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In Search of…Attractive and Affordable Housing in Bed-Stuy
By The Changeling | March 22, 2007
The 39 Steps
When these properties on the corner of Nostrand and Madison caught my eye, I thought for sure they would be affordable. In my opinion they look OK, although, as I mentioned on a previous post, I’m not into stairs in front of a residence unless it’s a brownstone or an old frame house. I would definitely overlook this architectural misstep (pun intended) if the price were right.
Since there was no mention of price on the For Sale sign, I looked online to see if Royal Homes had a website. As you might have guessed, they didn’t. (It’s surprising how many realtors selling properties in Brooklyn don’t.) I really wanted to know how much these properties were going for, so I called the number on the sign. The friendly agent gave me the usual “we only have one left” bit, but I said, yeah, yeah, just give me the price. He said that they were $645,000. Huh? I realize that these are two-family dwellings and that they are just one short block away from the new Bed-Stuy YMCA, but it seems too steep a price to me. Besides, if you had to go up and down those stairs everyday, you wouldn’t need to go to the Y.
Before I hung up the phone, I told the agent that the type of people who can afford to pay 600K for a property would be looking for properties on the Internet, so get a website. He chuckled and hung up. I don’t consider this price affordable and the attractive label was questionable from the start. The search goes on.
March 23rd, 2007 at 8:57 am
it seems like the uglier the new construction, the higher the price. sadly, $645K is on the low end of the scale for new buildings.
March 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
For 645k, get yourself a fixer-upper and a good contractor. I’ve ridden by these on my bike, and they’re not as nice as you make them look in the pic. Were you able to look inside?
March 23rd, 2007 at 3:56 pm
Oh God–I had no idea. It’s really disturbing to realize that unattractive housing is beyond your financial grasp. I mean, it’s one thing to not be able to afford a gorgeous brownstone, but to be priced out of the market on these hovels?
March 24th, 2007 at 7:05 am
I didn’t look inside, but the agent told me that they were 3 bed/2.5 bath over 2 bed/2 bath homes.
The camera made them look better, not me, not intentionally, I swear! This is the first camera I’ve had in years, so I’m still learning how to take pics that accurately reflect what I see.
March 26th, 2007 at 10:44 am
They are not that bad. I’m sure they are an improvement over what was there before.
March 26th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
You’re probably right. I’m guessing that it was an abandoned lot before these units were built.
April 3rd, 2007 at 10:34 am
I live right down the road on Monroe St and these homes could have been so much better. They just HAD to squeeze 5 homes in this space. They should have built them facing Madison St rather than Nostrand Ave and they could have had backyards too, but they would only have been able to fit 3 homes. These horrors are small from what I can see. The kitchens are miniscule, looking thru the windows. The building butt right up against the building behind it, on Madison St. They have ZERO backyard. There is about 5 feet of clearance in back. That is a disgrace. They wedged 5 homes in a space designed for 3, because they know SOMEONE will buy.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:45 am
There just doesn’t seem to be any moderately priced, nice looking housing in New York. You either have a million plus to spend on a nice place or you buy a shell that’s seen better days and you spend upwards of $100K fixing it up, or GASP! you end up having to buy one of these.
Mark, you pointed out something that I hadn’t considered: these would have been better facing Madison so that they could have had backyards. Good point. I’ll say that they would also be better if there were an even number of units. Because the stairs turn to the left and right, an odd number of units makes the whole thing look off. Maybe it’s the asymmetry. It’s very unfortunate that would-be homebuyers have such slim pickings in NYC.