Real Estate Monday

Real Estate Monday faded quietly away over the summer, occasionally appearing as Real Estate Tuesday, and then absent altogether.  I guess it's due to a change in my day-to-day schedule, and a dog appearing around the place, gradually finding its hairy place in the household.  New routines are not yet in place.  Much as I've enjoyed the summer, I always look forward to September, which feels like the real, organized, start of the year.  So with fall on the horizon, Real Estate Monday is back, casting an amateurish eye on the mysteries of Brooklyn property sales.

Let's start with a recent sale, not in the prime brownstone heart of Park Slope, but on its less fancy fringes.  329 12th Street, inevitably listed by lazy brokers as built in 1901 but clearly evident on the 1886 Robinson Atlas (and probably built as early as the 1870s), has just sold for $1,790,000 (list price $1,995,000).  This is a modestly sized three-storey vinyl-clad house, originally quite shallow in depth (under 30 feet?), but extended somewhat in recent years.  In 2006 it sold for $680,000. Nearby 325 sold for $1.9 million early in the year (previously sold for $670,000 in 2011), and 321 has just come on the market at $1,690,000.

If you want something swishier, you could try a three bedroom condo on 21st Street , in the beautiful old St. John's parochial school, which is on the market for a mind-boggling $2,899,000.  What resident living around here even a few years ago would have envisioned a price like this?
For around the same price as the 21st Street condo, you could still buy a whole building, 260 8th Street which featured on a Real Estate Monday post last November!  It's come down (massively) in price since then, from $2,999,000 to $2,949,000, and has acquired a name, The Post House.  A perfect name considering its location next to the parking lot of the Van Brunt P.O. (McDonald's back yard nestles on the other side.)  Here's a shot taken in fall of '13.

Further south, on Fifth and 33rd, across from the Sylvan Waters of the cemetery, two adjacent properties are for sale. Most of the block between 33rd & 34th is taken up by semi-detached two-storey, two-family houses, and 816 and 817 are currently on the market for $1,275,000 each.

What's unusual about these, is that each lot contains two adjoined houses (816, 816A, & 817, 817A), In the street view above, the house on the corner gives you an idea of the buildings' shape.

 817 5th Avenue (Block 685 Lot 38) is a two family brick on a 25 x32 lot size / 20 x29 building size. It is comprised of 2 1 bedroom apartments. 817A 5th Avenue (Block 685 Lot 138) is a two family brick on a 25 x68 lot size / 20 x29 building size. It is comprised of 2 1 bedroom apartments. Combined the two buildings make up a 25 x100 lot and the building size is 20 x58 deep. There is one common boiler for both properties. All units are free market, month to month tenancy and may be delivered vacant at closing. The property is a short stroll to the 36th Street Express train, shopping and all amenities. R6B zoning allows for an additional 2,680 buildable square feet that may be added to the existing structure. 816 / 816a / 817 / 817a 5th Avenue may be sold as a package deal. The properties combined make up 8 residential units on a 50 x100 lot with 10,000 buildable square feet.

I've always been intrigued by these buildings, which are not too far from the lovely Woodrow & Roosevelt Courts.  But I imagine the combo deal here, with that 50 foot wide lot, will be an irresistible development magnet.