All Forum Posts by: James Northrup

@Chris Rosenberg My wife has been walking from the J train in ENY (Cypress Hills) for the last two years.  We both feel perfectly safe doing so.  There are definitely rough parts of ENY, but everywhere I know along the J train is as safe as any part of New York.

Check out this link where I posted about this myth: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/133940-elusive-multi-family-deals-in-brooklyn?page=2#p1735922

@Michael Charles I live in Cypress Hills. My wife and I purchased a two family in 2014 and it is going great.  There is very low crime north of Atlantic, which is around a mile from the Cypress Hills projects.  I posted about the crimes levels a while back (https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/311/topics/13...).  My experience and the statistics show that Cypress Hills has less crime than Bushwick, Crown Heights, Bed Stuy and even Williamsburg.

There was one house on the block that was full of squatters when I moved in, but has since been fully renovated put it on the market.

I'm very happy with our investment.  It's a block from the J train, neighbors are friendly, housing prices are going up, they rezoned Fulton, Atlantic and Pitkin Ave.  The first large scale developments are just starting along Atlantic.

@Tiffany Campbell Most of the hipsters get off before Broadway Junction, but a lot of the artists get off in Cypress Hills and East New York.

@Jordan Moser Cypress Hills is a good middle ground. Not too far out. Safe. Definitely some multi-families out here that would accept FHA. Hit me up if you want to talk.

@Damon Bodine, @Javier Perez-Karam I live and own in Cypress Hills, East New York.  No one has ever knocked on my door.

But I get a bunch of leaflets that go directly into the trash.

Welcome @Leon Greene (and Anna):

I own and live in a two-family in Cypress Hills (northern part of East New York).  There are lots of multi-families in the area for sale, most are owner-occupied buildings.  Woodhaven is also very nice and has a lot of attractive properties.  Jamaica feels really run down to me, but I haven't fully explored it.

Cypress Hills is just about to be rezoned.  I just read an article yesterday that mentioned 7,000 new units, 800K sqft of commercial space and 400K of community space being built between the Norwood and Crescent stops on the J train.

 Cypress Hill, statistically, has lower crime rates than Bushwick, Crown Heights, Bed Stuy and Williamsburg (source: http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/136641945194/your-...).  My wife walks home from the subway at night and has never had any problems with feeling unsafe.

I can't speak for the rest of ENY.  The crimes rates south of Atlantic are definitely higher.

Cypress Hills is the 21 on the map (but it also includes a more dangerous area, city line).  Ocean Hill is the 3rd most dangerous.  ENY is 4th.

That's my mini-research project.  Hope you all can get some useful info from iQuantNY.  He does great work.

@Eric A. ENY is pretty massive, I can only really speak to my area.  But I can say to avoid the cypress hills projects (which are not in cypress hills) if you are living there.

Almost anywhere north of atlantic in Cypress Hills is safe.  The Norwood ave J train stop is nice (for the area).  There are several multi-family homes in the area for sale.  Whenever I go to the open houses, they immediately tell me the asking price is negotiable...

Crescent ave is an express stop and I've heard the blocks are safe and quiet.

Cleveland st at has a lot of really large houses and is close to the newly renovated library.

Also check out north of Highland Blvd.  the commute would probably be longer, but it has a nice feel up there.  I've definitely seen affordable multi family homes in that area.  

I can't say of anywhere to avoid in the area, but if you have to live in the building, I would carefully evaluate the neighborhoods of any properties south of Fulton.  Both becuase or rezoning and because it's closer to the dangerous parts of ENY.

@Eric A. I own and live in Cypress Hills, which is the northern part of ENY.  Cypress Hills is safer than bedstuy, Bushwick, williamsburg, crown heights (source: .http://iquantny.tumblr.com/post/136641945194/your-neighborhoods-crime-rank-insights-from-the).  It's got the J train, Broadway junction has the A, L, J.  Manhattan is no longer the center of NYC for me, Bushwick and Williamsburg are within 30 minutes or less.  

There are some great buildings.  Mine is 100+ 2-family row house and needed very little work.

Plus they are rezoning (pending the vote in February).

The price per square foot was around half of Crown Heights, Bushwick, and Ocean Hill.

Seemed like a good investment to me. :-)

I agree with that limitation.  That area is safe and has good housing stock.

I noticed that too, it's hard to get a true sense of the market - but the sales seem to vary between $200-$300 per sqft depending on the condition.

The apartment building across the street is renting 1br for $1400 and 2br for $1600.  Our former tenant found a 4br for $1800, but was looking for nearly 6 months.

Everybody but us.  Rents are around $1000 for a basement unit.

Several people knocked on my door when we painted our own apartment and asked if we were renting.  We inherited tenants and have had no problems with them.

It's still pretty slow.  Rents are definitely increasing like they are all around the city, but not as dramatically as Crown Heights.  There have been more news articles about Cypress Hills this year than last year.

My wife walks home late at night without any issue.  I keep a close watch on the crime reports in the area and all the serious crime is south of Atlantic.  There was one shooting earlier this year on Jamaica during the day, but that seemed like a personal dispute.  In the past year, it's been quiet.  I haven't found any areas that you would need to avoid.  All the projects are south of Atlantic.  The Cypress Hills projects are not even near Cypress Hills.

I recommend my real estate agent, Natalie Sherwood (http://www.realtor.com/realestateagents/Natalie-Sh...), but she doesn't specialize in Cypress Hills.

Thanks in advance. 

@Chris Rosenberg

Happy to help.  What are your questions?