long run to a sale above ask at 315 West 23 Street

bumped by Lehman
To say that the listing history of the Manhattan loft #6E at 315 West 23 Street (The Broadmoor) is unusual is an understatement. The punchline is that when it sold on May 24 at $1.399mm it sold above asking price, but the near-term back story includes a failed contract last October and the more extended back story involves spectacularly bad luck in trying to sell at $1.395mm two quarters after The Peak for the overall Manhattan residential real estate market.

In this extended (and reversed) listing history (precise dates taken from the inter-firm data-base, as they differ from StreetEasy), see if you can find the stink bomb (hint: it starts with “L” and ends with a rhyme for “mothers”):

You’d think that a loft that sold in 2011 at $1.399mm would have gotten serious buyer interest having been offered in 2008 at $1.395mm. But think about what happened within 4 weeks of #6E coming to market in late August 2008….

There just wasn’t enough time for this loft to have gotten traction (and a contract) before a certain major Wall Street firm filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, plunging the overall Manhattan residential real estate market into a nuclear winter.

more contracts than buyers
I would think that they were at the right price in 2008, but there was no market (overstated; there was a very, very, very thin market, if I can channel former-mayor-never-president-gooliani).

Their luck did not get better in 2010, despite finding a contract two months after re-launching at $1.349mm a year ago. Something happened to that deal (buyer flaked? board turned it down??), which again spooked the snake-bit seller, who sat out the market from late October into 2011.

another late bidding war
Interesting that the seller never had a price problem: she was always priced well, even in 2008. Coming back in 2011, it took her 4 months to find a contract but there was enough activity in that (relatively extended) time period for her to generate a deal at a 3.7% premium to her ask.

Bidding wars for lofts that have been on the market ‘for a while’ tend to stick out for me, as these prior Manhattan Loft Guy posts attest:

• April 4, 2011, late bidding war for another forever loft, as 714 Broadway goes for $613/ft, or more
• October 18, 2010,  another late bidding war, as 55 White Street loft sells at 104% of (reduced) ask
• September 15, 2010, bidding war after 9 months, 6 price drops at 244 West 23 Street loft
• August 10, 2009, bidding war erupts VERY late, as 49 Warren St gut job closes

reno + light + views = $$$$$
This loft has a nearly perfect floor plan for fitting 2 bedrooms into “1,141 sq ft”. Being nearly square helps. Having 9 windows and 3 exposures help a lot. The 6th floor is high enough to provide good light (“flush with light throughout the day”) and views of the Empire State Building. The loft has been “newly renovated” and enthusiastically babbled. With this combination of plus factors it is hard to say which one is more important in driving the value, but it is clear that the result is premium: clearing at $1,226/ft is all but an all-time record for the building. (This one is almost certainly smaller yet sold for more in a very-close-to-peak sale, but note the post Peak history.)

© Sandy Mattingly 2011