disappointed not to get $2,000/ft? maybe yes, maybe no as 7 Hubert Street loft sells

it did double since 2004
The Manhattan loft #4A at 7 Hubert Street sold on March 7 at $4.5mm, on the one hand at nearly twice the original sponsor sale in 2004; on the other hand at a 10% discount from an asking price that was not quite $2,000/ft (not including a terrace of “831 sq ft”) . That should be a lot for a seller to like, even if the other recent sale at The Hubert exceeded $2,000/ft (#7C on February 17 at $5.9mm for “2,542 sq ft” plus 2 terraces of a few hundred feet).

I guess that the most relevant comparison is to original sale prices: #4A re-sold at $4.5mm after selling in the new development offering at $2,291,062 (a gain of 96%), while #7C re-sold at $5.9mm after selling in the new development offering at $2,698,362 (a gain of 119%). Very healthy gains in both cases, showing The Hubert to have been a very successful new development.

current sale but old contract
The #4A contract was signed way back on October 2, so this sale is pretty stale (no matter what else it may be). Not my fault, of course, as it just closed, but 5 months is a very long time from contract to closing for a condo.

There’s an odd synchronicity here: #4A came to market on May 6, went into contract just about 5 months later on October 2, then closed just about 5 months after that, on March 6. There was no change in price from the original $5mm ask, so the loft was priced right for The Market; it simply took a while for the loft to find a buyer, then a (relatively, longer) while for the deal to close.

That #7C sale above is out of my normal range for comment (I long ago set an arbitrary limit of $5mm for the Master List of Manhattan Lofts Sold Since November 2008, so generally don’t comment on lofts sold outside the limits of $500k and $5mm), but that one comparatively raced through The Market: that (full price!) contract took only 17 days in November, though even that closing took longer than usual for a condo, at 3 months.

change in market conditions, noted (and doubted)
As long as I have let myself be distracted by that #7C premium sale, the interim sale of that loft is interesting. I believe that the overall Manhattan residential sales market is essentially flat but deeper in 2011 compared to 2010, and that 2010 was stronger in price and much deeper than 2009, but you would not know that by the sales experience of #7C between the initial offering in 2004 and now. #7C was offered for sale in October 2009 and sold in March 2010 at $5.28mm. That time it took about 100 days to get to contract, at a discount of 7.4% from that asking price. Within 8 months, those March 2010 buyers at $5.28mm were back on the market asking — and getting — $5.9mm.

Is the overall Manhattan residential real estate market up 12% in a year? No. But that was the experience of this loft, at both measuring points above the sales price I usually use as a ceiling.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011