Cast Iron loft at 67 East 11 Street sells off 7%

not all lofts flat since 2007, of course, of course
One of my favorite and most interesting trend lines for the downtown loft niche in the overall Manhattan residential real estate market is this running count of lofts that sold in both 2007 and 2011, in which the headline tells (most of) the story: September 27, is the Manhattan loft market back to (up to) 2007? 61 repeat sales say “probably”, “a bit”. Of course, data points do not all fit on a trend line. Today’s outlier is the “unique” Manhattan loft (maybe that is why it can’t be fit into my trend lines; it is unique) #323 at 67 East 11 Street (the Cast Iron Lofts). After selling in May 2007 at $869,000 it needed 10 months and 6 prices to sell a few weeks ago at $810,000.

if numbers can be ugly, these numbers are ugly
The (smoothed out) dates and numbers tell the story of two very different sets of market responses to the loft, and that they were rather motivated but that they really thought they would do better this time around:

Four price drops in the first two months proves high motivation; the next drop after two months later to their purchase price in 2007 shows they had hit some ind of psychological limit. Negotiating another 7% drop to strike a deal proves they really were motivated,and wiling to take the best The Market would give them, no matter how painful.

the 3rd dimension
The most important number in the floor plan and broker babble describing this space is 16, as in “Cathedral height 16 foot ceilings”. Taking the room dimensions at face value, the footprint of this loft is a very irregular box about 20’ x 30’, before reducing for the many cut-aways and angles, with maybe another 210 sq ft in the lofted “bedroom” above the kitchen and foyer. Some of the main level has ceilings as low as 7’2”, with the lofted area topping at 7’6”. Neither of those numbers screams volume, but the fun part is the living room and lower bedroom with ceilings heights of 16’6” and 15’6”.

As the funky floor plan and different ceilings heights suggest, lofts in the Cast Iron building come in odd shapes and sizes. Challenges and opportunities generally follow ‘odd’ spaces. Not everyone wants to live in a space designed within an inch of its life, but a footprint that provides 2 (almost) real bedrooms in the Central Village under $900,000 is attractive for the right lifestyle.

a mini-fave?
I don’t often focus on such small lofts, but there are Manhattan Loft Guy posts focused on 4 past sales in this building and some peculiar market dynamics. I have to wonder if peculiar market dynamics are more likely in a building like this, in which the spaces are … errr … unconventional and very difficult to comp.

• January 19, 2012, changing firms + raising price after 7 months does the trick for 67 East 11 Street cast iron loft (about another odd pricing scenario)
• May 8, 2011, The Market corrects a Cast Iron loft over-correction, as 67 East 11 Street loft sells above (reduced) ask (with a canvass of past sales in the building)
• April 14, 2011,  market changes, personified by 67 East 11 Street loft sale (about a real duplex loft [not a lofted loft] that sold 13% off the prior sale in 2006)
• April 3, 2011, 67 East 11 Street loft sale and the utility of old media (with a mini-rant about old media)

© Sandy Mattingly 2012