efficient market for primitive loft space at 395 Broadway

5th post = Manhattan Loft Guy fave
395 Broadway is now, officially, a Manhattan Loft Guy favorite building. You will see (below) that I have hit finished and unfinished lofts here, lofts with views and light and lofts without, lofts that sold quickly, and (several) lofts that traded around $1,000/ft. The “1,200 sq ft” Manhattan loft #3C at 395 Broadway fits the pattern of an unfinished loft with little light or views that sold quickly around $1,000/ft. Efficient Market fans of the world, rejoice!

I am not the only one for whom this building, and this loft, is a fave: loft #3C came to market on March 28 at $1.225mm, found a contract by May 9 after a perfunctory negotiation, and closed on August 8 at $1,207,500 (that $500 suggests a tough negotiation, but c’mon: the thing took a maximum of 6 weeks, with a tiny discount of 1.4%). That happy result (for the seller, of course) was in spite of the challenging floor plan with lofted sleep area, the broker babble, and the pictures scream 1978 (or thereabouts; what year do the kitchen appliances, tile, and backsplash look like to you?), and there’s only one bath:

today’s current buyer will want to renovate, …. you have the ability to put in a second full bath. The floors need refinishing, but are solid oak.

Note that there is no mention of light or views, despite the “huge windows and ultra high 12 1/2′ ceilings”; not surprising, considering the building across Walker Street to the north is much taller than these 3rd floor  windows.

let me count the ways …
As I said, Manhattan Loft Guy has taken readers to this busy bit of Broadway at the northern edge of Tribeca before:

• February 22, 2012, 395 Broadway loft sells at $1,174/ft, a relative bargain to a gut job
• January 26, 2011, gut job loft at 395 Broadway provokes war, gets $1,000/ft
• February 23, 2011, renovated 395 Broadway loft is jealous of primitive top floor + of 505 Greenwich Street loft
• July 11, 2011, victim of 2009 chill, 395 Broadway loft sells quickly at premium

Click on any of these posts and you will find a Manhattan loft sale that meets one or more of these criteria: an unfinished loft with little light or views that sold quickly around $1,000/ft.

Just look at the last six clearing prices from the building page on StreetEasy, going back to December 23, 2010:

• $1,207,500
• $1,275,000
• $1,365,000
• $1,225,000
• $1,150,000
• $1,201,000

That embarrassing $1,365,00 aside (it was both mint-y and well lighted, with a “beautiful and bright city skyline view”; a pair of plusses that none of the other 395 Broadway lofts have had when they sold), that is an average of $1,211,700 for the other five and if you do the Olympic drop-high-AND-low score thing you have four lofts trading within $74,000 of each other, or 6%. A range that can always be offered as mere market noise….

© Sandy Mattingly 2012