We've told you Brooklyn real estate records are meant to be broken. And the records are much easier to break in neighborhoods with killer housing stock that were slept on for generations. When the under-valued areas start catching up with the modern times, the effect is records being broken almost on a monthly basis in areas like Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and Lefferts Garden. And why not? When the record in Prospect Heights is well over $4M, why can't houses in the next-best neighborhoods trade for under $2M? When talking about the record in Lefferts, we're setting aside the free-standing Boo Radley-type house at 111 Clarkson Avenue, which traded for $2.8M at the end of the summer. The number was so high partially because of the unique lot size and potential for development as grand as 50 rental units. However, the previous record for a rowhouse in Lefferts Garden was set this summer at 55 Rutland Road, which closed for $1.825M. The house had some truly unique features to behold...
Now, this week another unique house of its own, 36 Rutland Road, closes and becomes the new record holder in Prospect Lefferts Garden at $1.85M...
This full-sized barrel-front beauty is on one of the cutest little blocks you could ask for. Listing broker Howard Witz knew he had something special on his hands when he showed us the house months ago with a list price of $2.1M. The buyer's broker Lou Belisario told us it would be a record-breaker. Although a few hiccups delayed the closing, this house with its double-sized lot featuring a driveway and garage settles just above 55 Rutland Road's closing price across the street. Don't forget that since this house went into contract, a 3-story house in this neighborhood also traded for $1.775M at 168 Midwood Street. Lou Belisario is proving that - not only does he look like champion quarterback Aaron Rodgers - but that he too can hoist the title in a neighborhood thought of as small-market.
Word on the street is an even better house on this block (without the driveway) is available off-market for less. Even at this price, the buyers of 36 Rutland Road are bound to reconfigure the color scheme and update the kitchen & baths...
In terms of valuation, you may find this market frothy, but then again we're still talking about under $500/sqft, which doesn't buy you much elsewhere in any neighborhood any better than this, and certainly no product any nicer than this. What does $1.8M get you in Manhattan these days? Perhaps you caught the NY Times coverage of one Upper West Side couple settling for a 16' wide fixer-upper for $1.8M on 132nd Street in Harlem where they said, "The same house 10 blocks farther south would have cost $2.2 million." Why not be much closer to Prospect Park in an even larger & more grand house for the same price? Brooklyn is, afterall, touted as the 2nd most expensive place to live in the U.S. - and that was in 2012!! People treat the price increases for amazing historic housing stock in the "outer neighborhoods" of Brooklyn like it's some irrational bubble on par with the Dutch tulip mania (that your boy Michael Pollan so eloquently documents).
Long before the automobile, it was ok to build houses out in Stuyvesant Heights and Lefferts Garden as nice as Park Slope's beloved houses. Yet some 100 years later, now that the trains run underground and buses & cars are on the streets, somehow these neighborhoods are repeatedly dubbed "too far" in 2014? Sure, prices are bananas, but it's all relative. Look on the bright side. Just like tulips in Holland, there are still valleys and valleys of historic houses in Brooklyn shooting off in all directions that still trade at a relative value compared to your favorite neighborhood...
And just in case you still think it's too far out, good thing 36 Rutland Road has a driveway to boot! For the final tally, not much has changed since contract...
Pro's: huge mansion with driveway & original details on a great block, one of the top single-family looks around, can really max it out with a few updates
Con's: pricepoint will shock, not everyone's ready for Lefferts, interior is not everyone's taste, no rental income
Ideally: where's a better single-fam rowhouse with a driveway within 2 miles of here for this price?
No comments:
Post a Comment