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Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: A Brooklyn Heights Mansion Sets a Sales Record

Co-op in Former Brooklyn Heights Church With Fireplace, Private Terrace Asks $1.995 Million With soaring ceilings, stained glass windows and multiple levels of living space this Brooklyn Heights apartment certainly doesn’t have a cookie-cutter interior. The Gothic Revival style flourishes are thanks to its location inside a converted 19th century church… Read More >The post Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: A Brooklyn Heights Mansion Sets a Sales Record appeared first on Brownstoner.

WNBA star Candace Parker buys $4M Los Angeles farmhouse

Basketball superstar Candace Parker is making real estate moves: Variety reported that the Los Angeles Sparks forward has purchased a $4 million modern farmhouse in the Tarzana area of Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. The two-time MVP of the WNBA previously owned a home in Encino with her ex-husband, former NBA player Shelden Williams. The couple sold that home for $3.8 million in 2018, according to the publication. Parker’s new 6,300-square-foot home, built on spec,

Do You Want To Buy A House In Brooklyn In The New Year?

Out with the old and in with the new! Are you ready for something new? Is it your time to buy a house in Brooklyn in 2021? In light of the pandemic, I think we are all ready for something new. It has been a challenging year. You have decided you want to purchase a home, what do you do now? Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take to buy a house in Brooklyn in 2021. Obtain a Pre-Approval To begin with, you will want to meet with a mortgage lender and obtain a pre-approval for a mortgage loan. The lender will look at your credit report to determine the amount …

Pandemic Causes Sales to Plunge 85% in Hudson Yards, NYC’s Priciest Neighborhood & Prices to Dip 8% in Manhattan

Key Takeaways: Residential sales across NYC dropped 32% year-over-year in 2020Median sale price in New York City (all four boroughs) rose to $660,000, a 1% uptick from last yearOnly 9 NYC neighborhoods recorded an increase in sales activity in 2020Hudson Yards had the highest median sale price in NYC at $4,504,000TriBeCa was #2 priciest for second year in a row; Little Italy was #3 priciestSales activity in Gowanus surged 113% & Malba and Neponsit’s medians exceeded $1,000,000 As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across New York City, 2020 was marked by dramatic decreases…

Parties, Gossip and Too Much Brew: How 19th Century Brooklynites Celebrated the New Year

Editor’s note: This post has been updated. Read the original post here. For those following the Gregorian calendar, and that’s most of us, that magic moment when the old year ends in the last seconds of 11:59 on December 31 and the new begins at midnight on January 1 is… Read More >The post Parties, Gossip and Too Much Brew: How 19th Century Brooklynites Celebrated the New Year appeared first on Brownstoner.

Musician Nicky Jam relists Palm Island home at a loss

Nicky Jam is trying again to sell his Miami Beach home — and this time, he’s looking at taking a loss. Jam paid $3.4 million for the 3,600-square-foot home in Palm Island two years ago, but is now asking just $3.3 million for the property, according to Variety. He first tried selling the home last year with an asking price of $3.65 million. The ask was eventually dropped to $3.5 million. Eventually, it was taken

Is Your Brooklyn Home Not Selling?

Selling your Brooklyn home can be a stressful time in the best of circumstances. But what happens if your home doesn’t sell as quickly as you had hoped? My highest recommendation is to maintain an open line of communication with your real estate agent. Ask questions if you have them. Don’t make assumptions and blame without verification. Your real estate agent is on your team. Many factors affect the sale of a home. Some factors are in your control, some are in the control of others, and some are not in control…

The NYC Neighborhood Report: 44 Neighborhoods Closed Fewer Than 5 Sales Under Q2 Pandemic Pressure

Key Takeaways: TriBeCa retakes #1 spot with $3.73 million medianPrevious quarter’s #1, Hudson Yards, excluded due to insufficient sales activityFor first time ever, Brooklyn has more neighborhoods than Manhattan among top 50 most expensiveMedian sale price surges 147% in the Bronx’s KingsbridgeOnly 15 NYC neighborhoods experienced sales activity growth, with Gowanus’ 230% surge in the leadAt nearly $2.1 million, DUMBO is Brooklyn’s most expensive neighborhoodManhattan sales activity halved, Brooklyn down only 32%The Bronx registered sharpest median sale price gains at +12.5% Y-o-Y, followed closely by Queens at +12.3% Y-o-Y …

Brooklyn Townhouses are Hot; Small Apartments Not?

The publication Mansions Global, which I discovered only because I have a Google alert for anything mentioning Brooklyn Heights (which, along with stuff about our neighborhood, gives me info about a suburb of Cleveland, a poor neighborhood in Nashville, a pizza parlor in Austin, a drag queen popular in the D.C. area, and a race horse), has an article by Michele Lerner with the title “Are Brooklyn Brownstones the New Manhattan Co-op?&#…

Bill de Blasio’s Plan to Close Rikers Is Crumbling

A jail on Rikers Island. | Erik Pendzich/Shutterstock A judge’s ruling is the latest bad news for the mayor. A lawsuit has landed a decisive blow to Bill de Blasio’s plan to replace Rikers Island with a smaller network of borough-based jails. Under the vision the mayor put forward in 2018, four new towering jails would rise near courthouses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx at a cost of $8.7 billion in what was an effort to halve the city’s jail population by 2026. Now…

Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Designing Custom Shelves and Cabinets

Park Slope Prewar Co-op Near Grand Army Plaza With Sleek Renovated Kitchen Asks $850K This one-bedroom apartment offers broad views from its 11th floor perch along with a marble-adorned kitchen designed for its food columnist owner. It’s set in the 1920s Neo-Gothic tower of 1 Plaza Street West, located across from… Read More >The post Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Designing Custom Shelves and Cabinets appeared first on Brownstoner.

