LINCOLN SQUARE CO-OP $1,250,000 MANHATTAN: 17 West 64th Street (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue), #8F A two-bedroom two-bath co-op with a combination washer/dryer in a prewar elevator building.…... Read more >

LINCOLN SQUARE CO-OP
$1,250,000
MANHATTAN: 17 West 64th Street (between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue), #8F

A two-bedroom two-bath co-op with a combination washer/dryer in a prewar elevator building.

PROS: There are windows in every room, and also in the foyer and the walk-in closet in the master bedroom. The master bath has spa-like finishes; the second bath has a whirlpool tub.

CONS: The layout is a bit quirky, because the apartment was created by combining a one-bedroom and a studio. The living room has no view.
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Fresh Start Fridays: No-renovation kitchens Friday, July 23, 2010 We've said it before and we'll say it again:  Even if you don't cook that much, kitchen renovations can be excruciating, especially…... Read more >

Fresh Start Fridays: No-renovation kitchens
Friday, July 23, 2010

We've said it before and we'll say it again:  Even if you don't cook that much, kitchen renovations can be excruciating, especially if you live onsite.

You can avoid all that by buying a place with impeccable culinary credentials.  In today's No-Renovation Kitchen edition of Fresh Start Fridays, we present four kitchens you won't have to martyr yourself to enjoy.

One-bedroom, one-bath, 2,225-square-foot full-floor Tribeca prewar condo loft (expandable to two-bed, two-bath) with direct elevator access, central a/c, video intercom, 11-foot ceilings, and an open chef's kitchen with Viking Pro appliances, Carrera marble countertops and farmhouse sink. $1.78m, $1,280/mo cc, $1,356/mo r.e. taxes. [Warburg]

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How to Spot a Good Deal IN a market like this, it can be hard to look at a price tag and know if you’re getting a good deal. Many New York City apartments have had drastic price reductions in the last…... Read more >

How to Spot a Good Deal

IN a market like this, it can be hard to look at a price tag and know if you’re getting a good deal. Many New York City apartments have had drastic price reductions in the last few months, as sellers chase after a cascading market. But a discount from a hugely inflated figure may not be a bargain.

Rachel Lustbader, a managing director at Warburg Realty, says that even though sellers are aware of the falling market, some still believe that their homes are the exception. “People love their apartments,” she said. “It’s like a child. And how can you believe that your child isn’t as pretty as they were three years ago?”

There are, however, well-priced apartments available. Some owners feel pressure to sell quickly, and set their prices accordingly. Others who bought before the market heated up feel more freedom to accept a lower price.

Sheer numbers, however, do not always communicate the bang for your buck.

Aspiring buyers have to consider whether the apartment has value that will hold up over time, so that even if prices don’t begin rising soon, the purchase will not be a mistake. Diane M. Ramirez, the president of Halstead Property, says buyers have to consider location, amenities, the quality of the building, the floor the apartment is on, and the view that it offers. That will help determine if the price is right. “It’s not focusing so much on ‘is it the cheapest,’ but looking at the quality of the product, too,” Ms. Ramirez said.

When you’re trying to get a sense of apartment price tags, there is no substitute for old-fashioned shoe leather.

“No one’s going to send you an e-mail saying, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s the best deal!’ ” said Jacob Goldman, the president of LoHo Realty. “There are no hard-and-fast rules. You just have to be out there.”

Cara Bloch, 35, a photographer who owns a company called A Home in the Sky that makes gift tags, is looking for a one- or two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Earlier this month, she saw three dozen apartments in four days. “You could lose a lot of weight doing this,” she said.

Last week in Manhattan, a search on Trulia.com, an online listing site, showed 4,074 one-bedroom apartments for sale in Manhattan. The New York Times real estate site, at nytimes.com, showed 3,504 available.

The median sale price in the first quarter of this year for a one-bedroom in Manhattan was $580,000 for a co-op and $818,000 for a condominium, according to a market report compiled for Prudential Douglas Elliman by Miller Samuel, an appraisal company. Jonathan Miller, the company’s president, said numbers for the second quarter were not yet available. But, he added, “I can tell you that they’ve slipped a bit.”

In an effort to figure out what a fair price looks like these days, five one-bedroom apartments in five New York City neighborhoods were held up to the magnifying glass.

Lower East Side
A seventh-floor 800-square-foot co-op apartment at 575 Grand Street on the Lower East Side is listed by LoHo Realty for $425,000. The apartment has a small balcony and good light. There is a laundry in the building as well as access to a gym, and the maintenance charges are low, $623 a month, with a $35 monthly fuel surcharge. Although there is a bus stop outside, the subway is a hike.

