What the Heck Is Going On in Carroll Gardens?
This is getting weird. Despite a softening market all around, there’s been a rash of new listings in Carroll Gardens that have defied all logic and precedent. Starting with 44 1st Place (which in retrospect is probably the best deal of the lot) for $3,842,500, they’ve just kept coming: A 3,100-square-foot house at 78 3rd…
This is getting weird. Despite a softening market all around, there’s been a rash of new listings in Carroll Gardens that have defied all logic and precedent. Starting with 44 1st Place (which in retrospect is probably the best deal of the lot) for $3,842,500, they’ve just kept coming: A 3,100-square-foot house at 78 3rd Place for $3,495,000? A 16-foot-wide one at 40 2nd Place for $2,800,000? And now a three-story house at 329 President Street for a $3,600,000? What is going on here? One common denominator: Corcoran is the listing agent on all these places except for 1st Place. Coincidence or conspiracy?
329 President Street [Corcoran] GMAP
HOTD: 40 2nd Place [Brownstoner]
HOTD: 78 3rd Place [Brownstoner]
HOTD: 44 1st Place [Brownstoner]
YES! Carroll Gardens is beautiful! But it is not $3.6 million beautiful (for a tiny and skinny house with a sub-par reno) or $3.495 million beautiful (for another short and small house).These prices are some sort of scam and they have absolutely no basis in reality.
Nice area that is all i can say about Carroll Gardens.
“Like Rehab, or Montrose Morris, or Bob Marvin.”
Bob Marvin sucks.
2:16 Heard that large financial/real estate company coming off a great year is not increasing salaries or bonuses in order to be able to save jobs in 08 with the cash. It has only started. All those 30 year-olds making $130k/year opening branch banks are going to be looking for new jobs real soon (and yes, there are a lot of them or others in similarly redundant positions).
The elementary school isn’t just about the money or the resume. It’s about happiness and community. Elementary school is here children spend their day, nearly every day, for six years of their young lives. Their school becomes their life and is a major factor in their happiness as well as their education. Good public schools are a key foundation of a community. In Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, kids go to the neighborhood school. You serve on the PTA with your neighbors, rich and poor. These schools are a real asset to the neighborhood for everyone.
That said, I don’t get these prices.
1:42 these prices are a joke. As pretty much every poster has said, no one expects these houses to fetch anything close to this. And by that I mean they are 1 or 2 million dollars overpriced. No one knows why Corcoran decided to put on these price tags, but obviously, no one is going to buy them at this price.
By all means you should buy an $800K house in Bed Stuy because the same size house will cost you at least twice as much in Carroll Gardens and probably won’t have the same intact details. And that kind of price differential is due to the good schools and other amenities (lack of a Starbucks notwithstanding).
But please, if you buy there, don’t plan on private schools but take a little initiative and work to improve your local elementary school and send your kids there. There is no faster way to get to know your neighbors and feel connected to the community. That’s what happened in schools like 321, 29, 58. It took alot of parents willing to do the hard work of making the schools better — the newcomers paying nearly 2 million for their homes now are merely the beneficiaries of those parents.
But if Bed Stuy becomes a neighborhood where people like you send their kids to private schools, or to public schools in a different neighborhood, you are really doing a disservice to your neighborhood. The charm of Carroll Gardens is that it’s like a small town where you walk down Court St. and know half the people because your kids go to school with their kids. It would be fantastic if Bed Stuy becomes like that too.
I find it amusing that John Brownstoner who lives in the neighborhood that has benefited more than any other in Brooklyn from this real estate boom, thanks in large part to Minsky and the Corcoran machinery pushing prices up month after month, is so incensed by the prices of houses in Carroll Gardens.
I am not trying to argue that these prices are justified in anyway, but simply want to point out that when similar price increases occurred in Clinton Hill, John Brownstoner often chose not to comment due to “a conflict of interests,” rather than incite the masses into a snark fest.
As pointed out in previous posts, the market will decide what these properties are worth.
It’s not cheaper, 2:41. 500k premium is about 36k a year (of which it’s almost ALL deductible) and packer/st anns are NOT 20k, but a little over 25k for first 6 years. And I’m not sure what you mean about “income tax on … tuition”. No, of course not. But it IS after-tax dollars.
The other thing is there’s no guarantee you can get Timmy in. Packer had over 500 applicants for a 2008 kindergarten class – and half the seats have already been promised to siblings. So, what, 18-25 seats left?
And this is for one child. If you have two or more, you better believe it pays to spend the extra money to be in a good zone.
Also, like location, the school premium you redeem when you sell and historically at a big premium.
I would like to note that the perfectly renovated Berkeley Place home that sold for 3.4 million this past summer (probably one of the most expensive homes sold in Park Slope this past year) does NOT even lie in the PS. 321 district.
So 2:41….I think you are incorrect.
I think you just need to justify to yourself why you are spending 100K for little timmy to go to elementary school.
Hate to break it to you…but never saw a resume with an elementary school listed on it.