184 Franklin Street walk-up loft shows market down at least 17% from The Peak

it is nice when the data points behave themselves
The Manhattan loft 184 Franklin Street #6 that sold on November 22 for $542,000 is one of those rare commodities: a Tribeca mini-loft. It interests me as a data point because it nicely pairs with the sale of the loft upstairs that is as close to at The Peak as I am likely to get: #8 sold on March 27, 2008 for $655,000. As they appear to be in similar condition, the 17% difference probably slightly understates the change in market value Peak-to-now (at any given point, #6 should be slightly more valuable than #8 because 184 Franklin has no elevator and #6 is on the 4th floor, #8 on the 5th).

I generally tell people that the overall Manhattan real estate market is down since The Peak about 15 – 20%, depending …. (Depending on all sorts of things in a particular case, and I suspect that there are more examples of greater drops than lesser.) It is gratifying when some hard data tends to confirm one’s biases impressions.

same same nickel dime?
Skip this next paragraph if you don’t care exactly how comparable the two units are….

I confess that I am making an assumption that #6 and #8 have the same footprint, and that the data area a little equivocal. I can only find a floor plan for #6, none for #8. Neither listing claims a measurement; StreetEasy has “600 sq ft” for #8 but nothing for #6; Property Shark has nothing for either; and I disbelieve our data-base claims of “600 sq ft” for #6 and “550 sq ft” for #8. The problem with our data-base is that the measurements for the two 4th floor units total 1,275 sq ft but the two 5th floor units only 1,150 sq ft. That proves to me that the data-base numbers are off somewhere. Just sayin’ that there is a chance that #8 is really a little bit smaller than #6 so that the 17% Peak-to-now difference should be adjusted up for smaller size of #8, as it should also be adjusted up for being one flight of stairs higher.

Condition of the two mini-lofts seem similar, if you assume that “triple mint” (the babble for #8) is comparable to “fully renovated” (only the beginning of some long babble for #6). Works for me, as we area talking approximate changes in value here.

[UPDATE 4:30: I got so distracted strolling down memory lane (below) that I forgot to add another data point for this loft. #6 last sold in April 2006 at $500,000. So while it is down about 17% since The Peak in 2008 (if #8 is the tidy comp that I think it is), #6 is up 8.4% since 2006.]

is that Jean Stapleton?
Looking at this little building on the block between Hudson Street and Greenwich Street brings back memories. My last Tribeca loft was just around the corner, down Hudson. Long before the anchors to the  lock were Tribeca Grille at Greenwich and Nobu at Hudson, Riverrun Cafe was at 176 Franklin. For more than ten years, Riverrun was my local. It had been there at least a few years before I moved to Tribeca in 1981, and was dubbed by some tony food magazine “the Tribeca pioneer”.

I won’t bore you (or embarrass myself) with bar reminisces, but when I trolled around the inter-tubes looking for some way to link to Riverrun I came across this profile of one of the owners. I’ve long known the outline of the story, but this is the first detailed on-the-ground description of the crazy things that he would do every year in Spain. The profile has to be at least 10 years old by now, and the guy is now living in Paris. I last saw in him at a great Brooklyn beer bar that is an indirect descendant of Riverrun about a year ago (say hello to Lou for me if you stop in at The Brazen Head.)

In honor of Joe, and Don too, and all the knucklehead bartenders, wait staff and patrons, Edith Bunker is warming up at the piano….

© Sandy Mattingly 2010