when you reach the right price … 105 Fifth Avenue closes

small discount, right price
The Manhattan loft #7A at 105 Fifth Avenue closed on July 22 at $1.125mm, only a 4% discount from the (last) asking price of $1.175mm, proving that if you drop the asking price enough you don’t have to discount very much to make a deal. (File this under "Small Consolation", I think.)

They had been trying to sell this "1,350 sq ft" loft since October, starting at $1.495mm, so the total discount was more like 25% — a fat quarter — with periodic stops at $1.399mm, $1.295mm, and $1.25mm. The "triple mint" loft includes a new one on me: a master bath with "decorative architectural column". I don’t see that column in the floor plan or any photos, but wonder how it could be both "decorative" (serving no function other than decoration) and "architectural" (as if it help keep the floor above, above).

The interesting thing about the clearing price is the suggestion that the buyer offered a large discount from the fifth (and last) price, to which the seller may have responded "I am not desperate; we are serious about this price (finally)".

11% off since 2008
The other interesting thing about the sale price is that — at $833/ft — it is 11% off the last sale in the building, the sale of #4D at $935/ft, or $1.65mm for "1,760 sq ft", in November 2008. (To digress, the interesting thing about that sale was that it was 21% off the original ask of $2.1mm.) Perhaps #4D had already taken a market hit when it contracted in October 2008, but 11% seems a relatively modest price drop.

digressions, digressions … we got digressions
The other interesting thing about that sale is that the contract date and sale date are only five weeks apart. PDQ for a coop, though a laggard compared to the three weeks from contract to close in the case of #7A. That is one quick coop board!

I can’t think of another coop closing that was this quick. I will step away from the keyboard before I digress again….

© Sandy Mattingly 2009