Bushwick Real Estate Roundup 6/21/07 —
SoBu Edition!
This week’s Bushwick Real Estate Roundup turns out to focus on “SoBu,” as the area south of Myrtle is jokingly called in these pages.
$799,000 | 3-family | 71 Cornelia Street | map
Once again, a gorgeous place dripping with details (outside at least) in the Bushwick Avenue mansion orbit. One of the few times “semi-detached” doesn’t just mean the house next door burned down. I would take this magnificent place over a brownstone any day. 3 over 4 over 3, don’t know the square footage. “New everything” — that worries me, but it could just be the systems. The price is high, but the Bushwick Avenue area is going to be prime in the next 5-10 years. I fully expect landmarking, which kicks gentrification into overdrive.
$619,000 | 3-family | 1150 Halsey Street | map
Okay house on an okay block. It’s three-family but being used as two (which is the opposite of what you normally see in Bushwick), which means there’s a duplex, suggesting it’s likely owner-occupied. Evergreen Avenue and much of Central there is totally gone, replaced by a strip of ugly, dirty buildings belonging to the poorly named Hope Gardens projects, and a few newer private-initiative slap-ups. But if you walk the other way up Halsey, it brings you to the gorgeous Irving Square Park, surrounded by gracious, well-kept brick homes, a stunning school building and a great old church. This will be a hot area once it gets a couple of cafés, and I can see it being called Irving Square in honor of the park. Real estate agents are very predictable.
$660,000 | 2-family | Chauncey Street | map
Gorgeous South Bushwick block, some great details, man this place might be a catch…if only they had a shot of the house itself. Well, there’s an open house this weekend, so you can go see it yourself.
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$499,999 | 2-family | Weirfield Street | map
This place is okay outside, and guessing by the ad’s language, a disaster inside. But it’s a good price and if you have the time/dough, you can whip it into shape and gain some quick sweat equity. Legal two-family but has three apartments, very common. Near nice stretch of Bushwick Avenue, by Halsey J.
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$725,000 | 2-family | Jefferson Avenue | map
Really sweet house, sort of pricey but looks well-renovated. Owner’s duplex and 3-bedroom top floor rental. Near Bushwick Avenue.
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June 21st, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Thanks Jeremy for not forgetting about SoBu, and giving us a special “shout out” this time around!
We might gentrify last, but we’re still in the game!
Cornelia house - high price, but next to an ugly house that they had a hard time selling. No inside pictures scare me a little. Do you really think Bushwick Avenue has a chance of landmarking one day? I never thought they would consider a place with so many frame homes that weren’t build before the 1900s.
Irving Square park is nice, and yes this is a perfect spot for cafes.
Chauncey does have nice detail, and I like this street, but it’s next to pilling, which we said is pretty far out there, but still not bad.
Weirfield is cheap, and it’s a nice tree lined street. What’s with all the garbage outside!
Jefferson - those outside windows need something. The little flower boxes just don’t do enough. Did you see the windows in the back of the house. All different sizes, and the ones on the first floor are more horizontal. But I LOVE that kitchen and dining area. The yellow is beautiful. I wonder if there is a living room in front of that dining area, but I doubt it if it’s only 40′ long.
Great work Jeremy.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:05 pm
i like how the weirfield house says “Newly renovated when finished.” um, well, yeah i suppose it would be.
June 21st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
I am jealous of all those trees on Weirfield Street
June 21st, 2007 at 8:05 pm
yah, the first time i came to this end of the neighborhood i walked down that block and was struck how much the trees add to the atmosphere of a street. the housing stock itself ain’t so hot there but the street feel very livable because of the foliage.
June 21st, 2007 at 9:58 pm
So what made you move to this end of the Bushwick versus north north closer to Williamsburg?
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 am
I know that block, and there are lots of tree. Wonder how hard it is to plant a tree on sidewalks.
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:52 am
You know, even if South Bushwick isn’t “as hot” as North Bushwick, any roundups that focus on 1-4 family houses are going to be SoBu-heavy, because the majority of the properties above Myrtle are tenements. In the long run, we in the North are going to be the land of condos, and the South will be a ton of nice old houses. You’ll be my suburbs!
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
Agree on the trees: foliage makes the street. I have even seen some of that gross RBSCC infill housing with a forest of trees in the yard, and it almost makes it look acceptible. I’d much rather be in a not-so-hot house on a picturesque street full of trees, than in some majestic brownstone on a sunblasted strip of asphalt.
June 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 am
i havent’ had to do this myself, but property owners can request the city plant trees in front, or you can do it yourself:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/trees_greenstreets/street_tree_plant.html
since the city will do it for free, i’m surprised so many blocks are so barren.
it’s true, most of the ‘regualr’ houses are on the southside. that’s why i ended up here, we were looking for a house-house, and frankly the few ones we saw above the Myrtle fold were out of our price range.
June 22nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
I would say that sadly, many area residents and businesses simply don’t care to have trees, so they don’t.
June 22nd, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I’m sure that will change over time. Especially when the Trees Not Trash start to venture south of Flushing.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:14 am
Jeremy thanks for the website. Did you see all those requirements for the soil, etc.
But it would be nice to have a tree lined street!
June 24th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Sobu shouldn’t be something jokingly called on these pages. Why not make it a cool place to be in Bushwick. Kinda like what greenwich village is to nyc.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Jeremy:
Oh no! No new posting to this site today. I hope this blogsite doesn’t go down the drain. Please somebody help. Let’s give Bushwick a chance!
June 25th, 2007 at 11:14 am
I planted a tree in Park Slope in 1977. The first one died, then we planted a Norway Maple, and it’s still standing, though we no longer live there. It took the city about a year to plant the first one. The planted the replacement the following fall. We paid something for the first one.
Is anything happening over near St. Barbara’s in Bushwick. I grew up there in the ’50s and I’m curious to know if things are changing?
Thanks.
June 25th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Jeremy is probably on vaction.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
Nah, just swamped lately. I’m actually going on vacation Wednesday, but I’ll try to post-date a few posts so there’s something every day.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
Bobbush: South Bushwick is jokingly called “SoBu.” Nobody is making fun of South Bushwick.
June 25th, 2007 at 6:51 pm
Lenora — unfortunately everything around St. Barbara’s is projects. It will be the last part of Bushwick to clean up.
June 25th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
Jeremy: Glad you see you are still around, and this great blog on an upcoming neighbor still exists. Jeremy: Thanks for taking care of the blog while you’re away. Where are you vacationing - at your summer home in SoBu?
Lenora - you had to pay for the tree and still wait a year for the city to plant it? I thought you could get one faster this way versus the free one they give you.
June 25th, 2007 at 10:59 pm
Jeremy: Sorry to hear that about St. Barbara’s area. I drove over there a couple of years ago, and I know the new developments were pretty widespread. My block (Bleecker) still had some of the old houses on it, though not in good shape.
Mary: We planted our tree a very long time ago. It’s possible it’s quicker now. At that time, you put yourself on the list, and when it was time for them to plant the trees in your neighborhood, they arrived.