Now Is Not a Good Time to Buy in Bed-Stuy
Another day, another grim bulletin chronicling the Brooklyn Real Estate Panic (born: a couple years before you moved here; died: some indeterminate future, all years inclusive).
Today (and recently), it’s Bed-Stuy, “the hottest neighborhood in Brooklyn,” according to a Halstead Property broker named Ban Leow, where over the last year the median price for homes has escalated from $425,000 in the second quarter of 2013 to $630,000 now, according to data from StreetEasy. “It’s really making a name for itself,” Leow rightly points out, in an article in the New York Post. The limestones and brownstones here are beautiful.”
The Post goes on to report that the boom in Bed-Stuy comes as an “influx of tony buyers — from celebrities to “Park Avenue Princesses” — are ditching the price tags in Manhattan and flocking to the once-gritty outer-borough nabe.” Once-gritty implying that Park Avenue Princesses will stand for no grit, presumably. The most savvy buyers, according to Kathleen Perkins, of Douglas Elliman, have caught onto the fact that Bed-Stuy is but “a few minutes” away from Clinton Hill.
You might have heard of Clinton Hill, but if you’re unaware, the Post is here to remind you that it’s “a more gentrified neighborhood with celebrity residents like Rosie Perez.” We’re also reminded that no less a luminary than Uma Thurman(‘s brother) tried to invest in Bed-Stuy. Alas, he was outbid, and forced to schlep out to East Flatbush, where there are fewer celebrities.
But it’s not all bad news in Bed-Stuy: yesterday, the block on Macon Street spanning Howard and Ralph Avenues won the coveted “Greenest Block in Brooklyn” designation, bestowed annually by GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program of Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and Borough President Eric Adams. The block remains a safe distance from Clinton Hill, although it’s not far from Crown Heights and East New York, placing it under threat from the south. Better not tell the Park Avenue Princesses.
Follow Phillip Pantuso on Twitter @phillippantuso.