Comments on: Brighton Beach $14M ‘Mansion’ Listing Humbles Heights’ 2012 Multi-Mill $ales Records

By: Hank

Hank — Sat, 05 May 2012 22:57:03 +0000

RealBrooklyn – You are a stool.

By: WillowSt.Neighbor

WillowSt.Neighbor — Fri, 04 May 2012 16:58:56 +0000

realbrooklyn,
Thank you for the reality check.

By: realbrooklyn

realbrooklyn — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:32:21 +0000

And Brighton Beach? Residents would sooner say they live in Flatbush (wich is what we call midwood) than Brighton Beach which is a middle class Russian neighborhood, another part of real Brooklyn you guys most likely never heard of:)! (Dissssss)

By: realbrooklyn

realbrooklyn — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:19:22 +0000

I know the owner of the house’s brother. The outside as well as the inside is ugly, looks like it belongs in bay ridge or something, if you yupsters even know what that is:). Bottom line is this house is nothing special and isn’t even prime location. Most homes are classier and decorated with traditional east coast style (if not outside than inside). And I gaurantee you, houses go for more but its all word of mouth, so you brownstoners wont hear about it. Same with midwood where I live. Residents (mostly ashkenazic orthodox) equally wealthy but have more old money characteristics that reflect in the homes and the prices we’re willing to pay for them.

Brooklyn heights? Park slope? These places are irrelevant to us. I’ve never even heard of park slope until this year (Google padded restaurant) and I think its ghetto and ugly. (I appreciate Brooklyn Heights’s architecture and quaintness but would never live there.)

And one more thing, Brooklyn is the Jerusalem of the US for religous Jews. (Wether its boro park/williamsburg-chassidish, crown heights- lubavitch, syrians in gravesend or orthodox in midwood, Jews from all over the country recognize each of these neighborhoods as the CENTER for each group. We have a certain status among non Brooklyn jews that can’t explain to an outsider. Bottom line is to orthodox Jews, brooklyn equals Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the rest of the world is basically irrelevant. We live in our own little insular bubble, and if we notice any other parts of Brooklyn its because we have to drive through it to get our our neighborhood. So now you know!

By: Jorale-man

Jorale-man — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:48:39 +0000

Oops, make that “surrounding.”

By: Jorale-man

Jorale-man — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:47:37 +0000

“We make your dreams come true!”

Is that a bidet in the bathroom? A little hard to tell with all the shiny marble surounding it.

By: John Wentling

John Wentling — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:16:09 +0000

@Wrennie: Those are known as “kosher beds”, Orthodox Jewish men are not permitted to sleep with their wives at that time of the month, thus, the separate beds. Typically, it’s two doubles or fulls pushed together and pulled apart at the appropriate time.

The term people are looking for is probably “garish” – personally, I find the whole place “icky”. :)

By: Cranberry Beret

Cranberry Beret — Thu, 03 May 2012 22:30:29 +0000

Agreed. I’m not sure why a $14 million house (when people are starving on the streets) is any worse because the owner is pious. Would you be less offended if the owner was a Gordon Gecko type?

By: Wrennie

Wrennie — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:04:21 +0000

Hypocrisy is just a thing with pretty much everyone on Earth, unfortunately. It can be religious, political, racial, environmental–whatever.

At the end of the day, it’s an ugly house and it’s unnecessary. Although, who knows–maybe those chandeliers are from a Grameen Bank-funded chandelier-making outfit in India and the 17 in this house alone just fed 8 families for a year.

By: Willowtowncop

Willowtowncop — Thu, 03 May 2012 20:14:20 +0000

I didn’t say “Jews.” If they were Italian Catholics I would say the same thing. I was a Catholic for awhile in college so I do know something about that – I know the passage about it being harder for a rich man to get to heaven than a camel to get through the eye of a needle. I don’t personally believe any of it but I don’t think it’s necessary to be pious yourself to recognize that spending thousands of dollars on religious ceremonies like first communions or whatever when they could be done free and the money donated to charity – or living in a multimillion dollar mansion and going to hear sermons every week about the virtues of humility and charity – is hypocritical.

By: bornhere

bornhere — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:58:19 +0000

Willowtowncop – “Pious” needn’t necessarily mean humble; but that aside, just remember:
“We are all part of the same hypocrisy, senator.”

By: GHB

GHB — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:47:07 +0000

Thank you, eg!

By: AEB

AEB — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:41:55 +0000

I think it’s perfect! It just needs slot machines, especially in the bathroom….

By: eg

eg — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:09:18 +0000

Willowtown cop – You are ready to make mean remarks about something about which you do not know all the facts. Every group (religion has nothing to do with it) have people with different tastes, i.e. tacky, over-decorated, whatever. Actually it reminded me of the set for “The Sopranos”. more nouveau riche Italian.

Come out with it. Stop the euphemisms. You mean Jews. And yes, they are pious, in the own way, which has nothing to do with this house.

