American Thread loft sells on Groundhog's Day, again

seriously weird, but totally true
The Manhattan loft #8C at 260 West Broadway (an all-time MLG favorite loft building) closed on December 23. I had to focus really hard to appreciate that the sale was December 23, 2009 rather than another December 23, like the one in 2005, or the one in 2003. Really, really hard. This "1,926 sq ft" condo loft cleared at $1.35mm on December 23, 2009. It also traded at $1.3mm on May 6, 2003.

This leads me to wonder (and wander) about the challenges (dangers) of applying ‘simple’ closed-sale data as a fully credible indication of The Market.

How can you tell if a sale is anomalous? What if there is a related but contrary data point?

does the American Thread just tread water?
The last time I touched this building was June 5, in a post about #5G closing in May 2009 at $35,000 lower than in March 2005, 4 months to close, 4 years to zero out at 260 West Broadway. The likely explanation in that case was that between 2005 and 2009 a hotel was built immediately in front of #5G, but that hotel is not tall enough to interfere with #8C’s light and views. (One York is tall enough to impact #8C, but it is farther away than the hotel and would not block more than a part of view.) That #5G sale was confusing (to me, at least) because #4G would have had the same loss-of-light-and-views problem in 2007 that #5G had in 2009, yet #4G sold for more than one-third more than #5G, which I did not believe was a purely market-driven decline.

The data points are that #5G was essentially flat with a March 2005 sale and a May 2009 sale (50 months), while #8C was essentially flat from a May 2003 sale and a December 2009 sale (67 months). Yet #9G cleared at $2.3mm in March 2008 (probably The Top of the market).

not all data points are created equal, was this one?
I am going to have to be persuaded that this recent #8C transaction represents The Market. The December 2009 sale of #8C at $710/ft contrasts with two April 2006 higher sales in the American Thread Company "C" line: #6C cleared at $1.4mm ($727/ft) on April 26, 2006 and #3C (slightly larger, at "2,074 sq ft") cleared on April 20, 2006 at $1,781,000 ($859/ft). In March 2005, #5C sold for $1.625mm ($844/ft), while #4C closed in September 2004 for $1.35mm (the same price as #8C 63 months later).

Neither StreetEasy nor the inter-firm data-base show a listing associated with the recent sale of #8C. I don’t have a data-base that would tell me if this was a for-sale-by-owner, but this is one of those ugly facts that other condo owners in the building would surely want the world to know if there is an explanation that makes this a less than arm’s-length sale.

a wild guess
In casting about for an explanation for this sale price, I noted the probably-coincidental-but-possibly-significant fact that there are women with the same first name on both sides of this title. (Briefly, there had been husband-and-wife owners who transferred to a family limited partnership some years back, which LP sold to a husband-and-wife in December 2009; the two wives share the same first name.) If you are still with me, that coincidence suggests the possibility that the recent sale was part of a larger set of arrangements between a husband-and-former-wife and the wife-with-new-husband. Emphasis on suggests and possibility, as the most likely explanation is that the same-first-name thing is a coincidence and that the unknown reasons this sold without being marketed through a REBNY firm at a (seemingly) below-market price remain, alas, unknown. 

But to continue in the Bill Murray theme, again, I will repeat: if I were a condo owner at 260 West Broadway I would certainly want the world to know that this was not at arm’s-length if it was not at arm’s length. Whew!

time passed, no?
And yes, it has been quite a long time. So Happy New Year! ‘ten is looking like a great year for Manhattan Loft Guy and (I hope) for you. And yes, I owe you a few, so happy Columbus Day, a respectful Veteran’s Day, happy Thanksgiving, a blessed Hanukkah, a merry Christmas, a happy Kwanzaa, and any other holidays or notable days I have missed. Groundhog’s Day will (again) be February 2.

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I don’t, but I do resolve to blog regularly, again. And again. Let’s see how long that resolution lasts….

© Sandy Mattingly 2010