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Most of the homes in Bed-Stuy are not single family. They tend to be 2 to 4 family dwellings.
LIC is more expensive than Bed-Stuy. 2 bedroom apartments in LIC go for over a million dollars, easily.
I'd take a woodframe in Williamsburg or a brick rowhouse in Ridgewood over a brownstone in Bed-Stuy any day of the week.
Do you plan on sending your kids to school in Bed-Stuy? If kids are in your future plans, that is.
Yes to both points. Bedstuy has VERY few single family homes, but many two to four family dwellings. Most of these purchased units are RENTED OUT.
But everyone on here KNOWS that. On the internet when people are financially involved on something they will go online and spread all sorts of rumors about how whatever they have is the best thing since sliced bread and that everyone should get involved. Clearly a certain number of people in the real estate industry are posting here and are desperate to get stupid people to buy in ghettos (Bedstuy, Bushwick, or Crown Heights) or super ghettoes (East New York, Brownsville).
That's you and your personal friends. NYC is and has been a revolving door for young whites for years, including whites with Ivy League degrees. They come here for education, or to do things like clerk at a top law firm, do a medical residency, have an important internship and MANY LEAVE.
It's a myth that all or even most young whites want to be in Brooklyn.
NYC's suburbs still have very expensive housing, so clearly not all suburbanites are selling to move into Bedstuy and in fact I'm sure very few do. Ghetto neighborhoods as I said get marginal white populations such as recent graduates, those not fully established in their careers, students who can't afford better, etc.
The real estate prices in lower Manhattan far outstrip brownstone Brooklyn so that let's you know where the REAL demand is. It isn't in Bedstuy, Crown Heights, or Bushwick. Of the 7 Ivy Leagues that have clubs in NYC, their clubs are in Midtown Manhattan not in Brooklyn as their most successful alumnae live in Manhattan and have houses in the SUBURBS!
Call me when some Ivy Leaguer like Bloomberg (who has children and grandchildren) buys in Bedstuy, Crown Heights, or Bushwick. Those neighborhoods will likely never get to that point and you know it!
The more you write the more demented you come off.
A billionaire needs to move somewhere to signal gentrification? An Apple store?
Areas you cite such as Chelsea or the Village are WAY BEYOND gentrified. Using gentrification to describe these areas is flat out idiotic.
Don't be an idiot. Bed-Stuy is gentrifying. Gentrification starts somewhere and the fact that there are no good schools will not preclude some from settling down. The amenities will come. It takes time. It takes years of planning for a new store opening and thus new stores aren't built on a whim or a gamble.
When a Trader Joes or a WF's comes in that doesn't mean that gentrification has begun. It means it's fully rooted; as in 5 or 10 years in. Retailers don't gamble; they're in it to make a profit and not to run experiments.
My parents were offered a 2 bedroom coop or condo in 1992 for under 200k in Hell's Kitchen. They didn't take it because they never believed that area was going to get better. No one believed that NYC was going to transform they way it did.
Places like Canarsie and Starret won't because, 1) they're far away from transportation, 2)poor housing stock, 3) they're way out of the way. There are better opportunities.....such as Bed Stuy.
The one constant in life is change. With the way the trend is going and barring an economic disaster, areas such as Bed Stuy will fully gentrify. It's inevitable. The demand is there.
The better question to ask is: If the economy will trend the way it has been and the demographics trend the way they have been, what areas will not gentrify?
You want to know how things have changed thus far. When I was growing up in Brooklyn Bed Stuy was (at least believed to be) warzone by white folks. Just the mention of Bed Stuy had white folks scared. Bed Stuy and Brownsville were the worst of the worst. You couldn't pay white ppl to even drive through the neighborhoods.
Now, they're looking to buy in Bed Stuy. Not walk the streets or visit or sightsee but to live there. Think about that and then tell me that Bed Stuy isn't gentrifying.
Last edited by wawaweewa; 10-20-2015 at 09:48 PM..
Yes to both points. Bedstuy has VERY few single family homes, but many two to four family dwellings. Most of these purchased units are RENTED OUT.
But everyone on here KNOWS that. On the internet when people are financially involved on something they will go online and spread all sorts of rumors about how whatever they have is the best thing since sliced bread and that everyone should get involved. Clearly a certain number of people in the real estate industry are posting here and are desperate to get stupid people to buy in ghettos (Bedstuy, Bushwick, or Crown Heights) or super ghettoes (East New York, Brownsville).
