House of the Day: 266 Berkeley Place
The four-story brownstone at 266 Berkeley Place is a prime property, don’t get us wrong, but the $3,250,000 asking price strikes us as rather out-of-sync with the current market, especially gi. First of all, it appears to not be configured for the most likely family buyer in the this location: The listing calls the house…
The four-story brownstone at 266 Berkeley Place is a prime property, don’t get us wrong, but the $3,250,000 asking price strikes us as rather out-of-sync with the current market, especially gi. First of all, it appears to not be configured for the most likely family buyer in the this location: The listing calls the house “multi-family” while PropertyShark says it’s a two-family. Secondly, the kitchen and bathroom renovations don’t, in our opinion, rise to the level of the rest of the house. (And there’s also the issue of the recessed lighting on the parlor floor—just say no!) While these may seem like nits, most people gearing up to pay the estimated $27,000 a month (that’s per the listing not us) in carrying costs will care about every last detail.
266 Berkeley Place [Bellmarc] GMAP P*Shark
Every townhouse on the market in the top neighborhoods of Manhattan right now has recessed lights. Look at the photos in the listings in the NY Times. Gorgeous houses at $14 million and $20 million designed by professionals. And in houses that are older than this brownstone.
Why don’t you people get that recessed lighting is in ADDITION to a chandelier?
Recessed lighting AND a Chandelier???
My Chandelier is operated by a dimmer. The room is very well lit and we don’t need any additional lamps. Actually if you have a huge room this befits a grandoise chandelier with many branches where you can achieve lots of light with medium wattage – and look into a dimmer it’s really easy.
Wow, 2:18. Preservationists are such a cult of nutters.
Low light causes eye strain. Eye strain over long periods repeatedly hurts the eyes. It also gives people headaches. Please explain the urge to turn on a brigher light when reading. And why our eyes feel better when we do. Dope.
1.28 – thanks for trotting out that hoary old myth. low light levels do nothing to impair one’s eyesight.
“$27,000 a month”
Buy vs. Rent. Hmmmmm…
Yeah it’s totally worth it to wreck your kids’ eyes making them play and read in a dimly lit interior, just to ensure you are in line with the Victorian brownstone aesthetic of Brownstoner.
Why don’t you people get that recessed lighting is in ADDITION to a chandelier? It’s not either/or one or the other. And do you light your kids’ play area with a dim chandelier? Really?? If you don’t have recessed lighting then you have to put lamps everywhere in ever corner on side tables and use up precious space.
For those with a formal parlor and a family room both, I would put the recessed lighting only in the family room, sure. But if you have only one living room to serve as both formal room and family room, like the vast majority of NYC residents do, then you shoul put recessed lighting along with a chandelier. Put the recessed lighting on a separate dimmer switch. So you have the option of only turning on the chandelier, or turning on the recessed lights very dim.
We don’t have recessed lights but I would like to add them in the future. Because interiors need to be useful and practical too, whether historical or not. It’s not a museum. It’s your home. To live in. As for those claiming recessed lighting is only in the suburbs, you’ve obviously never been inside the upscale houses on the Upper East Side or the West Village.
“Most economists now say the chances of a recession are about 25%”
No, actually nearly ALL actual economists say we are already IN a recession.
I’m not sure from what happy place you are pulling these stats.
Someone calculated 5k/mo in tax deductions. Where does that come from? The maximum deductible mortgage is $1m, so at 6%, the deduction would be 60k/yr, which for someone in the 40% bracket (!) would be worth 2k/mo. But it’s less than that, because high income taxpayers don’t get the full itemized deduction. Rental losses (which will be huge here) are not deductible if your income is over $150k. And real estate taxes are not deductible for AMT, which the new owner surely be pay.
So: 17k /mo less 2k tax subsidy, plus 5k opportunity cost on your downpayment, less 6k rental income = 14k / mo to live in a two bedroom duplex.
Approximately double what your tenants pay.