Residential
Restored 1890s Jersey City Brownstone Lists at $1.2 Million After Multi-Year Renovation
By Real Estate Wire Staff, . Real Estate Wire.
A four-story brownstone in Jersey City's Bergen Hill neighborhood, originally constructed around the 1890s, has come to market at $1.2 million after a multi-year restoration, according to Realtor.com News. The property, named Maison Espoir, meaning House of Hope, was redesigned by interior designer Hope Misterek and carries ten rooms across its main floors, plus a lower-level studio that could serve as a multigenerational unit or short-term rental.
Listing agent Judy Chin of RE/MAX Villa told Realtor.com News that the level of original material retained is unusual for a gut renovation of this scale. Chin said few brownstone-style houses hold on to this much of their original fabric through a gut renovation, noting that the original flooring stayed in place everywhere but the kitchen, and that the seller took almost a year to track down a wrought-iron fence dating to the 1800s, taken from a Brooklyn brownstone, for the property.
The restoration incorporated salvaged and repurposed elements throughout. A custom shelving unit was built from a beam recovered from the house itself. The marble mantel was restored rather than replaced. Antique doorknobs and salvaged pocket doors were retained, and the primary bathroom on the top floor pairs a refinished original fireplace mantel with a claw-foot tub and Arabescato Italian marble floors with radiant heat. Realtor.com News also noted Ann Sacks floor tile in the bathrooms and Kelly Wearstler lighting fixtures among the specified finishes.
French doors and custom feathered tile treatments sit in the main living area. In the dining room, pocket doors have been restored and the fireplace mantel is a custom tambour design. Off the kitchen, a glass sunroom that Chin described as UV-treated and fully enclosed leads out to a private backyard equipped with an outdoor grill, a stone counter and a refrigerator.
On the second level, Realtor.com News describes three curated rooms, including a guest room incorporating 27 colors. The primary suite takes up the whole top floor, pairing a walk-in closet and built-in shelving with the bathroom described above. Chin characterized the aesthetic of one room as oozing "Parisian chic" and said she expects the eventual buyer to be someone who values creative, high-design detail over conventional luxury.
The lower-level studio adds a dimension that is worth noting for investors: Bergen Hill's short-term rental market is not analyzed in the Realtor.com News report, so whether that income potential is realizable under current Jersey City regulations is not established by the coverage. Buyers considering that use case would need to verify local short-term rental rules independently.
At $1.2 million, the property sits well above the median for the broader Jersey City market, and the pricing reflects a bet that the restoration premium holds. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that owners equivalent rent rose 3.1 percent year on year as of August 2026, a measure of what homeowners implicitly pay to occupy their own properties. That figure suggests housing costs remain elevated across the board, which can support asking prices on distinctive inventory but also narrows the pool of buyers who can absorb a seven-figure entry point without income offset.
What the Realtor.com News report does not address is comparable sales data for restored historic properties in Bergen Hill, days on market for similar listings, or any detail on the seller's total renovation cost relative to the asking price. Those figures would give a clearer read on whether $1.2 million represents a reasonable return on the restoration investment or a stretch. For now, the listing stands as a data point on what the market is being asked to bear for historically intact renovation work on the New York metro fringe.
Source: https://www.realtor.com/news/unique-homes/jersey-city-historic-brownstone-maison-espoir-renovation/