I'm one of those stupid people that bought in Bed Stuy in 2004, what a mistake.
My parents have a semi-detached, wood frame 1800sq ft house in Bergen Beach and it's $600k. It's the definition of nothing special.
Nowhere near transportation. Nowhere near any "amenities". Nowhere near anything for that matter and no potential beyond what it is today. The schools aren't even that great (they used to be until...). All for $600k.
So are brownstones in Bed Stuy overpriced? Doesn't look like it to me.
Last edited by wawaweewa; 10-20-2015 at 10:04 PM..
My parents have a semi-detached, wood frame 1800sq ft house in Bergen Beach and it's $600k. It's the definition of nothing special.
Nowhere near transportation. Nowhere near any "amenities". Nowhere near anything for that matter and no potential beyond what it is today. The schools aren't even that great (they used to be until...). All for $600k.
So are brownstones in Bed Stuy overpriced? Doesn't look like it to me.
He's probably book smart judging from all of the Ivy League degrees he says he has, but that's about it. I have a high school diploma and 1 year of community college, however through real estate I've managed to accumulate close to 2M in equity. Real estate is the way to go, especially NYC real estate. Get in now wherever you can or go home.
Small time person wants to buy in Bedstuy. Great. Now how long do you have to live there before all the GHETTO in the neighborhood goes away? 20 years? 40 years? 70 years? Perhaps never?
I'm also contrarian. If you guys strongly say something, I will argue against it just because I automatically assume you're wrong (not even much need for an analysis).
Whenever people say something is a 100% sure investment (stock market late 90s), real estate in general (2006) it's often just before an ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. The historical precedent is there and in 2015 it is no different.
To say totally that real estate in investment in Bedstuy carries no risk is the height of ignorance. The area is still a ghetto. What happens if the Fed raises interests? Note the fed chairman did not raise interest due to general economic weakness and issues with China. Lately the stock market is still doing poorly. What if we have a big collapse? I've seen the effects of major problems on Wall Street on NYC real estate.
Now some of you may argue that real estate prices would recover. Of course they would eventually. But the times of people who would be in these parts of Brooklyn would tend to get wiped out. We aren't dealing with really rich people who would buy in Bedstuy, instead we're dealing with people who make a lot less money and who are much more likely to get laid off in a corporate downturn.
He's probably book smart judging from all of the Ivy League degrees he says he has, but that's about it. I have a high school diploma and 1 year of community college, however through real estate I've managed to accumulate close to 2M in equity. Real estate is the way to go, especially NYC real estate. Get in now wherever you can or go home.
Street smart people do not pump all their money into real estate in ghettoes, particularly as the stock market shows weakness and there are other major issues coming in from China (and Europe is not blowing anyone out of the water in terms of economic power either).
None of you guys praising Bedstuy want to real your lines of work. I think at least some of you have a vested interest in pumping up that ghetto because of your own money tied up into it.
As for 2010 Bedstuy still had one of the highest violent crime rates in the city and it is still bad enough.
How about, instead of counting up white faces, someone looks at the black middle class and celebrate that.
Now that I was so stupid and white as to have bought what I could afford in Crown Heights/Weeksville, I stopped counting up how many whites are around me as if that were evidence that I made a good investment.
What's reassuring is seeing couples -- mostly educated NYC people of color -- moving here who are buying (not renting anymore) their first apartments. The cars are nice, the babyseats and strollers even nicer. Typical professions are LPN, nurse, corrections officer, small contractor, teacher, computer something-or-other.
Most of us cook at home for families, having outgrown take-out as a food group. So long as the smaller immigrant-run mom-pop grocery stores keep bringing in GOOD fish, fruit and vegetables daily, we eat well and not greasy. My neighbors and I are well-informed about nutrition. I buy my rice and almonds and rather amazing deals on custom-cut meat when I big-shop at Western Beef in ENY; it doesn't have to be from a Whole Foods or TJ. When I want spices, that's a special trip over to the Arab neighborhood on Fulton. If WF or TJ show up here ever, I'll go, but I don't need them immediately to feel "safe" somehow.
What's unsettling to all of us (and we talk to each other) is the damnable street violence from projects.
