Hudson Mews loft at 256 West 10 Street sells 21% over 2007

a remarkable gain for a disfavored loft
The downtown Manhattan loft market is still almost completely without power and this blog has been dark 4 days. Enough! (At least as far as this little corner of the blogosphere is concerned.)

Let’s get back to it by visiting the recent sale of the “2,263 sq ft” Manhattan loft #1D at 256 West 10 Street (Hudson Mews, in the still-dark West Village), which sold at $3.05mm, an impressive 21% over when these recent sellers were buyers in the not-quite-Peak middle of 2007 at $2.512mm. In terms of time on market, the rather frothy 2007 campaign proved a bit more difficult than that of 2012 for this duplexed loft, even though the one price drop back in the day overshot the market enough to generate a bidding war:

The loft took nearly 4 months to find a contract in 2007 (aided by that price-drop-too-far) but not quite 2.5 months this year. Lest you think that the $538,000 gross gain from 2007 was due to something other than a change in market reactions to the same loft, the broker babble from the 2007 campaign was pretty enthusiastic:

beauifully [sic] renovated galley kitchen includes maple cabinetry, stainless appliances, granite counters, mosaic tile backsplash and walls and a ceramic tile floor. … Custom cabinets with book shelves and an exquisite powder room line the hallway to an impressive master bedroom suite. Complete with a home office and views to the garden; the massive bedroom includes a luxuirous [sic] en suite bathroom with jacuzzi tub, mosaic tile and custom pear wood cabinetry. The master bath is preceded by a custom outfitted dressing room created of rich pear wood

I see nothing in the 2012 babble that suggests that anything in the loft was improved by the folks who just got that $538,000 gain.

This 21% gain over a prior sale just 2 quarters short of The Peak in the overall Manhattan residential real estate market compares very favorably to the largest gains in the paired resale analysis in my September 27, 2011, is the Manhattan loft market back to (up to) 2007? 61 repeat sales say “probably”, “a bit”, especially given that the loft has not been improved since.

all feet are not created equal
The floor plan for #1D shows a duplex with lower garden, with more than a quarter of the interior space on that lower level. As the babble helpfully puts it, the “2 rooms on this level used as nurseries have windows and closets; however they are not considered legal bedrooms”. You will see why when you note the size and placement of the windows in the 4th listing picture. Putting two and two together, this “2,263sq ft” loft is a legal one bedroom, and will never be anything other than a legal one bedroom.

Although dubbed “nurseries” on the floor plan, those lower rooms are so far removed from the adult activities upstairs that they are probably ideally used as “teenager’s rooms”. $1,348/ft (before adjustment for the garden) is a pretty solid valuation for such space.

Lofts with views in the building have done rather better than #1D, not surprisingly. We have loft #5B at only “1,200 sq ft”in our listing system, so when that loft sold on September 11 at $2.21mm, the $1,684/ft value (unadjusted for a terrace) was obviously due to the “[o]pen city views of the iconic Empire State Building [and] oversized north and east facing windows”. Similarly, the “1,440 sq ft” loft #6D sold at a huge premium to #1D on March 1 this year ($2.6mm, or $1,806/ft) due as much to the “incredible light, southern and western exposures” as to its “gorgeous renovation”.

It has been nearly forever (in internet years) since a Manhattan Loft Guy post about Hudson Mews. My July 23, 2007, back story to NY Post Just Sold at 256 W 10 St, dealt with another no-view loft sold here. Loft #3D sold at $1.9mm ($1,319/ft, as this is almost certainly “1,440 sq ft”) just before the recent #1D sellers were July 2007 buyers at (only) $1,110/ft. Further evidence that the duplexed #1D with those low floor high window “nurseries” has never been a market fave.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012