40 Mercer St loft resale up 13% over 2009 sale, 21% lifetime

straight line gains
The Manhattan loft #3D at the celebrated 40 Mercer Street sold on April 6, for the third time in its young life. (Does that mean people love it or hate it?) I will explain in a minute why it is hard to track this history, but let’s first look at the history, starting with the sponsor sale; a very impressive history indeed: 

• March 15, 2007 $3,563,875
• Sept 3, 2009 $3,812,500
• April 6, 2011 $4.3mm

What do you think it will sell for in 2013?

At first glance I was most impressed with the gain in the first resale, given that the original purchase was only a year before The Peak and that resale was in the early thaw of nuclear winter. But digging  a little more told me what you can’t see anywhere: the contract date for the sponsor sale was January 12, 2006, so that price was actually a 2-years-before-Peak price. All in all, that is a nice pair of gains, nicely shared between the first two owners.

record-keeping blues
In order to track this loft unit history at all, you need to deal with the fact that it goes by “#4” at times and by “#3D” at other times, probably because the city deed records track based on the offering plan designations, while the resale listings (and inter-firm data-base, and StreetEasy) use the “apartment” numbers as they are known in the building.

As you will see for the first resale, StreetEasy has the listing history here and the deed record here. In that case, the deed history makes it easy to see what goes with what (as deed records often do) by using “Apt 4 a/K/a 3D” in the sellers’ notice address. With that hint, you can match the current sale to its listing history, and you can scroll down to find the original sale record (here).

You won’t find the original listing history of the new development sale on StreetEasy, but I can see it on our data-base: to market on October 7, 2005 at $3.5mm followed by a price increase to $3.775mm on October 27 and that contract on January 12, 2006. Note that the sale price was at the original asking price and that the sellers paid the city and state transfer taxes of 1.825%, so the recorded price was $3,563,875.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we had either a true multiple listing service so that all this data are easily tracked? Or, if we had a trade association that cared enough about transparency to smooth this out??

paging Bob or Doug McKenzie
The “1,843 sq ft” loft is a beauty, eh? Unlike some new development 2-bedroom layouts with side-by-side-by-side rooms, this footprint is almost square and so provides a more ‘spacious’ feel. (12 foot ceilings help, of course. And In this case, especially with that bedroom wall opened up along the windows.) The interesting layout choice by the developer here was to put the kitchen into the space instead of along that back wall. Not sure how that works in real life, but they obviously did it on purpose.

The finishes are as you would expect in space that is selling well over $2,000/ft. My favorite interior pic? That master bath in the 6th photo.

As one of the most uber of uber-loft developments, 40 Mercer Street has amenities out the proverbial wazoo. Most ridiculous amenity might be the 12 person jacuzzi in the building’s spa. (In case there is still not enough space to entertain in #3D.)

© Sandy Mattingly 2011