Condos of the Day: 231 Bergen Street

Places like this are going to be neighborhood killers. The developers of this property built a huge tiered extension in the back that extends about 20 feet past everyone else's houses. Totally obnoxious. Construction was stopped multiple times.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 11:54 AM

Mr. B,
If your children were older, you might better understand the desire in avoid going "further out." Of course, I'm just guessing.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 1:41 PM

all this fucking racial innuendo,wtf above poster?
you afraid the kids would go native?

Posted by: てぇはて at February 26, 2007 2:10 PM

Answer for "Question:"
There are a number of different ways to occupy and use a brownstone. One way is to be a non-user owner. In the current market, many multi-family brownstone properties are marketed and sold as condo conversion candidates. While they vary greatly in their actual ability to to be converted the pricing of the property reflects that theoretical possibility. The investment return for holding the property as a rental, based on its acquisition price, is therefore compressed to a level that doesn't make sense as a short to interemediate hold investment. The real risk is not adequately reflected in the first year return.

While the current market appears to be able to still absorb these brownstone condo units it will only be known in time whether the condo conversion investment strategy has short-term validity.

My comments are based on an interpretation of BS opening sentence to be from an investor's perspective, not a current owner-user's perspective.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 2:28 PM

Crouchback,

Are you saying that a whole townhouse on Bergen sold for close to $1,050,000 in the past 14 months? That seems wasy low.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 2:54 PM

Had to do a little digging in the memory bank, but, yes, 206 Bergen Street (a 3-story runt of a house) sold 1-12-07 for 925K according to property shark. 211 Wyckoff (another small house) sold for 973,500 in March 2006.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 3:44 PM

Has to be some sort of a story with 206 Bergen St. I know that in the past six months 3 houses on Dean between Bond + Nevins sold, all at $1.8 mm+. House around the corner on Bond (between Dean + Pacific) sold for $1.6 mm. Don't know how a house 1 block away could go for $925K?

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 4:12 PM

This house has been worked on for a couple of years. The builder extended the house ruining neighbors views and jutting in to their yards. I'm pretty sure there were work stop orders while people protested. It looks freaky from the front. They shortened the front door so the stoop goes really high up.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 4:15 PM

Shortened the front door? Did they raise the entire floor level of the Parlor in order to get more head height at the garden level? Or was it shortened for some other reason?

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 4:37 PM

Anon@ 4:12. Not sure if there needs to be a story on 206 Bergen. The houses you allude to were all in the 20-22 foot wide, 3000-3600+ square foot category. 206 Bergen and 211 Wyckoff Street are in the 17-20 foot wide, 1700-2200 square foot category, hence the price difference.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 26, 2007 4:56 PM

2.10: he's probably afraid his kids would end up going to a school where the other kids make it impossible to learn. Perhaps his is a culture that values education, and clearly not cultues do. In the US, asian and Indian (sub-continent) cultures tend to put it at the top. You can fill in the rest of the list yourself. Please be a realist and don't come up with some normative facade.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 27, 2007 9:24 AM

"all this fucking racial innuendo,wtf above poster? you afraid the kids would go native?"

I think that was a very inappropriate comment. Nobody is talking about race except you. Have you ever looked at the crime statistics for areas "further out" like Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, or Brownsville? Poster could be concerned with the safety of his kids that are now of the age that they leave the house without parental supervision.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 27, 2007 10:52 AM

Still think there's a story at 206 Bergen sales price.

Neighborhood comps according to Zillow:

187 Bergen = 3,104 sf sold at $2.075 mm or $668 per sf.

120 Bond = 2,300 sf sold at $1.595 mm or $693 per sf.

206 Bergen = 2,500 sf sold at $925K or $370 per sf.

Still think there's a story behind that price.

208 Dean = 3,696 sf sold at $1.965 $532 sf.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 27, 2007 11:09 AM

yea, finally people can speak the truth again

Posted by: Anonymous at February 28, 2007 9:23 AM

isn't it "culturalist" rather than racist? I wonder what the actual word is here.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 28, 2007 10:29 AM

Um...yeah whatever. Who cares? Anybody have an opinion on the condos?

Posted by: Anonymous at February 28, 2007 11:29 AM

The whole floor of the "Parlor Floor" was raised in order to borrow some ceiling height for the apartment below; hence the high stoop.

Posted by: Anonymous at April 14, 2007 9:10 PM

Just saw it (july) it has had a price chop, floor-thru down to 950k, most expensive top floor duplex down to 1.490m

I'm not surprised, the layout is awkward, with the kitchen tucked away by itself at the back. They have unkindly pre-installed weird pot belly stoves in each unit, and ugly small flat screen tvs.

Lastly, it is embarrassing to walk out onto the back deck and realize how they impinge on the neighbors.

Posted by: Anonymous at July 1, 2007 2:45 PM