did 'subtle' ceiling height lead to dynamic price for 150 West 26 Street loft?

you probably have to see it to appreciate it
The “1,830 sq ft” Manhattan loft #403 at 150 West 26 Street just sold with some very enthusiastic broker babble. I am most curious about the “subtly adjusted ceiling heights offset by matching moldings and door-frames”. I suppose the point of “subtly adjusted ceiling heights” is that you don’t notice them, so I should not be surprised not to see them in the pix. But whether it was the ceiling subtlety or the overall “inspiring design”, but this July 15 sale at $1.95mm is impressive, especially when compared to a higher floor neighbor who did not sell at (or off) a lower price this year, and another high floor neighbor who sold at the Peak all of 2.6% higher. Subtlety pays!

another Short-and-Wide
You know that phenomenon of repeatedly knowing a new word, once you learn it? I finally gave a name to a loft footprint that is a play on a very common classic full-floor loft layout last week (in my August 12, tired of p***ing into the wind, 130 West 30 Street loft sellers take money, run [EDIT: added the forgotten link]) and here it is again. Loft #403 is a (by now, classic?) Short-and-Wide loft, with windows on one wide side and the (most) plumbing on the opposite wide side. The variation here is the main living area on a corner, as there are windows on one short side, and the kitchen on the windowed wide wall.

The loft sold last in 2004 for $1.075mm, but no public listing data survives for that sale. Per our data-base, however, the loft was billed as an “original artist loft” with 3 bedrooms, one bath; the overall condition was rated “good” (a C grade, at best, on our curve) and the bathroom as “wreck” (i.e., an F). The 2004-buyers-turned-2011-sellers did a gut renovation. Quite nicely, indeed.

market recognition
As I said up top, this 4th floor loft was treated better by The Market than a higher-floor neighbor this year and almost as well as another neighbor who sold at The Peak. Renovated quite nicely, indeed!

Loft #603 is set up with two huge bedrooms but otherwise has a similar floor plan in the same footprint as #403. Although “stunning” and “XXX mint” and (even) “[m]eticulously renovated with incredible attention to detail, combining classic loft style with gorgeous renovations”, it failed to sell at $1.875mm from September 8 to March 23. Perhaps #403 drove it from the market when it came out at $2mm on March 3 (contract April 15).

Loft #803 sold back in the day … June 2008 at $2mm, the same price it had been asking since August 2007. Read that babble and you will see that loft #803 was no slouch as far as condition, and used essentially the same floor plan as #403. Yet #403 just traded at a mere $50,000 discount to that Peak sale of a brag-worthy loft.

To repeat: #403 is renovated quite nicely, indeed! And The Market appreciates it! (You do like to see that.)

rude question for the day
Is it the angle, or does that toilet in the master (picture #5) look really lonely in the corner?

© Sandy Mattingly 2011