DailyHeights

Laura B asks on the DAILY HEIGHTS message boards: “When I read ‘What Happens If It Bursts?’ in last weekend’s Times, I couldn’t help wondering how Prospect Heights would fare in an economic downturn. The article says that proximity to resources (transportation, shopping) is key to property maintaining its value, which would seem to bode well for the PH. What do others think?

The article doesn’t say much about Brooklyn but quotes Brad Lander of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development (PICCED) as saying that fashionable areas playing host to “fringe gentrification” typically get harder hit: “If prices come down in general, Mr. Lander said, buyers will be less willing to deal with the relative isolation, limited retail and school choice in a place like Williamsburg.”

Here’s the virtual tour for the open house that takes place this weekend on Underhill Ave. (as noted by Stacey yesterday in ProHo Discuss).

The tour should give you a nice glimpse into the lives of the people who live there now: comfy black leather couches, wedding photo on the wall (newlyweds?), American bald eagle figurines, and a decent amount of computer equipment–including what appears to be some sort of undergarment draped across a computer monitor. What are they trying to hide? Were they browsing the Corcoran website when the Foxtons photographer showed up?

This 2 1/2 room cubbyhole is listed at $265,000 and is exceedingly cozy at 478 square feet. Please double-check this with the condo calculation expert, but that looks like it’s coming out to $554.39 per square foot. According to Quig, it’s between St. Marks Ave. and Bergen St., a couple of doors down from his beloved #69, an abandoned building that’s showing no signs of life.