if sold in 2005 and 2008 at same price, how to price a loft for 2010?

too weird to overlook
I am not going to offer too many details about this currently-listed Manhattan loft, so prepare to be frustrated! I think this loft’s history is just too weird to not comment on, so nuts to you.

The loft is 2,000+ sq ft and has the kind of plus factors that often can justify premium pricing (such factors can include [but are not necessarily present here] outdoor space, views, amenities, finishes). The plus factors seemed to have worked in 2005, but not in 2008, which is very odd. By work-or-not-work, I mean that the loft traded at almost exactly $1,200/ft both times, but the 2008 clearing price was just a hair lower than the 2005 price.

maybe they don’t want to sell?
With such an odd history, the loft could be a tough one to value in the present market. But I don’t have much sympathy for the decision a few months after the Fall of the House of Lehman (and the nuclear winter that ensued for Manhattan real estate) to seek a 15+% premium over the 2008 sales price. (Whether that decision was more the owner than the agent, or vice versa, it was still a crummy decision.) So, no surprise that that price did not work in 2009.

When they decided to try again, they changed firms and eventually reduced from that exalted level to only a 6% premium over the 2008 sale price. I have no idea if they really want to sell, but if they do they have wasted many months above that 2008 and 2005 price. I suspect that a return to that $1,200/ft range is what it is going to take, and I will monitor the listing and let you know what happens.

© Sandy Mattingly 2010