73 Worth Street loft takes a long time to sell above ask

from the annals of (slightly) weird
Most sales that generate a deal above the asking price happen quickly, right? Everyone knows that bit of Conventional Wisdom. Except for the sellers and buyer of the “2,233 sq ft” Manhattan loft #3F at 73 Worth Street, which came to market on May 18, 2011 at $2.395mm but when it found a contract on January 4 the deal was at a tiny, tiny premium, evidencing some sense of urgency by the buyers (perhaps more like a border incident than a biding war). It closed on February 3 at $2.4mm. Weird, but not quite as weird as it looks….

There is a gap in the listing history, though there was certainly enough time for a buyer to snap up this loft (or, at least negotiate a discount) off the $2.395mm:

That was 16 weeks on, 12 weeks off, then 5 weeks to seal the deal. This would look perfectly ordinary if the history had started on November 29 instead of back in the Spring. Obviously, the eventual buyer was not interested in this loft in the Spring and Summer (neither was anyone else; at least. not interested enough). But in December there either were two sets of buyers, or the fear by the buyer that there was another competitor lurking.

Conventional Wisdom would suggest that this kind of thing happens in thin markets more than in markets characterized by significant buyer activity. Yet, overall, the Manhattan residential real estate market had a historically active year in 2011. Let’s call this a bump against CW rather than a hard hit.

2009 was a different market, of course
Speaking of thin markets …. Remember the nuclear winter? These sellers do, as they tried to sell at $2.395mm from April 17 to November 23, 2009. Oddly, their timing was not off by a lot then, but just enough (evidently). The overall market was starting to thaw by the middle of 2009, following the deep freeze generated immediately by the bankruptcy filing by Lehman Brothers (September 15, 2008, as long-time Manhattan Loft Guy readers know). Even though they were at the right price, no buyer emerged before they gave up at Thanksgiving that year.

Speaking of giving thanks, they must have been thrilled when their buyer emerged soon after Thanksgiving 2011.

well past The Troubles
73 Worth Street was famously delayed, famously troubled as a new development back in the day. As I recounted in my July 9, 2010, what happened on the 5th floor at 73 Worth? 3rd sale this year:

The original contractor for this conversion could not finish the building, and the developer went bankrupt. The lenders took control and finished the building, but in the meantime the early contract signers were given the right to rescind; the remaining lofts in the building were marketed again in 2005.

These recent sellers got in at $1,368,426 on April 25, 2005, and they made some improvements.

The current broker babble boasts of “custom glass sliding doors”, a “mint Chef’s Custom kitchen [with] cherry wood cabinetry, honed Black Impala granite counters, back splash and island”, and “fantastic custom closets and a large spa bathroom” in the master suite. All these upgrades cost a small fraction of the seven figure appreciation from 2005 to 2012, I am sure, but they did cost something.

And they seem to account for at least a good part of the difference in market value here ($1,075/ft) compared to the “1,924 sq ft” loft #4D, which sold on July 27, 2011 at $1.795mm ($933/ft).

sellers are renting down the hall; what’s the play?
Of course I am curious about where Manhattan loft sellers go. In this case, they did not go far, though they are more liquid than they were before selling. They took this rental down the hall, perhaps paying as much as $13,000/mo to do so.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012