Dec. 5, 2008 - find the number, hit the number / 35 East 12 Street closes
sounds simple, no? (no!)
Sometimes those silly buyers pay very close attention to the first, or even to the second, digit in an asking price, so sellers use the 'wrong numbers' at their peril.
In the case of the Manhattan loft on the 5th floor at 35 East 12 Street, everyone's job in assessing value was made more difficult by the fact that there are few true loft buildings in Greenwich Village, so comps are hard to come by. The seller of this "2,600 sq ft" coop (with come-ons like "exquisite", "architect", "no detail spared") started out more than a year ago, asking $4.2mm. History showed that the "4" was a non-starter, as it came off the market after 5 months. When ti it came back in May 2008, they fixed the "4" problem (they came out at $3.85mm), but were not successful until they fixed the "8" problem (they took a big chunk off the price in July, to $3.499mm). The contract signed in September just closed (deed filed on December 4) at $3.4mm.
I have no idea where that buyer started bidding (perhaps not too low, as they ended up with only a 3% discount off the asking price), but the history suggests they were simply unwilling to bid at all off the higher price.
comping up is hard to do
As I mentioned, there are precious few true lofts in Greenwich Village, but there is one right behind this building, that may in fact be part of one (peculiar) coop with 35 East 12 Street. I hit 48 East 13 Street on January 16 (48 E 13 new but does it 'have it all'? ), where I noted:
and an oddity
This building is one half of a tax lot, with 35 East 12 Street being the other half. My guess is that the two buildings are part of one coop. (The 12th Street side appears to be a little narrower, but they may even has been built as a single building, with 12th and 13th Street entrances.)
(That would explain why the StreetEasy "building page" for 35 East 12 Street includes information about listings at 48 East 13 Street.)
As I noted in that January 16 post about 48 East 13 Street #3B, that loft was priced dramatically differently than the 5th floor at 35 East 12 Street. The subsequent history of that loft shows even more drama. I hit it again with a snarky-titled post on February 6 when the price dropped to $2.85mm (February 6, does 48 East 13 Street have 92% of it all? ), but not when it dropped further to $2.595mm in March, or when they changed firms and price in May (to $2.395mm), leading to a contract in July that closed in August at $2.25mm.
Talk about dramatically different! (from the [fellow shareholders?] at 35 East 12 Street, and from the original asking price.) 35 East 12 Street #5 got $1,300/ft, while #3B at 48 East 13 Street got under $1,000/ft; that clearing price for #3B was nearly $900k off the original ask (a total 'discount' of about 40% to 'have it all' on East 13 Street (sorry)). Again, as a comp, 48 East 13 Street and 35 East 12 Street don't have a lot in common (apart from being in the same coop, and being very close to each other, and having similar sizes, and having [somewhat] similar levels of finishes ... you get it?). The fact is that The Market does not view them as comparable in the least.
... so hard to do
Nor are there many other 'comparable' loft buildings in the Village. I did a quick-and-dirty search for "lofts" that closed in the last 6 months in the Village between $2.5mm and $4mm. Of the only 12 results, the only ones that had asking prices at all comparable to the $1,300/ft clearing price for 35 East 12 Street #5 were in brand name condos (1 each in 21 Astor Place, 65 West 13 Street, and 147 Waverly Place) or were sold as exceptionally unique (yes, I get the mis-use of "exceptional" and "unique", but this is real estate), at 719 Greenwich Street.
Expanding that quick-and-dirty to other large "apartments" in the Village (3 bedrooms and up), I got only another 13 that closed in the last 6 months. Of those that had asking prices that matched or exceeded $1,300/ft, nearly all are in fancy-schmancy Gold Coast coops or high-amenity condos that are not obviously -- to me -- comparable to 35 East 12 Street (99 Jane Street, 166 Bank Street, 25 Fifth Avenue, 51 Fifth Avenue, 11 Fifth Avenue, 32 Washington Square West, 31 West 11 Street, and 15 West 11 Street).
Which is a long way of saying that 35 East 12 Street #5 obviously got The Market Price of $1,300/ft (it closed; QED) but it probably gave the mortgage lender (if any) a run for its money.
© Sandy Mattingly 2008
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