43 Wooster Street penthouse loft closes off 6% since 2006, at one-third 2007 asking price

sometimes, words fail …

For a wordy guy (and Manhattan Loft Guy is nothing if not a wordy guy…), it seems ridiculous to start writing a blog post with “words fail”. But fail they did after I looked at the entire listing history above, which is associated with the Manhattan penthouse loft #6E at 43 Wooster Street. I mean, really: have you ever seen such a thing?

I am a little surprised that I can fill out a Manhattan Loft Guy’s Top Ten Favorite Numbers for this “one of a kind” “2,353 sq ft” duplex loft with “1,000 sq ft” of private terrace, but today the loft gods are smiling (on me, not on the seller):

• Number Ten: 58 months from listing to sale, not reduced by time off market
• Number Nine: 8 price drops
• Number Eight: 4 7-figure price drops
• Number Seven: 3 times off the market longer than a few weeks
• Number Six:  65,000 dollars negotiated from last ask
• Number Five: 4 (again!) fewest days between price drops
• Number Four: 27 % gain since 2002 sponsor sale
• Number Three: 6 % loss since 2006 resale
• Number Two: 60 days off the market in the First Quarter of 2008, aka “The Peak”
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• And … the Manhattan Loft Guy Number One Favorite Number for penthouse loft #6E at 43 Wooster Street …. 31.44 (clearing price as a percentage of the 2007 asking price)

Department of Redundancy Department
I mean, really: have you ever seen such a thing?

condition mostly stable, value widely varies
43 Wooster Street was converted to residential condominiums in 2002 about one hundred years after it was built. The configuration is a standard 2 units per floor above the first, with an East unit and a West unit, each under 2,000 sq ft. The top floor units are duplexes with direct private roof terrace access. The lower floor units were sold by the sponsor from $1,425,679 to $1,731,357, the penthouses at $3,056,680 (the larger #6W, at “2,540 sq ft”) and $3,156,696.

I see no indication in the broker babble, the photos or the floor plans that #6E is in any different condition at any time since the 2006 sale, and note one difference from the 2002 sponsor sale (from the 2006 babble): “original two bedrooms were combined into a massive master suite with en suite bath with steam shower”.

Only two other units at 43 Wooster Street have sold since the 2002 development was new: #4E has sold twice, and #6W has sold once, all while #6E was on the market. They fill in some of the blanks about how The Market treated lofts here that were correctly priced, telling different stories.

The Market giveth and …
#4E shows both what a Peak sale looked like (it sold for $3.3mm in a private transaction on March 8, 2008, or $1,694/ft) and again for $2.3mm on November 18, 2009 ($1,150/ft) to show what the nuclear winter did to very motivated sellers. Compared to the 2002 sale at $1,731,357 ($888/ft), #4E was up 91% at The Peak, then up (only) 29% from 2002 to the depths of 2009 winter but more importantly for that winter-time seller, down 32% from top to bottom of The Market.

The line traced by #6W is different, and suggests a particularly painful comparison for #6E’s experience. There must be some western envy, no? When #6W re-sold on August 27, 2010 at $4.6mm ($1,811/ft, unadjusted for exterior space) that was up 50% from 2002. That came to market in March 2010 at $5mm and found a contract in July at that $4.6mm, without the baggage carried by #6E from 2007 well past that #6W sale.

Life is not fair, right? Nor is The Market. When #6W sold last August at $1,811/ft (unadjusted), #6E was on hiatus, to come back at a still-aggressive-but-not-AS-aggressive $4.75mm, or $2,019 (unadjusted). No sale!

Had The Market treated the two penthouses exactly alike last Fall, #6E should have sold around that $1,811/ft, or around $4.26mm. No sale!

It took that last final gulp in the price drop to $3.995mm ($1,698/ft) to make the #6E deal 4 weeks ago at $3.93mm ($1,670/ft). Sale! And, as noted, down 6% from 2006.

Missed opportunities? You bet! You could argue from the first #4E re-sale (+91% since 2002) that #6E might have sold at The Peak around $6mm. But #6E was then asking $9.5mm, then was off the market, then was asking $8.995mm. No sale!

Association of Departments of Redundancy Departments, Associated
I mean, really: have you ever seen such a thing?

(By the way, ignore the next-day LLC “sale” for comping purposes, which is clearly below market and some kind of intra-group transaction.)

© Sandy Mattingly 2011