114 East 13 St lofts go 3-for-3 above $1,000/ft

nice streak in this season, but what does it mean?
The Manhattan loft #6A at 114 East 13 Street closed on December 15, pretty successfully, at $1.3mm. This "1,200 sq ft" condo loft was offered at $1.395mm since August 24 and found a contract by November 19 at only a 7% discount off the asking price. This is the third closing in the last quarter of 2009 in the 40 unit American Felt Building, each of which fetched over $1,000/ft. (Small wrinkle: #6A does have a balcony, but the balcony is just under 100 sq ft so the full loft — inside and out — squeaks in at just over $1,000/ft, though no one pays "full price" for outdoor space.)

The other two sales were of #7C ($1.285mm for "1,029 sq ft" [with another 100 sq ft balcony] on October 29) and #6D ($995k for "937 sq ft" [with a smaller balcony] on October 1). #7C took only 6 weeks to go into contract at nearly the asking price of $1.295mm, beginning in July, while #6D took 5 months to get 97% of the original asking price. (#6D has a balcony of 88 sq ft, so the all-in per-foot price was ‘only’ $971/ft but there should be some discount for the balcony compared to the interior space.)

That is a pretty good showing for the American Felt Building. Residents get a doorman and a common roof deck (with shower!), with monthlies of almost $2/ft (including a small assessment, the second assessment in the past 3 years).

some appreciation, but only partial
This trio of late-2009 sales hardly indicates a flood of departures in this 40-unit building, though it may be an indication of a market thaw. The 3 prior residential sales here were between April and September 2006. #5C closed on August 29, 2006 at $1,060,008 [Chinese good luck??] with no balcony, ‘just’ the "1,029 sq ft" footprint shared with #7C. This sale implies a market improvement from August 2006 to October 2009 for the "C" line, as there is no way that the balcony in #7C is worth anything close to $284,992. On the other hand, #8A cleared on April 25, 2006 for $1.33mm, compared to the only-slightly-lower-but-3.5-years-later sale of #6A a few weeks ago. But that unit was said to have a larger balcony ("200 sq ft") and was flogged much more enthusiastically than #6A, so maybe the finishes and fixtures justify a higher value for #8A in any market period.

The third American Felt loft to sell in 2006 was #PH-B, which closed on September 11 at $1.8mm. I have no information about this loft other than that it is said to be "1,479 sq ft" and that it is billed as a penthouse; I also have no parallel sale to compare it to, so cannot say what this September 2006 sale implies about how values have (or have not) changed in this building since 2006.

bottom line: use tad
Net, net … I’d say that the #6A-#8A and #7C-#5C pairs from 2009-2006 suggest that values here are no worse than even compared to 2006, and probably just a tad improved.
 

© Sandy Mattingly 2010