down 9.5% at 249 West 29 Street since 2007 (not fair!)

not all 2007 buyers are happy sellers
Here is another Manhattan loft on the list featured in my September 27, is the Manhattan loft market back to (up to) 2007? 61 repeat sales say “probably”, “a bit”, post about 61 pairs of lofts that sold in both 2007 and 2011: loft #3N at 249 West 29 Street had a different experience than the Noho loft that I hit yesterday. That one was up 33% since 2007; this one was down $135,000 (9.5%) when it sold on September 1, compared to when that seller bought it on January 4, 2007.

Interesting that the seller did not expect to do much better than the 2007 price; more interesting that he did not get even that:

when bang met buck
I am trying to figure out why a “1,600 sq ft” loft with private terrace (120 sq ft?) dropped almost 10% in value in 4+ years. (Sellers are too, no doubt.) I have no ‘answer’ other than a truism: that not all lofts move with The Market. There are no evident market negatives that did not also exist in 2007: a not-prime Chelsea location; concrete floors. Maybe it was just a thinner market this year than 2007 (certainly there are fewer qualified buyers than in 2007) or maybe … stuff happens.

Loft #3N sold for $803/ft if the terrace was free, and for something less than that if the terrace had a market value (obviously, it did). The only loft on the Master List of Manhattan Lofts Sold Since November 2008 that sold for less on a $/ft basis in a public sale since July 1 (out of 112 lofts on the list that have a $/ft) was loft #5A at 176 Broadway at $617/ft. 176 Broadway is, of course, a famously ‘under-valued’ coop. 249 West 29 Street does not appear to be as generally disadvantaged in the market, with the last two sales at $880/ft (#7S on July 20) and $900/ft (the 14th floor on September 21). Each of those lofts have the advantage of better light than #3N, and at least one is in more brag-worthy condition, but #3N has that private outdoor space.

The Market does what The Market does (‘anything it wants’, basically), but I have to believe that loft #3N was under-valued at $1.285mm. Especially now that I have seen the 2007 v. 2011 market value comparisons in that 61 pair analysis this week.

it’s a small Manhattan Loft Guy world, after all
The July 20 buyers of the “1,250 sq ft” #7S are the ‘famous architects’ (per The Observer) who sold an “1,800 sq ft” loft on the original block in Tribeca to people who made “the original crazy wedding dance video”. I hit that sale in my July 16, 45 Lispenard loft sale meets the past from the other direction. They don’t mind the location.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011