House of the Day: 162 Bergen Street
We’re not sure how we’ve managed to not discuss 162 Bergen Street yet, given that it’s been on the market since October of last year. Despite not selling for more than six months, the price has remained constant at $2,300,000. While hardly a give-away, we’re actually a little surprised that there hasn’t been one buyer…
We’re not sure how we’ve managed to not discuss 162 Bergen Street yet, given that it’s been on the market since October of last year. Despite not selling for more than six months, the price has remained constant at $2,300,000. While hardly a give-away, we’re actually a little surprised that there hasn’t been one buyer out there who’s fallen in love and been willing to meet the ask. After all, this place has tons o’ charm and is in a hot location. What’s the catch? Does it need more work than the photos suggest?
162 Bergen Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/nyregion/10Shot.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Damn, 10:42, why the hell did I have to be busy working this morning and miss your Alex and Simon post?? I live for those!! We could have totally railroaded another thread and started a Real Housewives of NYC discussion.
“that isn’t true. They’re not public housing. There was a public housing program in the 80s that purchased these properties and then sold them at favorable prices and rates to qualifying applicants. Those people now own those properties outright if they haven’t already sold them to others.
It’s like the housing lottery winners that have been discussed here. Those people sometimes have some restrictions on turning over the property, but sometimes they just win big.”
They have security guards out front so I always assumed it was still government owned. Is it still government run?
if thats 2.3MM why does that pancake chest horse faced hag named Alex and her beard husband Simon keep claiming that their dump is worth 2MM???
I’m sorry to hear about the ugly eviction process. I’m sure some of the people lived there when I was there. I moved out when the owner doubled the rent. It felt like the writing on the wall. I’m glad that you were able to afford living there for 11 more years.
I’m a professional artist, I make a living from my work. The enviornment and low rent at 162 Bergen let me concentrate on my work. I hope everyone who lived there has found good places to live and work.
10:57 – value/rent ratio is totally out of whack right now, which is one of the reasons many argue that a correction is inevitable. Others contest whether this is a useful metric, but historically, it’s been a metric that has been meaningful until the last few years when things ran up out of all relation to rents. I know for my own apt which we bought in 2002, the mortgage at the time (with 20% down), was very close to what the rent would have been – indeed, renting was probably a bit more expensive. Currently, the sales price has more than doubled (about a 106% increase), but rent value (according to rental brokers we spoke to, since we considered renting before selling it), has only gone up about 30% in the time period. I know, equity is what everyone wants, stability, pride of home ownership, etc. – but do people really want this at the expense of sanity and being a slave to a huge mortgage if a year from now, that mortgage could be 10-20% (if not even more discounted)?
I’m really not seeing the value proposition here. This would command MAYBE 10k/month in total rents. Price to rent ratio of 19-20 is crazy.
Brownstoner, can you please keep doing the feature where you revisit houses on the market 6 months ago? A broker we are working with just admitted that a house in prime PS that was on market for 1.7 last fall *finally* sold for 1.4. I’m also going to see a few others that have been lingering, and the sellers are seeming more negotiable. I am really curious about what a house like Bergen goes into contract for. What with all the uncertainty about mortgages and the economy in general, it seems like the prices are finally coming down – and as a buyer (not a bitter renter! I just sold my apt for a huge profit!) it seems that brokers are rather desperately clinging to high prices in the hopes that it will inspire buyers to at least get close to ask – but many don’t, and some sellers are finally starting to cave in… Hell, they are still making buckets more than what they paid, so they might as well before things go down further! (I know, they might not, but they might, and a bird in the hand…)
Wow! I lived in this house for 6 years!
Moved out in 1997. It’s an amazing place, an awesome house with great details, and the location was perfect.
shame I’m not in the market.