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Is Hollywood hottie and new mommy Maggie Gyllenhaal smarter — or just poorer — than Michelle Williams and Jennifer Connelly, her fellow sirens who have strollered down in brownstone Brooklyn?
Gyllenhaal and her actor fiance Peter Sarsgaard may have set a record for cheapest celebrity lovenest last week, reportedly plunking down $1.75 million for a townhouse on Sterling Place near Fifth Avenue.
The four-story, seven-fireplace lair cost Gyllenhaal about half as much as fellow star moms Connelly (who paid $3.7 million for a Prospect Park West mansion) and Williams ($3.6 million for a townhouse on gritty Hoyt Street).
Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard made their purchase just in time — the starlet gave birth to tiny Ramona Sarsgaard on Tuesday.
But the townhouse acquisition demonstrated more than the “Secretary” star’s maternal instinct. It also shows that the Brooklyn real estate market, while still hot, is changing.
“The housing boom isn’t over, but the greed boom is,” said Corcoran Group Vice President Jerry Minsky. “People are now pricing their homes to sell, not make a huge windfall.
“Even glitterati don’t need to spend enormously,” he added. “Gyllenhaal should be applauded for not straining her purse strings like perhaps the other celebrities did.”
Before settling on Sterling Place, Sarsgaard and Gyllenhaal — also known as the older sister to hot “Brokeback Mountain” cowboy Jake Gyllenhaal — considered a $2.7-million condo in Tribeca, the New York Observer reported.
Meanwhile, the median price for an apartment in Brooklyn rose 17 percent in the third quarter, in contrast to only 13 percent in Manhattan, according to a new Corcoran Group report.
The average Brooklyn apartment now costs an even bigger small fortune — $614,000. That’s still a bargain by Manhattan standards, where the average flat goes for $1.24 million.
— with Dana Rubinstein
©2006 The Brooklyn Paper
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