uncommon modesty (unrewarded) at 43 W 21
general market stats vs. one loft experience
I checked out #3 at 43 West 21 Street (for listing details, pix and floor plan, scroll down through Properties for Sale here)when I got an email flogging the listing from Leah Goldfarb of Walter & Samuels, still at $1.9mm (and $2,791/mo in taxes and charges) for “2,055 sq ft” for a full-floor triple mint condition loft. I had seen the 2d floor unit when it was offered for sale 3 years ago, with buyers who did not like P Diddy’s restaurant being just down the block. (That had been offered for $1.295mm back in the day.)
So it caught my eye because I remembered this as a small loft building with Puffy down the block and a develop-able parking lot next door.
little apparent market appreciation in 2 years
But what really caught my eye about #3 was that it had been offered for sale in 2005 for $1.85mm – a rather close asking price to the current $1.9mm. A little further digging revealed that it closed on Aug 11, 2005 $1.775mm off that $1.85mm, which is both not a huge discount from the ask, and still not very far from the current ask of $1.9mm.
So, the folks who bought in August 2005 put it on the market 15 months later for only 7% more than they paid for it – without succeeding in attracting a buyer since December 2006 (it was off the market for about 12 weeks in the Spring). Which goes to show that The Overall Market can indicate value, but it certainly does not dictate it.
loft feet are up 26%
The Overall Loft Market – measured by Miller Samuel’s data for average-loft-price-per-foot – is up about 26% (Q2 2007 of $1,246/ft compared to Q3 2005 of $988/ft), but this loft has not appreciated by 7% over that time.
The macro explanation is that the Miller Samuel averages are just that – averages. The micro explanation may be that the seller overpaid when s/he bought in August 2005. Interesting….
(Of course, it may simply be that the loft has not yet found the buyer who will pay its Current Market Value, which may turn out to be more than $1.9mm. Or less.)
© Sandy Mattingly 2007
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