2777 Bedford Avenue Sells for 25% Under Ask
After a year on the market, the charming brick Colonial house at 2777 Bedford Avenue near Brooklyn College closed earlier this month for $481,000, a discount of $168,000 to its original asking price. (It was a House of the Day back in September and an Open House Pick in January 2008 and November 2008.) Interesting…
After a year on the market, the charming brick Colonial house at 2777 Bedford Avenue near Brooklyn College closed earlier this month for $481,000, a discount of $168,000 to its original asking price. (It was a House of the Day back in September and an Open House Pick in January 2008 and November 2008.) Interesting reality check for this neighborhood. Are you surprised by how low the selling price was? GMAP
My point was … a decent house for less than half a mil and more people who aren’t filthy rich (by salary or by good fortune of property bought pre-bubble) can be in the market. In recent years I couldn’t imagine how first time buyers who didn’t make crazy wall street money could dream of owning, and it’s rare on this site to see discussion of a house in this price range.
I figured at that price a buyer could finance 80% for about 27k a year; add in taxes and insurance and you could swing this for 31% of 100k +/- (if lenders will lend – that I don’t know). Not to say mid 5 figures lets you afford a .5 million house, but this is heading towards sanity.
The reasonable tone of this exchange is somewhat refreshing… I wonder if it has to do with the absence of a certain cast of characters.
Also — It’s nice to see people admitting Half-a-Million-Dollars is actually unaffordable to a lot of people! And that a 6-figure income is both necessary and not what the average person has.
If we can start to see houses selling for prices within the horizon of reality… The next step will be to see apartments selling for *apartment* prices… but I digress.
Another two of these connected houses are for sale on the same side of the street. This fact could have influenced the seller to take the price.
“what an obnoxious thing to do to your friends lol.”
I know. And they all emailed me back, BUT I DONT WANT TO LIVE IN THE GHETTO!
I had to email them back, This isn’t the ghetto. Besides, you can’t afford the ghetto!
We looked at the house late in the summer–just around when the price dropped to $500,000. We liked the house, even though there was a decided dip in the upstairs hallway. It just had a very nice feel, reasonable layout and size, and the neighborhood seemed fine. No, it’s not park slope, but it wasn’t park slope prices either. The things which stayed our hand from making an offer were the following: 1) busy street. That wasn’t a dealbreaker, just a bit discouraging; 2) no backyard to speak of. That block of houses is nicely set back, and the landscaping, though relatively simple is quite charming, but the be backyard is about the size of a bedroom in a new Scarano condominium. I.e. WTF? I’m happy to hear it sold, and I wish the new owners a happy life there!
I’m so glad this sold. I loved this little house.
Saminthehood,
You will be presently surprised to know that the neighborhood has seen much improvement since the 70’s and 80’s. Same with Erasmus which was restructured several years back into five separate schools all of which are doing well.
What hasn’t changed is that the area is still inconvenient to access by public transportation and there are still metal detectors at Erasmus and every other NYC public high school.
BTW, you don’t have to be a neighborhood resident to use the facilities at Brooklyn College. They have a number of different programs like the Adult Education, Senior Citizens and Saturday School for Kids, etc… that would give you access.
the chicken,
With regards to yesterday’s HOTD, I’d say $700,000 would probably get it (or at least “should” get it).
It last sold for $625k. Figuring 8% bump for realtor fee, closing costs, etc. The remaining for “profit”, I think $700k is a reasonable offer.
Now, is it “worth” that? That’s a different argument. But I figure a house bought less than 2 years ago is realistically due a 10% (15% max) bump over the last transaction price to cover the sellers costs. The 10-15% is a “break even” number.
Now, if the seller is willing to lose money on the deal, well, that is a whole different ball game…
Shillstoner – another factor inflating the amount people could pay, i.e. the huge downpayments coming from bubble-induced equity on homes they were selling, has also gone for the large part.