10 months + 4 price drops to contract for 124 Hudson Street loft to sell 16% over 2007 but only off 5% from original ask

much ado, much profit
The folks who bought the “2,057 sq ft” Manhattan loft #4B at 124 Hudson Street in April 2007 just sold it for a gain of 16%. That’s nice work. Weird thing is that it took a while to get there, with the asking price dropping from $3.3mm down to $3.05mm over the last year before selling at $2.9mm, a 12% discount from first ask, and a modest 5% off the last ask. (Raising the price once in the middle did not help, of course, but still: that’s a long time to find a buyer to step up.)

For the folks who like to see it all in one table:

(*Contract date is from the inter-firm listings data-base)

Where to begin? Those are different sellers in 2006 and 2012, obviously, but those 2006 folks started out at the right price … just 6 years too soon. That 2007 sales price is a legitimate market price, taking 9 months and 4 prices to get to contract just a year before The Peak in the overall Manhattan residential real estate market. The 2007 buyers gave it a shot at a 30% gain after 3+ years, then tried again a year ago.

Had it worked with a late year contract in 2010, this loft would have made the top end of the list in my September 27, 2011, is the Manhattan loft market back to (up to) 2007? 61 repeat sales say “probably”, “a bit”, but the sellers were still too optimistic about value. One could argue that they seemed to be really serious about selling when they dropped below the unsuccessful 2010 price, but that only lasted 8 weeks around the turn of the year, and it took until June for them to get back to that ask, and to August to (finally!) get a contract signed.

That’s a lot of bouncing, a lot of market-testing. (The Market passed.)

While a big gain since 2007 (surprisingly big, to me), the #4B sale at $1,409/ft is within the range of the few recent sales in the building. The larger (“2,473 sq ft”) loft #2A (with a small balcony over the interior courtyard) sold at $1,395/ft in May and its twin (#5A) sold in June 2011 at $1,415/ft. The only other post-thaw sale sold significantly higher, but #5C (on March 5, 2012 at $1,554/ft) had the advantage of scale (“3,217 sq ft” and 4 bedrooms) plus a long northern exposure. Instead of looking across Hudson Street at taller buildings or into the courtyard, #5C has a 75 foot mostly-windowed wall facing the open view north over the Holland Tunnel spillways and the associated greenery of St. John’s Park.

if it walks like a duck …
If the classic definition of a Manhattan loft requires a building with a prior non-residential use that is re-purposed for living spaces (often with high ceilings, few load-bearing elements, large windows, etc), 124 Hudson Street assuredly does not fit the definition. It was built from the ground up, with sales beginning to close in 2001. But it was clearly built to look like a building that had a prior life in manufacturing or as a warehouse. The line between a new “loft” building and developments that are merely “loft-like” may be both fuzzy and subjective, but this building passes muster.

It wa marketed as a loft by the sponsor and I believe it is perceived as a loft by the loft-buying public. It is a very handsome building, to my eyes.  (124 Hudson is much more like a classic loft than the glassy Soho Mews, at 311 West Broadway, but that one, too, has been marketed by the sponsor as “lofts”. I don’t have to approve, but I need to recognize that the marketplace considers these buildings as part of the same category as 100 year old buildings, since repurposed.)

owning v. renting
For the buyers of loft #4B at 124 Hudson Street, owning a “2,057 sq ft” Tribeca loft with 2 bedrooms plus office (with fireplace and central air, among other finishes, benefits and amenities) at $2.9mm is preferable to renting a “2,000 sq ft” Tribeca loft with 2 bedrooms (with fireplace and central air, among other finishes, benefits and amenities) at $7,500/mo, as based on the notice address in the #4B deed record, this is where they had been living.

Interesting math, that. Clearly there are non-economic benefits to making this move. Enjoy!

© Sandy Mattingly 2012