Slightly more renovated floor-thru's a few doors down can fetch higher than this, like at 110 Gates Avenue, where the duplex went for over $6K/month. But with even rent stabilized 1BR's in Bed-Stuy and beyond getting $1,850/month, it's no wonder a prime Clinton Hill location like this commands over $2,000/month. In the land of $2M-$3M fixer uppers, the $2,400/month floor-thru is a nice entry point.
It's no wonder they want top dollar. And if the rent sounds high to you, back it into that handy-dandy price per square foot number everyone loves. While people are paying $45-$50/sqft for rentals even over in Crown Heights, this one is sitting at a mere $37/sqft (if you're willing to call it 2,000/sqft). And if $3,000+ per floor isn't the rent you had in mind, maybe slide over to their other listing for a $2,500/month 1BR in Prospect Heights at 291 Lincoln Place.
Con's: "It's not on the park block," we can already hear them saying. It's not necessarily cheap either. Kinda generic looking.
Ideally: if rents feel relentless, keep in mind we're living in the nation's richest & largest city, and it's fastest growing borough.
What a difference a year makes. Not only in the house, but more impressively in the market. What will people pay for a not quite 16' wide triplex over garden on one of the cutest blocks in all of Bed-Stuy these days?? You won't have to wait too much longer to find out.
Ideally: where were you when no one wanted to pay $800K for this, or even believed there were comps to justify such a number?
Brooklyn, your $3M+ condo is here! 1 Grand Army Plaza, #12D sold for a paltry $2.5M in the doldrums of 2011, but now it lists for $3.4M and cruises to $35K over asking price. No wonder people buy fixer-upper townhomes in Prospect Heights for over $2M on and off market. Oh, and don't forget the common charges of almost $3,000/month on this condo! The listing boasted, "This will be the Richard Meier Building's first important resale since its construction in 2006." As if the people selling the other units for millions were all simply unimportant chump change transactions. You gotta love Corcoran's spirit!
And just who's dropping this kind of coin on a condo in Brooklyn? Why none other than folks from just down the hill in Prospect Heights who just sold their stunning corner home at 562 Bergen Street for well over asking price of $2.65M - that's who!
If you wanna live on a no-brainer block like South Portland overlooking Fort Greene park, it ain't gonna come cheap. Brownstoner mused last year, "Wow, it’ll have to be some kind of record for Fort Greene if the top floor of the brownstone at 4 South Portland Avenue sells for the asking price of $1,059,000." Hmmm, that's interesting. Because it just sold for $1.175M. Makes a duplex we're looking at around the corner for $1.2M look like a steal. Generic renovation by many accounts, but that's our Brooklyn for ya. $1,000+/sqft, it's not just for Manhattan and Williamsburg anymore!
Speaking of $1,000+/sqft, slide on over to 199 State Street, where the penthouse unit sold below asking price, but over $1.2M. Even if you think this is a narrow little place for the price, we're still talking about downtown Brooklyn priced below what even the outskirts of Manhattan has to offer.
Or if you're not nuts about downtown, slide down to trendier Boerum Hill where 303 Warren Street, #3 also just sold for $1.2M, or over $1,000/sqft. Never mind the cheesy new-construction exterior, this place has a roof deck!
If over $1,000/sqft is the new breed of condo pricing in the best parts of Brooklyn, is there value in finding a decent condo priced lower than that? We'd say so. 35 St. Marks Avenue has been dying to duplicate the sales of 33 St. Marks Avenue for years now. They spent time wanting just over $700K a few years ago, then finally got their offering plan & their act together, listed for $839K and closed for $850K on Unit #3. Still not what 33 St. Marks pulled off, but this is no 33 St. Marks. $818/sqft spells value to us for a 1,000+ square foot condo in Park Slope. But it's the pricepoint rather than the price per square foot that buyers really pivot off of.
Of course ~$800/sqft is a good price in prime Park Slope, especially when it's happening near the highway in south Slope. 231 16th Street, #2A just sold for $710K, or $814/sqft. Makes a whole house on the same block asking $1.5M pre-market sound like a deal to us.
Don't look now, here comes another $2M+ condo in Park Slope! 305 3rd Street, #4G couldn't quite get $2.2M, but it sold for $2.172M, almost a million more than it went for in 2005. Whether you call it $936/sqft or "over two million dollars", that's a lot of money. No wonder a Park Slope fixer-upper like 115 Lincoln Place would want well over $2M too.
If Park Slope is too pricey for you, head across the street to Prospect Heights. Buyers from the Upper East Side sure did, picking up a unit in the 268-270 St. Marks Avenue condo project for just over $1.5M. A relative steal at $878/sqft. Buyers from Boerum Hill took down another unit in this development for over $1.5M this year, and buyers from Brooklyn Heights got a larger one here for $1.8M! Still, not bad when your neighbors are spending over $3.4M for a condo in Grand Army Plaza!
"$2.3M-$2.5M for a fixer-upper? By the time you do the renovation, you're all in for $3M. Is that really what a house in Park Slope is worth?" a reader and small developer asked us. But we pointed out that she wants $3M for the house she just closed on in Clinton Hill for under $2M, with the mere stroke of a kitchen or bath or two. So why do people think their house in Clinton Hill is worth $3M, but someone else's in Park Slope isn't? Ah, that's just human nature playing out in Brooklyn again.
It's not like this is the most perfect expanse of greenery ever seen, so it needs some special protection. But the hate is real in Brooklyn when you can't even just let your neighbor pimp their ride within the guidelines of the city's building code. That is some fuzzy jurisdiction in our book when the Community Board and Landmarks Preservation Commission has their tentacles wrapped so tightly around private property. Now it has rowhouse developers all around town are telling us they're worried if FAR really means anything anymore when proposals like that get shot down. It's hard to feel bad for developers, but when home owners trying to better their property get shut down like that so ruthlessly, not wonder it killed their vibe.
A contract flip for ~$2M a block down the hill was kind of interesting too, but more for home owners than developers or flippers. 115 Lincoln Place still makes a great renovation candidate for a new buyer.
Ideally: even narrow homes like these make a great triplex over garden with separate entrances. When $4M is the new aspirational price in Park Slope, the fixer-upper over $2M actually makes sense for some people.
Owners have plans to make an addition to the mural that's even cooler! They say they'll keep a triplex over a garden rental, and are even open to renting out these huge nice rooms for as little as $1,000/BR in the meantime. That'd be the move for anyone who wants a slice of Clinton Hill history at a nice price for a short stint. We'll cover the search that led to this conclusion next week in an upcoming segment called, "Diary of a Platinum Member". Until then, this is plenty of house to feast your eyes on.
Ideally: every deal in this market is a unique miracle. Rinse & repeat investors need a ton of upside in deal after deal for it to even be worth it, but discerning home buyers really only need to pull it off once.