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Friday, January 10, 2014

Closings of Note: Crown Heights Continues to Secure Its Crown





It's so adorable when would-be buyers tell us they're too good for Crown Heights.  Then a 3-story estate sale like 680 Park Place hits the market for $1M with very mixed reviews, lasts barely a month, and closes for $1.36M to buyers coming from Park Slope.  So much for that bit about being too good for Crown Heights.  As Chris Brown points out, "I don't see how you can hate from outside the club.  You can't even get in."





Also in Crown Heights, 1092 Dean Street was an undermarketed play on a great block.  In decent condition, original details, arched-brick construction, but with lots of work to be done.  We saw it vacant months ago in the spring asking something over a million.  They landed at $960K.  But, hang on, 'cause the fun doesn't stop there on Dean Street...





Also barely marketed, 1076 Dean Street, another full sized rowhouse chopped into 8 units, sells for - wait for it.... $1.5M two days before Christmas.  But if you don't like the stretch of Dean near the homeless shelter, head a few blocks further east and the Italianate architecture flips into even more interesting styles...





1257 Dean Street is on everyone's favorite Crown Heights block.  It closed for $300K at the end of 2012, but sells for a cool $1.4M in December of 2013.






Also in Crown Heights, 811 Classon Avenue sells for an astonishing number.  Sure, it's 25' x 67' and likely vacant.  But on 3 stories and only a little extra buildable footage, this thing closed for $2.4M at the end of 2013.  Makes $3.4M for a bigger off-market property in a better location we're in next week seem not even that foolish.  An 8-Family across the street from here is finishing up a great renovation, extension, and extra-story conversion to a 10-Family, making the most of the neighb's potential here.





Over in Bushwick, a 6-unit building at 26 Irving Avenue comes out for $820K.  While the closing price of $995K may make you say, "$175K over asking price!" it's still under $200/sqft, y'all.





Finding a turnkey 4-Family in Bed-Stuy around a million isn't easy anymore, especially just off of Nostrand Avenue.  Corcoran dropped 255 Madison Street on ya for $995K a few times this year and it closed for a modest $1.028M.  Not a bad buy at all.  And who says Corcoran listings aren't ever worth bothering with?  (The faux-savvy, that's who.)  But buyers from a Fort Greene condo took it down.  Even at barely 18' wide, this about as nice an end-user buy & hold as you can find for this price west of Marcy Avenue. 






What makes us say that?  Well, even the frame house around the corner at 360 Gates Avenue (although renovated) listed just under $1.5M and closed for $1.425M.  All Corcoran listings aren't created equal, y'all.





Indeed, not far away, another Corcoran listing shows the blending of Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy prices.  They are, afterall, next door to each other.  173 Gates Avenue didn't impress everyone, but it still pulled down a relatively monster number, full asking price of $1.895M.  Almost 23' wide, you certainly don't see that everyday.  We've heard everyone griping about how this is simply 2 blocks too close to Bed-Stuy to be as Clinton Hill as they'd hoped.  And who would be so trigger-happy as to push this lofty number this far east?  Why, none other than a buyer from Fort Greene who's probably seen this move a few times before.  Can we now kiss the $1.5M Clinton Hill house good-bye?  Almost makes 187 Gates Avenue's latest off-market number sound not that unreasonable anymore.  Makes a Platinum Member contract a few blocks west sound like an even better deal than before too.






Are we just being "bullish" or is the $1.5M four-story brownstone in Clinton Hill actually a thing of the past?  Well, don't take our word for it.  121 St. James Place listed for $2.15M, lasted barely a month on the market, and just closed for $2.545M last month.  For all the unicorn hunters, we wonder how it feels to be off by over a million dollars.  (Don't worry, it even happens to the New York Times.)  Remember the good ol' days (the end of 2011) when jokers were shocked to see this house's neighbor at 112 St. James Place go for over $1.3M in a flash?  Now a 3-story off-market fixer-upper over here is getting bids over $1.5M on a short sale flip.  That's Clinton Hill for ya.






Below asking price in Stuyvesant Heights for a well-priced listing?  Platinum Members got the word when Bed-Stuy's 415 Stuyvesant Avenue wasn't selling for its asking price of $1.2M and was getting flexible.  A great little house at a price per square foot that you could've called pricey until recently.  Comparable houses have still sold for much more than this.  It closed for $1.07M to a buyer from Clinton Hill.  Seeing a pattern to the migration east yet?



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