Brooklyn Heights Home Visited by Obama is on the Block for $13.5 Million

By on October 19, 2011 8:36 pm in Real Estate

The Brooklyn Heights home then-candidate Barack Obama visited in 2007 is on the block for $13.5 million dollars. Literary agent Nina Collins and her hedge fund manager husband Marek Fludzinski purchased 212 Columbia Heights in 2005 for record setting (at the time) $8.5 million. It was featured on the 2007 BHA House Tour.

Do you think the price is right? Does the Obama visit add historical value? Comment away!

Share this Story:

, ,

  • Knight

    Imagine what the asking price would be if he had slept there!

  • AEB

    Oh, the price is definitely right! Definitely!

    Of course, if Ms. Bachmann had visited it instead of O., well, there’s no telling how much MORE the owners could’ve gotten! I mean, there’s luster and there’s luster….

  • weegee

    If I’m not mistaken, the home where Candidate Lincoln got as far as the front door and essentially said “let go of my arm, I don’t wanna have lunch with you, I’ve got the Cooper-Union speech to think about…!” wasn’t spared the wrecking ball. Bob Furman for the confirmation?

  • David G

    Talk about a stimulus!

  • Western Brooklyn

    Is he really that much different from the Bush/Cheney regime?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Paul Newman took a dump in my bathroom, Do you think it could double the value of my building?

  • AEB

    You live indoors, Arch?

  • Gerry

    @ Arch, that was disgusting.

  • Knight

    Gerry’s right, Arch. Tell us more!

  • PromGal

    Obama certainly did fill his campaign coffers with Wall Street money in 2008. If I were he, I wouldn’t be counting on the same reception this go around. Lots of buyer’s remorse in the air.
    As to his living on Columbia Heights, I’ve lived here all my life and nobody I know remembers him. A six foot tall black man would not have gone unnoticed in the 99% white Brooklyn Heights of the time period he claims to have lived here.
    As to the house, that price range far exceeds the norm in the neighborhood during these difficult times of uncertain real estate values.
    I’ll check the deed and see when ut was bought, and at what price.

  • Elmer Fudd

    George Washington slept there in 1776.

  • http://j lori

    There was an article in the NYT in 2005 when this house was sold. It incorrectly stated that the owners at the time had bought it in 1973 for $50,000. This was incorrect. They bought it in 1973 for $200,000, the going rate at that time. There was a retraction in the NYT. In 2005, the house got into a bidding war and the price zoomed to $8.995 and then there was an extensive renovation which probably cost about a million (I am not sure of that figure). It is definitely overpriced, unless JZ reconsiders.

  • Western Brooklyn

    @PromGal,

    Too much truthyness about Obama.

    The liberal intelligentsia are not ready to admit they got fooled yet again.

  • Gerry

    President Obama’s lack of success turning our poor economy around has disapointed his supporters and will most likely cost Democrats the White House in the next election.

  • PromGal

    @Lori
    Do you have the link to the NYT article? $220K sounds way too high for 1973. I’ll check Zillow and see if they go back that far, otherwise do a deed search.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    Knight, do you really want to go there?

    Western Brooklyn, Oh, who’s your suggestion?

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    AEB, why yes, most of the time, although, I am an accomplished outdoorsman.

    Gerry, please move back to Ohio.

  • nabeguy

    AEB-hilarious
    Arch-weak (I know you can do better)
    PromGal/Western Brooklyn-get a room

  • Heightsman

    PromGal – $200k is about right. I know another home right on that block that was purchased for $200k in 1973.

  • ichabod

    @Arch Stanton – why the Ohio hate?

  • It Is What It Ain’t

    Way overpriced. The most recent price was based on a pricing war, so let’s say we discount the purchase price by 10% to reflect the unjustified premium paid back in ’05. Assume an additional $1 MM to renovate. Prices did continue to escalate through ’07, however, they have since retraced back to ’05 levels. Add in the uncertainty in the financial sector, THE driver of high end real estate in Brooklyn Heights, and arguably prices in the Heights are headed lower over the next 12 months. Layoffs are already taking place at every significant “Wall Street” firm. Considering all of these factors, a realistic “quick and dirty” price for this home is between $8.75 and $9.50 million. Thoughts?

  • NorthHeights

    I wouldn’t go so far to say that BH townhouse prices have retraced to 2005 levels. What has happened is that at the lower end (smaller houses, $2.5 million – $4.0 million), the homes are actually selling back at their highest prices ever — 2007 levels. But it is true that at the higher end (the $5 and $6 million homes and up), the large trophy houses are not moving.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    ichabod, There is no “Ohio hate”. Ohio is just a metaphor for a generic place of origin of a non NYC native. Typically, someone raised sheltered in a suburban bubble with no urban patina. You perhaps?

  • David on Middagh

    “No urban patina”?~!

    As a sensitive whiteboy raised in a suburban bubble, I resent the implication that melanin confers street smarts.

    Ahem. To return to the subject. If rich people skew older, conservative, and republican, then I believe the Obama visit adds no value to exactly those who could afford to pay the premium if it did.

  • Arch Stanton

    David on Middagh, I meant no inference of race in my metaphor “urban patina”. But yes, street smarts and well worn tolerance of urban unpleasantries. You may acquire it eventually.

  • David on Middagh

    Arch, I knew exactly what you meant. Perhaps I already have it.

  • http://www.Cognation.net Dean Collins

    Not going to close for over $10m…regardless of who visited.

  • Elmer Fudd

    But, Paul Newman did take a dump there! It’s in his biography.