242 Lafayette Street loft mixes metaphors, sells off 3% since 2005

it’s not so much that second-guessing is fun
… as it is that you can’t help yourself. I offer the Manhattan loft #3N at 242 Lafayette Street for your consideration. To mix metaphors here, this loft’s price history feels like watching a car wreck in slow motion, while the boat that it missed was The Market (first rising, but not enough; then falling, too quickly).

The folks who bought it in March 2005 decided to sell by June 2007, but The Market did not hit their price; when they came back at an adjusted price 3 months after Lehman, The Market had adjusted much more than they had; they tried six new prices and stayed on the market for all but 6 of the next 25 months before signing the contract that closed a month ago. Their February 16 sale was off 3.2% from their March 29, 2005 purchase, off 29% from their aborted 2007 sales effort, off 24% from where they re-started in December 2008, etc, etc, etc.

You know that The Market was rather … errr … frothy after these folks bought in March 2005, a full three years before The Peak (even Alan Greenspan figured that out, and he was talking about it as a national issue as early as May 20, 2005). Just not as much as these folks figured:

see how painful (fascinating) this gets?

• $1,699mm might have been close to pricing at The Peak, but they were 3 or 4 quarters early at that price
• $1.599mm might have been the right price at The Peak, but they were 3 quarters late at that price
• they recognized that nuclear winter had set in, but not until May 2009
• when they came back into a definitely more robust market in September 2009, they were still too high for then-current conditions
• etc, etc, etc.

aesthetic beauty, financial pain
The loft is a classic, in a coop with a great name: Work of Art Loft Co. At “1,300 sq ft” and a Long-and-Narrow footprint that is roughly 20 feet wide, the space has been optimized for a single person or a couple, with the bedroom and single bath across the back wall, the bath and walk-in closet both outside that bedroom, and a media room with no windows. In a thin market, these kinds of choices can be costly. (Unlike, say, in 2005. Or 2007.)

Whenever the renovation was done, it was a no-expense-spared job. That media room is a raised ‘pod’ with sliding door access both to the bedroom and the public space (i.e., to convert into another use would subvert some expensive and thoughtful work).

To continue one grisly metaphor, this loft is a Maserati that was going too fast for the road and driving conditions, circa 2007 and 2008. When it went into a tailspin after Lehman, you couldn’t be sure how much damage it would sustain or when it would come to rest. But you couldn’t take your eyes off it, as it spun through 2009 into 2010.

That sound you just heard was the impact, finally felt on February 16. No need to call an ambulance: the survivors walked away, financially whole after six years, but no more than that, and certainly not in the shape they expected to be in when they set out.

O – U – C – H

© Sandy Mattingly 2011