The Real Deal: A Dose of Reality for Crown Heights Market
Citing some of the discussions on this blog, real estate mag The Real Deal puts the Crown Heights market in its place this month with an article entitled, “Sellers Swallowing Their Pride in Crown Heights.” While not dismissing the nabe’s merits, the basic thesis is that the market got ahead of itself and there’re are…
Citing some of the discussions on this blog, real estate mag The Real Deal puts the Crown Heights market in its place this month with an article entitled, “Sellers Swallowing Their Pride in Crown Heights.” While not dismissing the nabe’s merits, the basic thesis is that the market got ahead of itself and there’re are lots of homeowners with a deluded sense of what their places are worth. (Yesterday’s HOTD is further proof of that phenomenon.) Several brokers are surprisingly frank about clients who insisted on slapping ridiculous prices on their houses, only to have them languish on the market. Here’s a great anecdote:
Kevin McNeill, a senior vice president at Corcoran, is all too familiar with this phenomenon. He points to a three-story townhouse he helped put on the market for $1.2 million back in June. “It was overpriced, but her next-door neighbor had listed at $1.4 million,” says McNeill. “Hers was similar [to her neighbor’s], and when she saw $1.4 million it was hard to talk her off the ledge.” For two months the home languished. Then in August the seller agreed to drop the price by about $100,000, but still it sat. It wasn’t until McNeill convinced her to lower the price below $1 million that the house sold. “The minute we brought it to $995,000, we sold it within days,” says McNeill. “We closed at $960,000.”
The implicit conclusion of the article, which we’d agree with, seems to be that in the new, post-subprime paradigm, $1 million is a huge psychological barrier in Crown Heights, as it is for most of Bed Stuy. But as Corcoran’s McNeill says, “When people talk about price reductions in these neighborhoods, it’s not about the market, it’s about improper pricing.”
Sellers Swallowing Their Pride in Crown Heights [The Real Deal]
Photo by gkjarvis
I rarely read Brownstoner any longer because too many posters are really here to waste their lives in useless pursuits like insulting great neighborhoods and intelligent posters. MM ‘s posts are full of great observations and information. real information and facts. I think the trolls are just MM wannabes and resent the fact they aren’t. Sad really. I think posters like Montrosemorris, Nostalgic, and Iwannabrownstone are the posters who give brownstoner some semblence of credibility and intelligence. Unfortunately, their type of poster seems to get less and less avery day.
I moved to CH 5 years ago- I love it. I certainly don’t recognize the hellhole some of you delight in describing as the neighborhood I live in and I am very certain you folk have not been closer to CH than Nebraska. As for the truly insipid idiot who said CH was about “let’s go to Kingston Ave. and get a Jew,” where have you been for the last 10 years? Let me guess- out to lunch? I won’t make excuses for the riots- they were unconscionable and brought out the worst. But both sides have made a long, concerted effort to work together- it has its ups and downs, but at the very least, there are people trying. I have heard plenty of foolish comments on both sides, problems still exist, but the mahjority of people living in CH simply want a good life for themselves and their families and work every day to achieve it.
It’s a great neighborhood- sure I’d like a few more amenities- a great coffee shop (NOT Starbucks, please), but there is still plenty here and the shopkeepers are friendly and many of them are neighbors too. It’s a bit of a pain to get into Manhattan with just 1 train line close by, but in the overall scheme of life, a wonderful apartment with space and light, friendly neighbors, and trees in the backyard mean far more to me than 50 hi-end chain stores.
For Montrose Morris’s critics, I have a couple of names, Everett Ortner and Margot Gayle. Those two lonely voices in the wilderness relentlessly advocated the preservation of Park Slope (when it was considered a slum) and SoHo (when it was dismissed as a tinderbox), respectively. And look where those neighborhoods are now. I’ve never met MM, but s/he fits Ortner and Gayle’s mold. They fired off mimeographs, MM blogs. (Not that they were universally appreciated, either. Like MM, they were that much ahead of the curve.)
So thanks, 8.22pm. I’ll take your note as a compliment, even though you didn’t mean it that way.
And iwannabrownstone: hope your kid(s) enjoy Crown Heights as much as I did. Being part of a changing neighborhood carries lessons (mostly positive) for life.
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
How did Kevin McNeill get to be an expert on CH when he is part of the problem. He’s an idiot. He couldn’t talk his client of the fence?! He stated in so many words that he will say whatever he has to no matter how unrealistic to get a listing. And damn the client that has to deal with a stale listing, added carrying costs and a stalled future because he couldn’t simply say “get a grip, this is a different market.” And he’s not the only one. Fillmore is terrible with their pricing as well. (They are listing the overpriced non-moving condos on Dean Street.)
All said, I don’t think Crown Heights market got ahead of itself as opposed to realtors not being realistic with their clients. Also, lets not forget that a lot of people priced out of Manhattan and Park Slope that didn’t want to live in Bed Stuy and bought everything in Crown Heights because for them it was a bargain.
iwannabrownstone – I hope you are successful. Let us know how the search goes, and thanks for being open minded and fair.
Nostalgic – You need to write a book. I’m loving every post. Thank you.
No, we are not the same person.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, 9:19. Why on EARTH are we talking about Crown Heights of all places? Jeezz….
iwannabrownstone = Montrose Morris = Nostalgic on Park Avenue
zzzzzzzzz
too much talk about crown heights this week.
can we please talk about a real neighborhood.
“For every report of harassment or mugging, there are thousands upon thousands of days where nothing happens, therefore no posts.”
Crown Heights: You’ll Probably Only Get Mugged Once!
God, when I saw the acres and acres of black type, I immediately thought, “Montrose Morris.”
i feel all warm and fuzzy after those last two posts. i mean that kindly.
for those of you who haven’t been to crown heights, go first THEN write about it. i finally had a good look over the past couple of weeks, and i’m actually looking forward to finding a home in the neighborhood. we went there on a saturday night, in the daytime, and to a few open houses. the most violent incidents we witnessed were two WHITE women in fancy heels that wiped out on the sidewalk. separate instances. this happened in broad daylight. the horror…
i agree $1million is too much to pay for crown heights… anything over $1million in CH means you’re paying for someone else’s vision (soprano’s kitchen, anyone?) you’re there looking for value, after all. anything in the $750 range is a steal.
as far as who A) can afford to pay a million dollars for a home, and B) buys in crown heights… young couple with a baby looking for some space. my guess is that our baby will be happier with a yard and fabulous parks, and she won’t be crying about missing the hot chocolate at the corner starbucks. how’s that for having hope in a neighborhood? that said, we’re taking our time to find what we want, where we want. market is only getting worse, not better. prices will be reasonable again soon.