This being New York City, the owner of this one-bedroom happens to be Gary Shteyngart, the Russian-born author of “The Russian Debutante’s Handbook” (Riverhead, 2002), the winner of both Stephen Crane and Jewish Book Council awards for fiction. He bought the apartment in 2004, and it’s where he wrote much of “Absurdistan” (Random House, 2006). Now, he wants to upgrade to a bigger place in the neighborhood.

“I wanted to price it in a way that seemed reasonable, so the sale wouldn’t take too long,” he said. “I also want to sell it at a point so I don’t lose money over what I paid for it after all the fees and taxes. Maybe it’s the immigrant in me. I just want to come out even.”

This apartment is one of some 1,700 units in the East River Housing Corporation, a four-building complex that was built in the 1950s through the sponsorship of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union.

According to the Web site StreetEasy.com, which compiles listing information, the average price of 15 similar one-bedroom apartments for sale in the complex is $635 per square foot. Mr. Shteyngart, 36, is asking about $530 per square foot. Only two apartments are asking less, and neither has a balcony.

Some apartments in the complex are priced at $150 and even $300 more per square foot than Mr. Shteyngart’s place; a few have been sitting on the market for almost a year.

Data prepared by Miller Samuel shows that in this ZIP code, 10002, the average sales price — not asking price, but what was actually paid — in the first quarter of this year, for a one-bedroom was $569,000, or an average of $711 per square foot.

VERDICT: A DEAL

HUDSON HEIGHTS
In 2003, Arlaina Tibensky and her husband, Mark Edgar, bought a one-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of 17 Chittenden Avenue, a prewar elevator building in Hudson Heights. It’s about 800 square feet, with maintenance charges of $855 per month, plus a $114 monthly assessment. They are asking $379,000, or $471 per square foot.

The apartment has a sunken living room, original details and a view of the George Washington Bridge from the bedroom. But Ms. Tibensky, 36, a writer and a founder of an organization for writers with children called Pen Parentis, and Mr. Edgar, also 36, a chemical engineer, share that bedroom with their 2-year-old son, Adam. And now Ms. Tibensky is six months pregnant.

“Mark and Arlaina are expecting a second one in a one-bedroom,” explained Simone Song, a principal broker at Simone Song Properties, “so they needed to price this competitively.”

Two other one-bedroom apartments are for sale in the building, according to StreetEasy. Both are a bit smaller and both are asking a higher price. “We bought long enough ago,” Ms. Tibensky said. “We can be a little more flexible.”

VERDICT: A DEAL

WEST 90s
A one-bedroom apartment in a prewar elevator building at 30 West 90th street is for sale for $645,000. The apartment, a condo, is on the third floor, and there is a live-in superintendent and a laundry room. The common charge and taxes come to $860 per month. The living room is a bit narrow and the kitchen is small, but the apartment feels open and is in a sought-after location, around the corner from Central Park.

Hmm — $645,000 seems like a lot of money, but as the listing agent, Jon Abeles, a senior associate sales agent at the Corcoran Group, points out, a condo near Central Park in a prewar building is a pretty rare combination. Condos tend to sell for higher prices than co-ops because they often allow more financing and offer more freedom on sublets and less oversight on sales.

At 716 square feet, this apartment is priced at about $900 per square foot. Miller Samuel data show that the average sale price for a one-bedroom condominium in this ZIP code, 10024, was $705,000, or an average of $1,000 per square foot, in the first quarter.

A StreetEasy search for comparable one-bedroom condos on the Upper West Side also shows that this apartment is priced competitively. Its owners are asking about $130,000 less than the average for similar places and about $140 less per square foot than the average.

VERDICT: A DEAL

 PARK SLOPE
In prime Park Slope, a one-bedroom apartment for less than $400,000 has been rare in recent years and is still difficult to come by. But at Garfield North — a 67-unit building at 195 Garfield Place made up of several joined town houses between Sixth and Seventh Avenues — a one-bedroom is for sale on the second floor for $395,000.

“Anything under $400,000 is considered a value,” said Virginia Hunter of Warren Lewis Realty, which has the listing. At 616 square feet, it has custom closet space and nice light in the living room, although the bedroom is dark. Laundry is in the basement. Maintenance is $716.04 per month.

According to StreetEasy, most other one-bedrooms for sale in Park Slope priced below $400,000 are farther south, which is considered less desirable.

