ground floor loft at 7 Worth St proves how bad 2009 was

year in review, Part One
I can’t promise that there will be a Manhattan Loft Guy Year In Review, Part Two (or 3 …), but the recent sale of the ground floor loft at 7 Worth Street fits nicely in the genre because it says something interesting about the year-about-to-end, by reference to the prior too-long-year. It sold just last week (on December 14) for $1.6mm, after having been offered for sale in 2010 at a higher price ($1.65mm) than had been asked through the last 6 months of 2009. That whole post-Lehman nuclear winter for Manhattan residential real estate thing ….

as they say on late night TV
The loft is said to be “2,300 sq ft” of “true artists loft” in a Long-and-Narrow footprint, with but 2 windows in the back and 3 in the front (one in the mechanical room??), so close to the corner of Hudson Street that it probably has a clear view down Hudson, angled as it is at that corner. But wait … there’s more: it comes with a “complementary” parking space in the garage next door. But wait, again … there is also 500 sq ft of basement storage.

not Soho, but …
The listing description invites inquiries about A.I.R., reminding me that artist-in-residence is not just a (potential) problem for Soho, but for some buildings in Tribeca, and some in Noho. “An A.I.R. Waiver needs to be signed by buyer, inquire with broker.” (Which is all the excuse I need to link to my November 12, did the NY Times just write the obituary for the Soho real estate market?, and to note that the so-called “Soho letter” [per that NY Times ‘obituary’] is better expressed as here, “A.I.R. Waiver ”.) But I digress….

nuclear winter is local
I would have thought that the nuclear winter for Manhattan residential real estate began to thaw, in general on this island, by Summer 2009 and was well under way by that Fall. But that is not how it worked out on Worth Street near Hudson:

Clearly, The Market rejected this loft from June 2009 through January 2010 at prices below where it embraced this loft 9 months later. The sellers earn props for having correctly gamed the fight or flight question conundrum for disappointed sellers (in my November 15 post). They did not like the prices The Market was signalling in 2009, so they waited off the market; when they came back, they came back higher, and patient. They were so patient, they sat at $1.65mm for six months before getting that contract at $1.6mm.

Well played, people, well played!

© Sandy Mattingly 2010