Friday, January 30, 2009

The lowdown on Laurelton crap

"This crap in located at 130-06 233 Street in Laurelton. Zoned R-2 (single family) this monster has a Buildings Dept. Stop Work Order which is constantly removed by the developer's cronies.
There is also ongoing litigation with the property's rightful owner who they sold the complete 80 x 100 lot and subsequently altered documents to attempt to take back half of the land to build this monster on." - anonymous

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was in Astoria and LIC last night, been going to these and other areas in Queens for almost 19 years. During this time I have been offered single family houses for $120K and$135K back in the early 1990s.

Those were then reasonable prices that would entice buyers who intended to live there.

Two years ago, at the height of the insanity I saw similar houses advertised in the local papers for $800K and up.

While these neighborhoods may be pleasant, the sort of people who have that sort of money to spend on a residence would probably head to Bayside, Forest Hills, Douglaston -today they might even find something in Manhattan in that range.

So, what happens when a seller goes after absolute top-dollar in a working class area is that a developer/speculator becomes your likely buyer. Since the original house probably isn't worth what was paid the only way to make a buck is either replace it with an out-of-place apartment house, or worse, cut it up with illegal SRO type rooms for 10-15 people each paying $300-up.

Don't just blame the arrogant builder. Blame the greedy bastard who charged too much for the average family in that area to buy -he got "his' and didn't give a snit about the neighborhood.

BTW: I have friends in Jersey City and Iselin NJ they both have similar stories to tell.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lino...I totally agree..If sellers were to actually "care" about who they sell to, then they wouldn't be so much controversy and crap being built. But, I guess money talks and bullshit walks...capitalism at its finest.

Anonymous said...

Gotta love the chipboard they're pasting over the frame. What's going to cover that? Some of that half-inch-thick faux brick facing?

Anonymous said...

You're basically saying that you don't blame the buyer for ignoring the zoning laws because they over paid for a house. The greedy builder is just that: a greedy builder. It sounds like you guys think the poor builder got taken advantage of and has to do this to make ends meet.

Should the seller ignore market value and sell a house at a really low price to maintain the neighborhood? You really think that will keep speculators out? If anything, they'll come in droves to buy the cheap houses.