“B” loft line going wild at 245 Seventh Avenue, with new building record

another data point in a frenetic market (yawn)
I may yet do an overview post about the various Manhattan residential quarterly market reports that are all over the print media and inter-tubes today (e.g., New York Times Home Sales Rose in Tighter Manhattan Market, Report Says is typical) but for now I will stick to my metier. The recent sale of the “2,258 sq ft”* Manhattan loft #7B at 245 Seventh Avenue, the Chelsea Atelier in the Greater Chelsea Merc micro-nabe, fits the Big Picture being told about the state of the market in the 3rd Quarter of 2013: it came to market at $3.95mm on May 14 and found its buyer with a full-price contract by June 24, closing on August 29. So: well-priced offerings do not last (yesterday’s post made the opposite point: poorly priced offerings last, and last, and last; sorry furniture/design CEO). But wait … there’s more!

pushing “well-priced” into new territory
The last time this loft was publicly offered for sale it closed above ask less than a year before The Peak, at only $3.08mm. (Since then, the bedroom wing has been built out to add a third.) Thus, the August 2013 market value exceeded that of May 2007 by 28% (with relatively little of that premium being due to the simple work of adding a bedroom). But wait … there’s more!

The last 3 “B” line public sales have all been in the last 11 months. There are some differences in condition and layout among them, but this condo is still only 16 years old and each unit has kept the same basic structure (with kitchen and bathroom locations fixed). The prices are certainly progressive:

• August 29, 2013 #7B $3.95mm
• April 8, 2013 #3B $3.5mm
• February 12, 2013 #4B $3.25mm
• November 20, 2012 #8B $2.9mm

These data are certainly easy to over-determine. Alert the media! Prices here are increasing steadily at about $100,000 each month. (Get Chicken Little on the line … stet!!) I would not expect there to be another “B” sale here in 6 months at $4.5mm, in other words.

we’ve been on this line before
I hit that #8B sale in my December 14, 2012, Chelsea Merc neighbor loft at 245 Seventh Avenue sells at $1,284/ft (that’s an updated link to archived posts on this platform, woo-hoo!), which also promoted my theory, The Merc Effect, to account for 245 Seventh Avenue (likely) outperforming the overall Manhattan market from 1997 to 2000 because of the new brand-name development across the street.

I hit another “B” sale in 2012 in my June 25, 2012, loft at 245 Seventh Avenue sells at $1,215/ft with very strange wall (ditto!), which did some snarking about a floor plan with zigs and zags and some comping with the same loft downstairs, in better condition. That post dealt with prior sales of both #4B (May 2012) and #3B (August 2011), when the spread between those close neighbors was only $55,000, not the quarter million it grew to this year.

My July 25, 2012, sometimes the bear gets you: 245 Seventh Avenue mini-loft sells 22% off from peak sale (ditto), hit a small loft that sold in 2012, with a very different history and result than #8B.

these feet stink
You see that bug on the “2,258 sq ft” up top? That’s to remind me to explain why I think the stated value on StreetEasy of “2,002 sq ft” is wrong. You will notice on the “Past Activity” tab of the (new!) StreetEasy building page that all the other “B” line lofts are “2,258 sq ft” and, if you click on the various “B” floor plans you will see that they are all the same (6 windows west, 6 south; the master suite behind the kitchen; the entry facing a bedroom, with the bathrooms to the left as you walk in). I don’t blame StreetEasy, as Property Shark has the same error. I can’t access the Condo Declaration, but I imagine they got it right there. The condo association and the City’s Department of Taxation and Finance seem to have it right, as the common charges for #7B are each just a little below those of #8B, and more than the lower floor “B” units.

So this is one of the few instances in which I will deviate from the StreetEasy deed record size of a condo, and use “2,258 sq ft” rather than “2,070 sq ft”, here and in the Master List. One result is that the price-per-foot drops from a rather alarming $1,973/ft to a merely provocative $1,740/ft.

As you’ve likely figured out by now, that $1,740/ft is a new (non-penthouse) building record. Buyers already know these are tough times for their team; this quick sale at full price shows that loft #7B was well-priced, even if well-priced (now) means 13% higher than the last sale in the building, only 5 months ago.

This is Your Captain speaking: you’ve noticed that we’ve entered some turbulence. I am going to keep the seat belt sign illuminated for a while; please return to your seats and keep ’em buckled!