By: Willowtowncop

Willowtowncop — Thu, 03 May 2012 18:24:02 +0000

Wasting money on unnecessary crap that no one needs when it could be used to do good things for other people while at the same time pretending to be pious by wearing your hair a certain way and abstaining from certain foods is hugely hypocritical.

By: Wrennie

Wrennie — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:52:13 +0000

Oh, fantastic–I’ve always wanted a bedroom in which I can fit two king-sized beds.

By: Greenpointers

Greenpointers — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:46:07 +0000

Who would want to live there? It looks like a hotel.

By: GHB

GHB — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:28:35 +0000

Willowtown Cop, what does living in a tacky McMansion have to do with people starving in the streets? One has nothing to do with the other.

By: Cranberry Beret

Cranberry Beret — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:25:29 +0000

You wrote: “This section of gravesend has ridiculously priced houses all because of one religious community that pays huge money to live close to their place of worship. Normal market factors are not at play.”

I think this is equally true:

“Brooklyn Heights has ridiculously priced houses all because of one community of investment bankers that pays huge money to live close to Wall Street, their place of worship. Normal market factors are not at play.”

By: Willowtowncop

Willowtowncop — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:23:44 +0000

I’m not religious but I can’t imagine any religion that would be ok with it’s followers living in tacky McMansions like that while other people starve in the streets.

By: Brooklyn Tea

Brooklyn Tea — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:21:18 +0000

This house takes tacky to a whole new level.

By: resident

resident — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:50:09 +0000

You guys need to read SPM’s post. This section of gravesend has ridiculously priced houses all because of one religious community that pays huge money to live close to their place of worship. Normal market factors are not at play.

By: Cranberry Beret

Cranberry Beret — Thu, 03 May 2012 14:11:24 +0000

I’m sorry to break it to you Brooklyn Heights partisans, but here is the list of neighborhoods for the top 10 most expensive sales of 1-, 2- and 3-family houses in Brooklyn in 2011 (courtesy of nyc.gov):

1 OCEAN PARKWAY-SOUTH $10,250,000
2 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $6,000,000 (tie-Oct)
2 OCEAN PARKWAY-NORTH $6,000,000 (tie-Sept)
2 OCEAN PARKWAY-SOUTH $6,000,000 (tie-April)
5 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $5,250,000
6 OCEAN PARKWAY-SOUTH $5,150,000
7 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $4,100,000
8 BROOKLYN HEIGHTS $3,920,000
9 OCEAN PARKWAY-SOUTH $3,850,000
10 MIDWOOD $3,750,000

Of course, Brooklyn Heights has already had two $10 million+ sales in 2012.

For 2011, of the 29 houses that sold in Brooklyn for $3 million or more, the distribution is (ranked in order of highest sale):

Gravesend/Midwood/etc – 7
Brooklyn Heights – 10
Park Slope – 6
Cobble Hill – 4
Manhattan Beach – 2

By: WillowSt.Neighbor

WillowSt.Neighbor — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:25:12 +0000

I did a Google search of the address. Zillow has a map of the houses in the surrounding area and what they are valued at. Most of the houses are valued at below 2 million. Maybe it was a gimmick to price the house at 14 million. A house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It will be interesting to see what this house actually sells for. As far as it being tacky, I lived in a waterfront community on the south shore of LI for 15 years and the interior of those houses looked very similar to this one.

By: my2cents

my2cents — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:06:27 +0000

Have they ever heard of area rugs? They really tie rooms together.

By: Elaine Comstock-Leirer

Elaine Comstock-Leirer — Thu, 03 May 2012 02:16:05 +0000

There is no doubt that Brooklyn Heights has the most valuable R.E. in the borough. This house even from the outside view is as a blogger here said, a kitchfest. No taste curving downward to ugly.Even as it is in the convenient neighborhood for those of that faith, I cannot imagine paying so much money for it. Maybe this is an advertising gimmick by the TV personality who listed it. Lots of free press.

By: Wize Old Man

Wize Old Man — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:37:18 +0000

Umm, did someone forget that a townhouse facing the promenade on Columbia Heights was sold a few years ago for $15 MM to a Goldman Sachs banker? Brooklyn Heights still has the most valuable real estate in Brooklyn, by far.

By: stuart

stuart — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:15:11 +0000

It looks more like an oligarch’s yacht than a house.
It reflects a culture and residential aesthetic totally divorced from those of the United States.
.

By: SPM

SPM — Wed, 02 May 2012 20:10:37 +0000

It should sell quickly as it is smack in the midst of the Sephardic community there and I believe will be re-sold within the community as it’s within walking distance from the synagogue, has ample room for large families as well as capacity for a glatt kosher kitchen.

By: GHB

GHB — Wed, 02 May 2012 18:54:09 +0000

Money can buy lots of things, but class ain’t one of them!