Friday, February 27, 2009

Listing of the Day: Kingsbridge Road Building

2693 Morris Avenue, 32 units, -$3,150,000

This is an entire building near Kingsbridge Road for less than $100K per unit. Most BoogieDowner readers are not in the market for such a building, but I like to bring you the crazy stuff on Fridays. Hence an entire building listing.

The building is pre-war (1922), which could be good for original old-school details, or bad because it is 87 years old. Who knows how many of these units are rented or what type of rent-control, rent stabilization or other types of occupancy issues are connected with this building, but the low price per unit makes it look somewhat attractive.

In terms of the hood, there is some shopping on Kingsbridge Road, and a 4 train stop at Jerome and Kingsbridge Road. You wouldn't be that far from Poe and St. James Parks. And if anything ever happens to the currently fallow Kingsbridge Armory, you'd be close to whatever is developed there (big box shopping? movie theater? normal grocery stores?, some utopian community paradise that won't impact the neighborhood negatively at all and will create well paying jobs?).

FULL LISTING


~ErLu

3 comments:

Gregory Lobo Jost said...

You knew this was coming, right?

I thought you'd get it right with just a straight-up listing with not editorializing, and then:

"the low price per unit makes it look somewhat attractive."

PLEASE -- $100k per unit is still way over the average paid in the Bronx, even during the housing bubble of this decade. And volume of sales almost completely dried up during the second half of 2008. Don't expect volume to pick up until credit markets thaw and prices come back to earth. This asking price is still in bubble-land, and there aren't any more private equity firms buying for ridiculous prices either. As you know with Botanical Square, PE is in sell-off mode.

Boogiedowner said...

We were waiting for your commentary on this, Greg... it's really easy to get you all fired up! For starters, blogs are all about editorializing. BoogieDowner doesn't claim to be a mainstream media outlet. We can say, analyze, and evaluate listings any way we wish. And you, as a devoted reader, can feel free to comment whenever and however you wish.
Now that you're addicted to the Listings of the Day, please inform the BoogieDowner readership what the going rate for this type of building per/unit is?
It seems from this and past comments that you think Bronx real estate is overvalued and overpriced, when the numbers seem to suggest that is the cheapest in the City.
Should the price that a free market sets not be allowed? Should we cap what people can pay for buildings in certain neighborhoods or boroughs based on the median income or some other indicator of socio-economic status of the residents?

Gregory Lobo Jost said...

of course you can editorialize. i was only half-joking there. value is in the eye of the beholder, and that goes for the free market capitalistic society we live in as well. I'm not saying to cap prices.

However, free market capitalism has led to a some outrageous bubbles that make this most recent housing bubble look downright sympathetic. For a thorough reading on the subject, check out Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds. Read the chapter about the tulip bulbs first.

Yes, Bronx real estate is the cheapest in the City. Does that make it a good deal? If Citi Group stock is the cheapest available, does that mean you should buy it?

Time will tell what happens this time around, but if history is any lesson (see Freddie Mac, late 1980s/early 1990s), hundreds of buildings could go into foreclosure and that is definitely bad for the Bronx.

As a rule with bubbles, the bigger they are, the harder they pop. I'd prefer to keep the ones that affect my neighbors smaller.