Digestible Real Estate News
We’re keeping this recurring piece to do a bit more for those genuinely interested in New York real estate, not just food porn, and give my LinkedIn designation a little luster. Taking a note from the easy to absorb nuggets of information in MarketSnacks‘ newsletter (blanketed with this unshakable food theme), here are your RealEstateSnacks so I can make this newsletter tax deductible.
1. While as a Boston fan this is cause for grave concern, Tom Brady has listed his home in Massachusetts for a whopping $39,500,000 and is looking to lay down permanent roots in the NYC suburbs. Yes their Brookline, Mass home is nothing short of extravagant but since they already own a $25.5 million dollar condo at 70 Vestry in extremely wealthy TriBeCa, why not tack on a country home as well? Tom and Gisele have been spotted house hunting in ritzy NYC suburbs, but also in Greenwich, Connecticut and Alpine, New Jersey. *cute wide spread panic in New England Patriots Nation*
2. To anyone who has walked along the Bowery, you have most likely been mystified by graffiti covered building at 190 Bowery, which any passerby would write off as a dilapidated bank. Now unbeknownst to most passersby, famed photographer Jay Maisel called the 36,000-square-foot building home with his wife and daughter from 1966 to 2015. Maisel bought the building, which was completed in 1899, for just $102,000 in 1966 and sold it for a whopping $55 million in 2014 – this is considered as the greatest return on investment New York Real Estate history. The 72-room home is a piece of work in and of itself and the videos and photographs published after the sale are an amazing glimpse into this previously secret world.
3. As a resident of the neighborhood, I can attest to the change first hand, but recent reports have shown that house prices in the Lower East Side have doubled since 2015. Heralded by a recent influx of new developments in the neighborhood, most notably the Essex Crossing development, home prices on the Lower East Side doubled, from $655,000 to $1.31 million, taking that neighborhood from 57th to 14th place on the list in terms of median recorded sales price. The development push is slowing making its way down to Two Bridges and Chinatown, however many neighborhood alliances and political groups are trying to halt the change by finding any roadblocks possible and pushing ample lawsuits.
4. Cue my dire obsession with New York history – the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation produced this really fantastic website that details historic information about every one of the East Village’s 2,200 buildings with historic photos and any significant information tied to the building or the site. This interactive tool has been in the making for about 10 years and allows a clear window to the past of one of New York’s most storied and constantly changing neighborhoods.