VERDICT: REASONABLE, BUT NO STEAL

UPPER EAST SIDE
Scott Stewart, a senior vice president at Corcoran, is listing a 729-square-foot apartment in a prewar co-op building with a doorman at 205 East 69th street for $665,000. The maintenance is $1,059.38 per month.

The apartment, which has a working fireplace, went on the market for $735,000 in September, and has undergone two price reductions since.

Even with a 10 percent drop, it is not the cheapest one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side.

A StreetEasy search shows that the average price per square foot for comparable listings is about $900, slightly less than the $910 of Mr. Stewart’s listing. This figure is from a compilation of asking prices, not a list of actual sales.

Data from Miller Samuel show that the average sale price for a one-bedroom in this ZIP code, 10021, was about $723,865 in the first quarter and that the average price per square foot was $971.

According to Mr. Stewart, the seller is approaching retirement and has left room in the asking price to negotiate.

Mr. Stewart says many sellers are employing similar strategies.

So even if what the owner is asking seems on the dear side, you might be able to get a bargain.

“A lot of sellers are screening themselves with higher prices to protect their bottom line,” Mr. Stewart said.

Placing a bid, he added, is the only way to know if an apartment is in your reach. “Everybody who has their property on the market is motivated to sell.”

VERDICT: DON’T OFFER FULL PRICE

 

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How to Spot a Good Deal IN a market like this, it can be hard to look at a price tag and know if you’re getting a good deal. Many New York City apartments have had drastic price reductions in the last…... Read more >

How to Spot a Good Deal
IN a market like this, it can be hard to look at a price tag and know if you’re getting a good deal.

Many New York City apartments have had drastic price reductions in the last few months, as sellers chase after a cascading market. But a discount from a hugely inflated figure may not be a bargain.

Rachel Lustbader, a managing director at Warburg Realty, says that even though sellers are aware of the falling market, some still believe that their homes are the exception. “People love their apartments,” she said. “It’s like a child. And how can you believe that your child isn’t as pretty as they were three years ago?”

There are, however, well-priced apartments available. Some owners feel pressure to sell quickly, and set their prices accordingly. Others who bought before the market heated up feel more freedom to accept a lower price.

Sheer numbers, however, do not always communicate the bang for your buck.

Aspiring buyers have to consider whether the apartment has value that will hold up over time, so that even if prices don’t begin rising soon, the purchase will not be a mistake. Diane M. Ramirez, the president of Halstead Property, says buyers have to consider location, amenities, the quality of the building, the floor the apartment is on, and the view that it offers. That will help determine if the price is right. “It’s not focusing so much on ‘is it the cheapest,’ but looking at the quality of the product, too,” Ms. Ramirez said.

When you’re trying to get a sense of apartment price tags, there is no substitute for old-fashioned shoe leather.

“No one’s going to send you an e-mail saying, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s the best deal!’ ” said Jacob Goldman, the president of LoHo Realty. “There are no hard-and-fast rules. You just have to be out there.”

Cara Bloch, 35, a photographer who owns a company called A Home in the Sky that makes gift tags, is looking for a one- or two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan. Earlier this month, she saw three dozen apartments in four days. “You could lose a lot of weight doing this,” she said.

< Read less

The Real Deal  Going into contract in Gramercy With its well-maintained prewar buildings and tree-lined streets, Gramercy, the micro-neighborhood surrounding exclusive Gramercy Park, has…... Read more >

The Real Deal 
Going into contract in Gramercy

With its well-maintained prewar buildings and tree-lined streets, Gramercy, the micro-neighborhood surrounding exclusive Gramercy Park, has long been a desirable residential enclave.

But as with most Manhattan neighborhoods in recent months, sales have been few and far between.

This month, The Real Deal zeroed in on the area to find out how many deals in Gramercy are closing and to determine exactly what kinds of apartments are selling most strongly.

According to the real estate data Web site StreetEasy, the number of closings has dropped more than 81 percent in the last year. The site found that only 10 units closed in the area this April, the most recent closing data on record, compared to 54 in April 2008.

The site defines Gramercy as running between 14th and 23rd streets, and between Park Avenue South to the west and First Avenue to the east.

Sofia Kim, vice president of research at StreetEasy, cautioned that the number might not represent all the Gramercy closings in April of this year, since typically most closings are recorded with the city's Department of Finance two to eight weeks after the closing occurs. But even taking that into account, it was evident as of the middle of last month that far fewer Gramercy properties are trading now than during the same month-long period last year.

