Windsor Terrace in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Steady Community Becomes Hot New Market

Limited availability is driving up prices in one of New York’s well-known working-class boroughs.

BY PATRICIA STAHL

Windsor Terrace is one of the many neighborhoods that give Brooklyn, N.Y., its solid, working-class character. Just about one mile long and a half-mile wide, Windsor Terrace has been one of the borough’s best-kept secrets. Bordered by Prospect Park on the north and Greenwood Cemetery on the southeast, the area has a quiet, small-town feel and is only 20 minutes from lower Manhattan on public transportation. But, like it or not, change has come to this quiet community.

Marcia Miller of Open Options Real Estate Ltd. in Brooklyn calls Windsor Terrace a “junior upscale” neighborhood.

“People who have been priced out of nearby Park Slope and Prospect Heights are looking to Windsor Terrace as an affordable alternative,” Miller says. Graphic designers, theatre people, and young families are leading the way into the area, and the commercial district is beginning to reflect their presence. “Fewer laundromats and more upscale, ethnic restaurants,” she says.

Unlike Sunset Park and other areas that went through a period of deep decline before turning around, Windsor Terrace has been stable. Its Irish- and Italian-American residents have deep roots there. They have kept their homes in the family for generations, and many will continue to do so. That, Miller explains, limits the availability of housing in this hot new area, where selling prices currently range from a low of $450,000 up to $1 million. Most of the homes here are brick, two-family rowhouses and modest, freestanding frame houses. They are well built and well maintained, but they need updating. Miller notes that the older homes are a positive selling point.

“A lot of first-time buyers in Windsor Terrace welcome the creative challenge of remodeling a home to reflect their lifestyle” Miller says.

According to Open Options, a brick two-family home that went for $399,000 in 2001 would now fetch upwards of $700,000 to $750,000. The market has escalated rapidly in the last few years, with a 20 percent to 40 percent increase in value, depending upon the condition of the property when it was purchased and its condition after renovation.