A Million Ain't What It Used To Be: 138 16th Street

Deep in South Slope, towards Windsor Terrace, there's certainly value to be had. We're not sure 138 16th Street is it, though. While we jumped at the price tag of $999,750 momentarily, just a closer glance reveals a 16' wide 3-Family that's only 1,796 sqft (the listing says 2,170 sqft, by the way, which must be the extension). While this is roughly $550/sqft and might compete with some condos, we think anyone with this kind of downpayment ready to go might just be better off with a condo (dare we say it?) or better yet a $999K play with more value to it. After all, we've seen more impressive turnkey things for this price:





It's hard to see what the trade-off in the buyer's favor is out here. The owners look to be sitting on lots of equity and relatively small mortgage from 2002 that was $350K. We don't want to sound like a broken record, but dropping $999K all the way out here on something so small is hard to do just on principal, after the closing of 96 St. Marks for a million. It also confuses us why another small condo alternative 279 13 Street isn't in contract yet with all the interest it sparked.

Pro's: close to the train, within striking distance of Park Slope proper, under $1M, 3-Family status, original details, backyard

Con's: narrow, not much value, pretty far out there, close to the highway, not the best fixtures inside for the price

Ideally: unless there's a price cut, we can't see it. Better value still in so many other places.