While most of the units that closed in April went into contract in the middle of the winter, they offer a representation of what's actually making it to the closing table and not falling apart because the mortgage fell through or the buyer got cold feet about the recession.

Of the 10 properties that did sell, six were co-ops, three were condos and one was a cond-op. Prices ranged from $295,000 to $2.7 million.

Seven of the 10 deals that closed were for one-bedrooms, and only two properties had two bedrooms or more — two facts that brokers say are helping to guide them as they decide which deals to chase.

Interestingly, only one of the sales recorded in April was for a building fronting the private park from which the neighborhood's name derives — a location that gives residents "key" privileges to Gramercy Park.

Elaine Mayers, a vice president and associate broker with Citi Habitats, said that while property on the blocks surrounding the park is "very desirable," it consists only of prewar buildings, so if a buyer is looking for an apartment in a building with newer amenities, they typically search elsewhere in the neighborhood.

With that said, only one of the sales in April was in a condo building developed in the past few years—the Gramercy Starck condo at 340 East 23rd Street, where interiors were designed by Philippe Starck.

The brokers who were fortunate enough to claim a sale reported several key trends that helped them clinch their deals. They said there were more first-time buyers and price drops of about 20 percent from the peak of the market, balanced by an increase in the number of buyers putting up more cash because less financing was available. Or, to put it differently, the sales climate in Gramercy has been something of a microcosm of Manhattan as a whole.

Mayers said first-time buyers have accounted for nearly "100 percent" of recent purchases in Gramercy. Mayers, who brokered one of the 10 deals that closed in April, an 820-square-foot, one-bedroom unit at Gramercy Park Tower at 205 Third Avenue, said it sold "fairly quickly" after hitting the market in October.

"We kept lowering the price as needed," she said. "We didn't want to chase the market."

The asking price for the co-op was originally $829,000, according to StreetEasy, and the last ask was $699,000. It ultimately sold for $670,000.

Mayers said the unit got multiple offers but that they were rejected before it ultimately went into contract. She also said the seller did some minor repair work to the unit at the buyer's request before the unit sold to help seal the deal.

Danelle Snider of Fenwick Keats Goodstein said a studio she sold at Gramercy East, at 301 East 22nd Street, went on sale in October, with an asking price of $350,000. The price of the co-op was reduced a couple of times, and it ultimately sold for $295,000. Asked what factors went into moving the deal to the signed contract phase, she said, "It helped that we had a motivated seller."

Snider also observed that while many would-be buyers might prefer to ink a deal in Gramercy, she's seeing "more people broadening their search to look in Kips Bay or Murray Hill, since many are looking for value over neighborhood."

Another Manhattan-wide trend seen in Gramercy in recent months is an increase in buyers putting more cash on the table since financing has become more difficult to obtain.

Sachiko Goodman, a managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman, sold a 525-square-foot alcove studio in the Gramercy Arms at 145 East 15th Street that closed for $425,000 in late April.

Goodman said the buyers financed much less than the maximum amount allowed by the building's co-op board. Along with other brokers, she said more buyers are being cautious nowadays and taking out smaller mortgages.

Plus, "many buyers need to put up more cash, because it's not easy to get a mortgage," said Goodman, who noted that the buyer of the Gramercy Arms unit was pre-approved for a loan.

Goodman said the sale of the studio, which was initially listed for $525,000 in mid-September and ultimately sold for $425,000 after a few price reductions, was a relatively easy one because of the "reasonable" price and the demand for smaller units in Gramercy.

In addition, she said, the neighborhood is still attracting parents buying apartments for their children.

In general, brokers said they believe Gramercy's tight supply and small size will help it retain its value — a selling point they are invoking with potential buyers.

"If you want to live on the Upper East Side or the Upper West Side, you have a lot more [inventory] to choose from," said Emily Tannen, a director at A.J. Clarke who recently brokered a sale in the Gramercy Plaza building at 130 East 18th Street. "Gramercy is a very small and desirable area, and there's more competition for apartments."

Rachel Lustbader, an associate broker and managing director at Warburg Realty who brokered the sale of one of the seven co-ops that sold in the neighborhood in April, said, "Gramercy prices are about 20 percent off peak."

"The neighborhood is in step with most of Manhattan" in terms of price decreases, said Lustbader.

Still, she said customers remain who are "very sure" they want to live there. That and the lack of supply are helping brokers in Gramercy seal the few deals that are being completed. "There are just a limited number of premier prewar buildings there," she said.

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