Tough Times at Outer-Burg Scarano and Karl
Is Scarano’s sliver of a tower on Richardson Street in Williamsburg known as Luminous a “moldering, rotting turkey”? Well, it’s been on the market since November and, according to Curbed, “maybe 1” unit has sold so far. That’s one more than the Karl Fischer sliver next door, which has already gone rental. Given all the…
Is Scarano’s sliver of a tower on Richardson Street in Williamsburg known as Luminous a “moldering, rotting turkey”? Well, it’s been on the market since November and, according to Curbed, “maybe 1” unit has sold so far. That’s one more than the Karl Fischer sliver next door, which has already gone rental. Given all the supply near the waterfront and the Bedford L, it’s no wonder these places on the far side of the BQE are having trouble.
CurbedWire: Empty Fingers in Burg? [Curbed]
We are not at the appraisal phase yet, so I don’t know how that will go. The reason I think its overpriced is partially from the “babble” on this site, but mostly from my sense that prices have been stupidly high for the past 3 – 4 years – which is fine as long as they stay high. But with the crashing economy, and the obvious glut of supply, I am pretty sure prices will drop 10% (or more), which equates to $60,000+ loss for me. And that is money I can’t afford. Of course, this doesn’t really matter if we plan to stay for many years, but the truth is I don’t know what the future will bring. We are basically a one-income family and if I lost my job, and we were forced to sell, I have a strong feeling we could end up “underwater” with respect to any mortgage. That is scaring me.
My feelings have changed a lot since as recently as September, and particularly since April when we signed the contract – I have lost a painful amount in the stock market, assets that I was planning to liquidate and use for buying furniture, and landscaping. Now, 35-40% of it is gone. Things are tough for a first time buyer and we’re thinking we’d be better off staying at our rent stablized apt (yes, rent stabilized!) for now.
To answer some other questions – it’s on the Greenpoint stop – yes, it’s a longer hike to Bedford than from Richardson, but the point is that its a hike either way. So, to get back to my original point, I saw units that were the same price range around Graham Ave and they were smaller and/or crappier. So my feeling is the GP and E.Wmsbrg neighborhoods are fairly comparable in terms of commuting and amenities, but I found GP to be a better value.
Is your place not appraising at purchase? Your your posts re: you entering into K is from Sept? Puzzled.
Also:
1) one stop from the g (I assume Nassau) for only 524/sqft? Even for a first floor, this us low, especially for that area
2) also news for you. Being near Nassau puts you as far from Bedford amenitiea as richardson/frost. If you are not Nassau on G then there’s no comparison.
3) is your place not appraising at purchase? If so, then start your negotiations with the dev. He may come down for you. Otherwise, I don’t know how you know your place is overpriced unless you already closed and are actually try to resell?? Are you going off the babble spouted on this site?
4). You ARE in a pricey condo. At 628+ yes, you are. It seems your dev attracted yoU to a pricey place. How did he do it? With more space, right? Maybe a better layout. In other words, you didn’t make your decision based on the area. You made it based on building and the unit. This gets me back to my point about the ridiculousness of knocking areas, when what really should be badmiuthed is the building itself. The luminous and the rental next to (btw, almost fully leased up) are terrible buildings in as good of an area as any in wburg (prime included). Hey if you can get to midtown or down in twenty to thirty door to door (which you can from those buildings) then most anybodys major goal in buying has been accomplished.
5) my area is not preposterously overpriced anymore than yours. In 2005 we bought in East 950 sqft (400 private roof overlooking manhattan for 560. This past summer it appraised for 650. (rest of country, -15 to -20%. EAST wburg +16). We now have that one leased up and used some of it’s equity (still have 20 in it) to buy 1100 at 679. However, we negotiated sponsor down to 675, got transfer taxes and his ESq fee. All said and done, we got 19 off 679 for grand psqft total of 600. What did we get? 1100 on 3rd floor with elevator, 50 sqft of terrace and another 150 sqft of
panoramic manhattan view private roof, two beds and two baths and two blocks to L. Our hold for both props is projected for FOREVER. Both will always be viable income producing props. Anyway enough.
