Beautiful day today. Brewed a relaxing batch of beer and spent some time thinking about my trip to NYC last week. I took a few hours and visited the house I grew up in, way out on the southern edge of Brooklyn. Walking around the neighborhood, I was really struck by how small the houses were -- not at all the big houses in my mind's eye.
The other thing that surprised me was how many of the houses in the neighborhood were devastated by Sandy, the big storm. Some have already been torn down, but many more obviously will be demolished (big UNSAFE TO ENTER signs plastered on the doors by the city). Very sad.
As for my childhood home, it's in good shape (for that neighborhood). A 1,200 sf frame house my parents bought it for $10,000 in the late 40s, and sold for $25,000 about 25 years later. The most recent sale was six years ago, for $350,000, as the neighborhood went from blighted to desirable.