I'd like a little better variety of stores and some decent (not hip or bean-sprouty) restaurants on Schenectedy/Utica.. but it'll come along. Right now, if I want a nice meal out to celebrate some small joy (birthday or anniversary) I can't walk to it. Instead, I go a few subway stops west to Franklin Ave and a little bit Nostrand/Kingston Aves.
Last edited by BrightRabbit; 10-21-2015 at 01:11 AM..
Reason: adding detail about where food can be bought well
Don't be an idiot. Bed-Stuy is gentrifying. Gentrification starts somewhere and the fact that there are no good schools will not preclude some from settling down. The amenities will come. It takes time. It takes years of planning for a new store opening and thus new stores aren't built on a whim or a gamble.
When a Trader Joes or a WF's comes in that doesn't mean that gentrification has begun. It means it's fully rooted; as in 5 or 10 years in. Retailers don't gamble; they're in it to make a profit and not to run experiments.
My parents were offered a 2 bedroom coop or condo in 1992 for under 200k in Hell's Kitchen. They didn't take it because they never believed that area was going to get better. No one believed that NYC was going to transform they way it did.
Places like Canarsie and Starret won't because, 1) they're far away from transportation, 2)poor housing stock, 3) they're way out of the way. There are better opportunities.....such as Bed Stuy.
The one constant in life is change. With the way the trend is going and barring an economic disaster, areas such as Bed Stuy will fully gentrify. It's inevitable. The demand is there.
The better question to ask is: If the economy will trend the way it has been and the demographics trend the way they have been, what areas will not gentrify?
You want to know how things have changed thus far. When I was growing up in Brooklyn Bed Stuy was (at least believed to be) warzone by white folks. Just the mention of Bed Stuy had white folks scared. Bed Stuy and Brownsville were the worst of the worst. You couldn't pay white ppl to even drive through the neighborhoods.
Now, they're looking to buy in Bed Stuy. Not walk the streets or visit or sightsee but to live there. Think about that and then tell me that Bed Stuy isn't gentrifying.
Hells Kitchen is in Manhattan and is clearly very convenient to get to Midtown (just walk some blocks EAST). Or take the express trains a few stops to downtown.
Bedstuy is further away from the biggest job centers. Bedstuy also has a lot more entrenched poverty and in the late 80s/early 90s was considerably worse than Hells Kitchen.
Re: Trader Joes that was exactly my point. Stores like them and Apple come to actually gentrified neighborhoods. Bedstuy is not gentrified, and not even halfway gentrified. It's still ghetto and still has one of the worst violent crime rates in the city.
At no point soon will Bedstuy be getting major retail stores or other amenities that people actually have in well of neighborhoods. That limits the appeal of the neighborhood on a long term basis.
Many of the whites in Bedstuy will live there for a few years and LEAVE. Of course others will replace them but to say most Whites or most well of whites are dying to live there is utterly ridiculous.
How about, instead of counting up white faces, someone looks at where the black middle class is moving?
Now that I was so stupid and white as to have bought what I could afford in Crown Heights/Weeksville, I stopped looking at how many whites are around me as if that were evidence that I made a good investment.
What's reassuring is seeing couples -- mostly educated NYC people of color -- moving who are buying (not renting anymore) their first apartments. The cars are nice, the babyseats and strollers even nicer. Typical professions are LPN, nurse, corrections officer, small contractor.
Most of us cook at home for families, having outgrown take-out as a food group. So as long as the smaller immigrant-run grocery stores keep bringing in GOOD fish, fruit and vegetables daily, we eat well and not greasy. My neighbors and I are well-informed about nutrition. I can buy almonds at Western Beef; it doesn't have to be from Whole Foods. When I want spices, that's a special trip over to the Arab neighborhood on Fulton.
What's unsettling to all of us (and we talk to each other) is the damnable street violence from projects.
Everyone would like a little better variety of stores and some decent (not bean-sprouty) restaurant on Utica, but it'll come along.
Yes. These NYC people of color don't have the same options as do whites . LPS, small contractor, etc if they work in the city and/or from it they have far fewer options in terms of where to buy and where to live.
People with more money and higher levels of education have the options of living where they want to. Many of the ones who come to the city to get degrees leave. Others will stay for a few years and then leave. Of course others will come in to replace them.
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