This Is Not the First Bear Market in Brooklyn Real Estate
A reader sent along the link to this Times article about another down market in Brooklyn real estate–only, this one took place 131 years ago. Endlessly entertaining. A few excerpts from the piece titled “Lower Rents in Brooklyn: Last Year’s Prices Reduced”: A residence in Central Brooklyn, which comprises the two eligible neighborhoods known as…
A reader sent along the link to this Times article about another down market in Brooklyn real estate–only, this one took place 131 years ago. Endlessly entertaining. A few excerpts from the piece titled “Lower Rents in Brooklyn: Last Year’s Prices Reduced”:
A residence in Central Brooklyn, which comprises the two eligible neighborhoods known as the “Heights” and the “Hill,” and through which runs the principal thoroughfare, Fulton-avenue, is, of course, more desirable than one in the other districts. There is a great demand in this part of Brooklyn for small houses, and as there are not more than enough to supply the demand, there will be slight reductions in there rents this year. In the lower part of Brooklyn, houses which rented last year for sums ranging from $200 to $700 will generally be let for the same figures this year. But on all other houses there will be very considerable reductions, and owners of houses which have been rented for more than $1,000 will have to make reductions amounting to 25 per cent., or even more, if they want tenants.
There’s some other great bits about pricing in Clinton Hill and Brooklyn Heights: $2,000 a year for a house at the corner of Remsen and Joralemon while a house at Dekalb and Adelphi went for $1,000 and those on Prospect Place and Park Place went for between $700 to $1,000. In the last paragraph, they finally get around to the sales market:
Many new houses have been erected in Brooklyn during the last year, but mostly in the newer neighborhoods. These are now in the market for sale, and, as has already been said, many persons are looking about for houses to buy, but as yet very few sales have been made. All the Brooklyn real estate agents do not believe, with the one already mentioned, that bottom prices have been reached. One of them with whom a Times reporter talked emphatically said that he believed affairs would get worse rather than better. Prices now asked for houses and lots, he said were lower than last year’s prices, and he could see no prospect of improvement.
Lower Rents in Brooklyn [NYT Archives]
oh, my bad. it did read a yr..i’m conditioned to see those numbers and then see a month! but it was transposed to read corner of remsen and joralemon when it should have read on remsend and joralemoan streets
Biff – have you heard of the Gettysbrug address….
Christ Biff, didn’t you memorize the Gettysburg Address as a child?
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
We are now engaged….”
Every school kid learned that score back then was 20 and that four score was 80….
Shahn, thanks! I suppose I could have been less lazy and Googled it, but your explanation was nice and concise.
i bet you people have some serious ghost problems in your homes hahahah.
*rob*
Biff, “a score of rooms” means 20 rooms.
The term “score” was a commonly-used Middle English word, from the Old English “scoru,” which meant “twenty.” More than likely this, in turn, came from the Norse skor.
For a history of the Panic of 1873 that led up to this situation, read this…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1873
This is great. Its nice to get some deep historical perspective on the housing market. I did some research on my house from the Brooklyn Eagle in the 1870’s and 1880’s and saw it advertised for rent. Also saw that there was a wedding held in the parlor which is now my production office. Pretty cool stuff.
Petebklyn, nice catch. You’re right; the article mentions those streets, but not the intersection of them, which is impossible given they both run East/West.