Open House Picks
Park Slope 380 9th Street Brown Harris Stevens Sunday 2:30-4 $1,950,000 GMAP P*Shark Ditmas Park 301 Rugby Road Brooklyn Dwellings Sunday 12-2 $1,149,000 GMAP P*Shark Clinton Hill 52A Lefferts Place Corcoran Sunday 2:30-3:30 $999,000 GMAP P*Shark Stuyvesant Heights 241 Decatur Street Corley RE Saturday 1-3 $659,000 GMAP P*Shark
Park Slope
380 9th Street
Brown Harris Stevens
Sunday 2:30-4
$1,950,000
GMAP P*Shark
Ditmas Park
301 Rugby Road
Brooklyn Dwellings
Sunday 12-2
$1,149,000
GMAP P*Shark
Clinton Hill
52A Lefferts Place
Corcoran
Sunday 2:30-3:30
$999,000
GMAP P*Shark
Stuyvesant Heights
241 Decatur Street
Corley RE
Saturday 1-3
$659,000
GMAP P*Shark
We visited Decatur and the house is a mess. The wiring is a total fire-hazard. On the parlor floor they have an outlet sticking out from one of the fireplace mantels – not a typo. Plumbing is also in horrible shape. When you go to the back yard, the neighbor two doors down built this horrible trailor-looking thing. Needs to go down again – even for this block.
Nomi, I’m very impressed at your research skills. You got a copy of the paper? You didn’t even use the interwebs?
The porch does look lovely.
Well, on the topic of Mr. Rogers: I really wanted to email him and suggest that, in Switzerland, his family cut their housing costs in half by downsizing to a smaller apt, just as the Swiss do. Meanwhile, they should rent out their Clinton Hill spot for whatever the current going rate is (not more) because it’s not costing them anything.
It seems like their current approach is really economically unsound.
In Switzerland, upper middle class families live as the middle class do here. Dual-income couples with professional jobs and two children live in two-bedroom apts. Either the parents take the living room or the kids share a bedroom.
It’s all very nice and attractive and clean. Beds fold up and all so you would never know the living room serves as a bedroom at night.
With no help from anyone, I managed to find a copy of the paper and learned that Mr. Rogers is selling because his UN job has been transferred to Switzerland. Man, that article was stressful just to read.
Went to Rugby Road house this afternoon. Nice old house. Two floors of real bedrooms. And that roof deck is great. Details mostly preserved, in varying states of upkeep. Kitchen and bathrooms do need updating. Front porch lovely; I sat on it for 20 minutes.
Why is Mr. Rogers selling?
Rob, here’s yet another example of people using windfalls from housing run-up to buy a place. It sounds plenty big for their family. From NYT real estate article this week about people who are forced to sell because of relocation, divorce, or new baby:
“Until then, Mr. Rogers, his wife, Gillian, and their two small children had been comfortably ensconced in a four-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot condo in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. The couple bought it for $599,000 in cash in January 2006, after selling the Hell’s Kitchen apartment they had outgrown for $920,000 at the height of the market, and pocketing a profit that was three times what they had paid.
They hoped to make a similar killing by buying into another gentrifying neighborhood.
“I used what I called the Starbucks index,†Mr. Rogers said. “There were no Starbucks around in Hell’s Kitchen when I bought there, and when I sold there were four. There were no Starbucks here either when I bought.†“
Discussing prices is getting boring.
That said, prices will keep falling for at least another year or two.
Sellers can only hold for so long. . .
Ok, maybe my estimate of 7-8 for Rugby house is a little low but I agree that it should be no more than mid 8s. 335 Rugby, which is a few doors down, sold in December 2008 for $400 psf but had all new kitchen and baths. 301 Rugby at $400 psf x 2400 sf comes out to $960K and then you have to deduct at least another $100K for renovations, which puts it in the mid 8s.