House of the Day: 1907 Ditmas Avenue
This monster of a home (5,500 square feet) at 1907 Ditmas Avenue in Ditmas Park looks pretty sweet to us: Lots of well-preserved detail, large rooms, big corner lot. Whether it’s worth the $1,700,000 remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure, though—Even if it doesn’t go for the asking price, the folks who bought…
This monster of a home (5,500 square feet) at 1907 Ditmas Avenue in Ditmas Park looks pretty sweet to us: Lots of well-preserved detail, large rooms, big corner lot. Whether it’s worth the $1,700,000 remains to be seen. One thing’s for sure, though—Even if it doesn’t go for the asking price, the folks who bought it for $848,500 in 2003 stand to make a pretty penny!
1907 Ditmas Avenue [Mary Kay Gallagher] GMAP P*Shark
You can still roll out of bed into some pretty damn good restaurants in Ditmas Park. Bars, not so much, but that will change soon enough.
Commute is a non-issue. The stops out here are closer together than PPS, PLG and PH. which means less of a walk to the station. Also, Newkirk and Church Avenue are both express stops. If you time it, you can board the local train at Beverley or Cortelyou and arrive at Church Ave with the express where you change over.
Yes, I pay a little more than my friends in Brownstones for heat about 10% more but I don’t circle my block looking for parking, neither do my guests nor do I pay monthly storage facility rental fees to hold stuff that I don’t have room for in my house.
I would have more than doubled my commuting time – but didn’t have to, just for the joy of coming home and letting my kids run barefoot in a huge grassy back yard complete with swing set and jungle gym or just to sit on the front porch catching a cool summer breeze under a 100 year old London Plane. Some people have the need to roll out of bed into their favorite restaurant or to be up the block from their favorite bar. It is all a matter of what is important to you.
Commute is a non-issue. The stops out here are closer together than PPS, PLG and PH. which means less of a walk to the station. Also, Newkirk and Church Avenue are both express stops. If you time it, you can board the local train at Beverley or Cortelyou and arrive at Church Ave with the express where you change over.
Yes, I pay a little more than my friends in Brownstones for heat about 10% more but I don’t circle my block looking for parking, neither do my guests nor do I pay monthly storage facility rental fees to hold stuff that I don’t have room for in my house.
I would have more than doubled my commuting time – but didn’t have to, just for the joy of coming home and letting my kids run barefoot in a huge grassy back yard complete with swing set and jungle gym or just to sit on the front porch catching a cool summer breeze under a 100 year old London Plane. Some people have the need to roll out of bed into their favorite restaurant or to be up the block from their favorite bar. It is all a matter of what is important to you.
I live near the Cortelyou Rd station (2 minute walk), and it is 24 minutes from my front door to Union Square.
Also my gas bill is $230 per month on the level billing plan, whatever that comes to overall… Although my house is not nearly as large as this one.
Regarding the commute issue, I timed the ride from the B at Newkirk many times recently before signing a contract to buy a house in Ditmas Park West. The commute to my office (corner of Broadway and Lafayette) was about 30 minutes door to door (i.e. including a several minute walk to and from the subway on each end) assuming the train came reasonably promptly. We found that this was equivalent to the commute from just about any other hood in BK where it was still possible to buy a house in the million and under range (and a number of hoods where it wasn’t).
As for crime, I don’t think the safety situation in Ditmas Park is any worst (and may be better) than Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, or many other gentrifying neighborhoods throughout BK that are more costly to live in. If you want to live in a crime-free neighborhood, by all means move to the suburbs, but you’re not going to find it in Brooklyn.
I can’t speak to the heating issue since we haven’t moved into our house yet. But I do think it’s very variable depending on type of siding, insulation (or lack thereof), weatherproofing, type of windows, gas or oil, efficiency of boiler, etc. The gas costs that the current owners of our house are paying were equivalent to the gas costs of some of the row houses we looked at. Nevertheless, our house is much smaller than the HOTD so I would definitely scrutinize the heating costs before jumping in.
It’s a beautiful house. A family who need home offices and want a formally designated guestroom or in-laws suite can easily use 9 bedrooms. But I can’t believe some people are saying it costs the same to heat an attached brownstone than it costs to heat this place. Or that it’s 30 minutes to Penn Station.
Ditmas is great. But if it’s so great why do you need to lie to make it appealing? Why encourage somebody to stretch to buy this place and then watch them overwhelmed by their heating bills in Winter? It’s cruel to only think of your own property values. The people who buy this place should require the seller give them copies of the heating bills from the last couple Winters. Remember we had very mild Winters the last couple years so it’s double the cost in a bad Winter.
As for the commute, it’s 30 minutes to Penn Station from PS/PH/PLG stops on the B/Q so how is it also 30 minutes from several stops further out in Ditmas?
I love this house – and Ditmas Park – but who needs nine bedrooms? Or the hefty price tag? I’d love to shed my 2 cramped 2 bedroom Slope coop, but I don’t need a mansion. Or a fixer-upper. I wish there was a little more variety in the housing stock. SOmething a little smaller (and cheaper) that didn’t need total rehab. Dare to dream.
I feel EXTREMELY shocked that Al Sharpton lives nearby, potentially. Do you mean to say that they allow Negroes in these mansions? I’m terrified enough, thinking of the “elements” that 7:58 referred to, since I’m positively certain that by “fairly dangerous” he means “fairly black,” and that by “uninvited guests,” well, who can imagine–perhaps those black ladies trying to persuade people to join the Jehovah’s witnesses, or even worse, some Negro man trying to invite me to “hook up” with him? I am shocked, terrified, anguished, and desolate. What will I do with my money? Park Slope has too many “elements”–a 7 day a week lesbian bar, and another place, Excelsior, where I hear Daveinbedstuy, Biff, and their “ilk,” if you know what I mean–congregate.
Oh, for the vanished Brownstone lifestyles of Yesteryear!
I feel EXTREMELY shocked that Al Sharpton lives nearby, potentially. Do you mean to say that they allow Negroes in these mansions? I’m terrified enough, thinking of the “elements” that 7:58 referred to, since I’m positively certain that by “fairly dangerous” he means “fairly black,” and that by “uninvited guests,” well, who can imagine–perhaps those black ladies trying to persuade people to join the Jehovah’s witnesses, or even worse, some Negro man trying to invite me to “hook up” with him? I am shocked, terrified, anguished, and desolate. What will I do with my money? Park Slope has too many “elements”–a 7 day a week lesbian bar, and another place, Excelsior, where I hear Daveinbedstuy, Biff, and their “ilk,” if you know what I mean–congregate.
Oh, for the vanished Brownstone lifestyles of Yesteryear!