6). On serious note, I worked with really good mortgage guy to get us through our recent financing debacle. And it was a debacle. We signed k in June and did not close until oct. He got us good cheap money at 5.875. I can pass you onto him if you want.
k91 – calm down. The area where these buildings are located is simply OK (I never said “pretty cool”) – I lived there for a couple of years (2005-2006). Real old-school Brooklyn. But that type of environment is not what high-end condo buyers are looking for. In my view, the builders that put pricey stuff up in this area are crazy. I wanted to buy around there and I was amazed at the price, considering the location. I saw some disgusting units that were priced as if they were in a trendy neighborhood. Anyway, I decided that I could get more for my money (and be equally close to Bedford amenities) if I bought in Greenpoint, instead of East Williamsburg. Thus, I am in contract for a 1,200+ sq ft duplex, with huge yard, 1 block from the G. $524 per sq ft. After nearly 2 years of looking, this was by far the best place I found for the money. HOWEVER in the 5 months since I signed the contract, the economy has gone to shit, the place is NOW overpriced, and I don’t even know if I will get a mortgage. So I am screwed and not happy. I love the place, but I don’t know if I will even be able to close. Anyway, all I am saying is that I looked around N. Brooklyn for nearly 2 years, and I thought the area east of the BQE was the most frustratingly overpriced area, and this is from experience of living there. In my view, you would be crazy to build and pricey condos on Richardson (east of BQE) or Monitor or places like that.
Which is it? Does the area that these buildings are located suck or not? Because they ARE located in the same area you now call pretty cool?
I see from your previous posts that you purchased in GP and new construction at that. Without getting too specific, float some of your details – contract price, vicinity of greenpoint, how far you are from (cough) G, how bigs your space (ppsft), view, outdoor space, floor, etc. I’ll tell you how exactly. Overpriced your unit and probably a multitude of other units around you really are. In other words,let truly put your money where you “preposterously overpriced” mouth is.
k91 – I have lived all over Brooklyn — Fort Greene, Windsor Terrace, and many areas of Williamsburg (Bedford stop, Lorimer stop, AND Graham stop). I am not busting on the Graham Ave old-time Italian neighborhood – it’s a pretty nice little hood, in some respects – and I actually was looking to buy over there and found it preposterously overpriced. Therefore, I re-iterate my view that people who can afford $700,000+ for a “luxury” condo are not interested in being over there on the east side of the BQE, particularly on Richardson, with a 10 minute walk to the subway. They want to be where their type of people are, with access to lots of nice restaurants, cutting edge bars, cutesy shops, etc. Therefore, any developer who builds pricey condos over in your neck of the woods (again, I have lived there and thought it was reasonable nice), is just plain dumb. Whereas, building along the East River or around the Bedford stop is just plain smart, even if you and I both hate the type of people that will buy there.
i do not live in this area, but I too really like it. Graham ave. has nice restaurants and a good clean supermarket and a lovely fruits and vegetables deli. there’s every convenience and it’s a safe area – it was for many years very italian and many of those “old timers” are still around. also, not sure what school these are zoned for, but PS 132 on manhattan is excellent and PS 110 on monitor seems to be very good. if it does turn into rentals, well, so what? there’s a demand for decent rentals for sure. also, that area is not too far from mccarren or even from all the restaurants and bars and some galleries just west of the BQE. i don’t think the haters know the area well.
I have reread Paul C’s post and feel compelled to write further…,
Paul C,
You are a fughen ignorant jackass who has no idea what prime anything is. In fact, your ignorant, “from afar” sentiment so infuriated me, that I’ll actually concur with you – that east of the BQE is nothing more than the BQE itself and auto repair shops therefore it sucks- just so you’ll stay the F AWAY.
while I’ll agree that both of these buildings are out of character and should thus the devs should pay some price for bungling projects with good potential, I cannot sit idly by and let a bunch of slopers and heights and largely southern Brooklyn RETARDS dismiss the area these buildings are in as sub prime and shifty and worthless (which isnthe gist of all comments below).
I’ll take the graham stop, which these buildings are not far from AT ALL over the ridiculous circus that the Bedford stop is ANY day. In fact, this portion of east Williamsburg is Probably the Only area in the burg that has and will retain any ofnits pre hipster character. For anyone to equate east of yw BQE as crappy and not worth it, OBVIOUSLY has not stepped foot here.
i’m so glad to see this happen. unfortunately i’ve noticed many of the Karl Fischer rental units are occupied. hopefully this keeps more developers out of this neighborhood so we don’t have any more ugly condos and more of the original buildings stay as they are…