Real estate agents turn to influencers to help sell a lifestyle — and apartments

It takes a bit more work to move residential units in New York City these days and agents are upping their marketing game on social media. Some prospective buyers could be hesitant to see units in person unless it jumps out at them amid the pandemic, according to Bloomberg News. Agents are looking to get eyeballs on units where potential buyers spend a lot of their time. Enter the social media influencer. “We’re seeing that

Selling Your Brooklyn Home During The Winter

Some people may advise you that selling your Brooklyn home during the winter is a bad idea. Sometimes you just need to get the house on the market for various reasons regardless of the season. There isn’t a wrong time to sell a home if you do all the necessary steps to prepare for the sale. Houses sell at all times of the year. If you are considering putting your home on the market, I will encourage you to do so. You may be surprised to hear me say that. Let me explain why I would encourage you to consider selling your Brooklyn home during the winter. Reasons to sell your Brooklyn…

Most Expensive U.S. Zip Codes in 2020: Medians on the Rise in Country’s 100 Priciest Zips

Editor’s Note: PropertyShark is saddened by the losses caused by this year’s wildfires, tropical storms and COVID-19. The article below is simply a presentation of hard data and in no way attempts to ignore the devastation these areas have experienced. Key Takeaways: At $7 million, Atherton’s 94027 remains #1 most expensive zip code for fourth consecutive yearCalifornia further solidifies its position as most expensive housing market with 87 entriesMedians rose in 78 of country’s 100 priciest zips in 2020, flipping the mostly downsliding trend of 2019San Francisco claims 11 of the priciest …

The Cheapest, Nicest Apartments for Sale in the West Village 

This prewar one-bedroom on Horatio Street has two skylights. | Donna Dotan Photography Skylights, built-ins, and a 250-square-foot private terrace. Apparently, not even the reliably expensive West Village is immune to the COVID-induced housing price drops sweeping Manhattan. According to residential-real-estate analytics firm UrbanDigs, the median asking price for new listings in the area has decreased to the lowest figure in years, from $2.8 million in May to $1.765 million in August. Or, in sum: “Buyers may soon start to find real deals in the West Village,” says John Walkup, CEO of UrbanDigs. To find said deals, we scoured listings in the neighborhood for nice-looking units with a good amount of space and amenities for the price. …

Comings and Goings on Montague Street

This afternoon your correspondent had to walk from his residence to the bank, which entailed going the length of Montague Street. Along the way, he snapped some photos of storefronts either emptied, about to be emptied, or, in one instance, newly occupied, since the outbreak of COVID-19. This doesn’t purport to be an exhaustive survey, but should give a feel for the extent of the pandemic’s effect. Word has it that the Ann Taylor Loft store, at the corner of Montague and Hicks, is …

Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Brooklynites Fight a Proposed Sprinkler Law

Brooklynites Fight Proposed Sprinkler Law They Say Will Cause Row House Evictions, Foreclosure A Bed Stuy block association and Community Board 3 are fighting a proposed sprinkler law they say could devastate homeowners and tenants in Brooklyn and beyond. Introduced in 2018, Intro 1146B is coming up for review by the… Read More >The post Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Brooklynites Fight a Proposed Sprinkler Law appeared first on Brownstoner.

Feds put Neoclassical architecture policy into practice

President Donald Trump never implemented a proposed measure that would have effectively banned new federal buildings from being constructed in the modern style, but one government agency has put its policy into practice anyway. In at least two instances, the General Services Administration has echoed language that appeared in Trump’s “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” draft executive order, Bloomberg Citylab reported. Had it been carried out, the order would have made “classical architectural style” —

How To Prepare Your Brooklyn Home For Fall 2020

Fall has arrived and it is time to prepare your Brooklyn home before winter comes. It seems it was just the beginning of summer, and then I blinked, and we are talking about preparing for winter. An essential part of homeownership is the proper maintenance of your home. Many of the items I see that turn up on home inspections are merely delayed maintenance. I often hear the homeowner remark how they wish they would have done it sooner so that they could enjoy the…

City Hall Park Is Still Under Lockdown, the MTA Has a Man Cave, and Other News

Rob Kim/Getty Images Here’s what’s going on around town this week. Why is City Hall Park still barricaded? For nearly a month this summer, the 8.8-acre green space surrounding City Hall was home to the Occupy City Hall protesters as they called on the mayor and City Council to defund the NYPD. The cops cleared out the encampment on July 22, and since then, the park — which has several grassy lawns, seating areas, and fountains — has been heavily barricaded, making it inaccessible to the neighboring lower-Manhattan community, and …