or $31K per year, you’re only multiplying them by 6. In case that matters in anyone’s calculations.
The reason people pay up to live in the p.s.321 zone,is they do not want to have to pay 31,000 plus per child on top of a 1.7 mil house.Thats the reason i moved into P.S.321 area 8 years ago and it is still the reason people buy in today.All of my neighbors send their childern to 321 unless the child needs special services.I also have a friend who is about to spend 3.5 mil. on a house so he doesn’t have to come up the extra 93,000+ for his 3 kids each year for the next 10 years.He refused to look at any other part of Brooklyn because of the cost of private schools in Brooklyn.And Brooklyn private schools ars still much cheaper than Manhattan.
um, guys. if you have 2 kids in public school (ps321) that saves you 40K a year or payments on another 500K in mortgage. one of the reasons we haven’t bought in bed stuy etc is for that reason. not that we could afford a 1.8 million dollar house either. . ..
North Slope house hands down. 4 floors not 3 floors. 2 rentals not one rental. Sixth avenue in the name streets is more charming than sixth ave in the numbered streets. As for the PS 321 school district do you think someone who spends 1.7 or 1.8 on a house sends their children to public school.
There are negatives to this North Slope house such as proximity to Flatbush Avenue. In some houses you can feel the train rumbling (similar to 9th St.)
This house is in North Slope not Prospect Heights, (which is on the other side of Flatbush Ave) or Boerum Hill (which is west of Fourth Ave).
Subways, people, subways. Whichever is closer, wins.
My boyfriend lives on 2nd street btwn 5th & 6th ave. The location (as far as access to 5th ave, proximity to 321, 7th ave and the park) is great, but calling that street one of “the slope’s prettiest” is laying it on a bit thick. One side of the street is brownstones but the other side is large apartment buildings some of which are a bit run down. 1.75 is completely nuts for that house. there’s absolutely no way it will sell for nearly that much. classic corcoran insanity.