NEIGHBORHOODS
New York’s rich are downwardly mobile Uptown loses top ranking for priciest digs At $24.5 million, the penthouse in Soho’s The Bayard shows why Downtown, not Uptown, is tops in asking prices.
D
owntown is the place to be if you have a really swanky pad to sell.
was $2,685, according to Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group. The reasons why Downtown is sizzlin’ are, well, as many as
For the first time, the asking prices for uber-
there are buyers. Brokers, though, attribute the excitement to the
luxury apartments south of 34th Street—not
neighborhoods as well as a bevy of new white-glove towers hit-
including the Financial District or Battery Park
ting the market.
City—are higher than they are in Midtown and Uptown, new data show.
“Uptown is tried and true—if you list something pre-war Uptown, you’re going to sell—but Downtown really has the buzz right
The important number here to know is price per square foot.
The dollar figure for Tribeca, Soho and Chelsea is more than $7,000. For a 2,000-square-foot home in this rarefied category, for example, the asking price would be roughly $14 million.
now,” said Michele Kleier, a luxury broker whose firm Kleier Residential is based on the Upper East Side. “It used to be some people would have a 10-block radius in which they wanted to live [on the Upper East Side],” she said. “Now,
The average asking price for a luxury apartment in Downtown overall stood at $2,777 per square at the beginning of the year; for
it’s a lot more about the apartment for a lot of people. They’re flexible on location.” —Katherine Clarke
similar homes in Midtown and Uptown, the per-square-foot cost
How long do UES homes take to sell?
Number of days has plummeted in just the last 12 months
Joanie Schumacher, sales director at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group Q: How are buyers able to get the apartments they want in this tight market? A: Buyers are acting faster. Instead of four or five visits, buyers frequently come back only once before making an offer. Purchasers are still looking at several neighborhoods, but only a handful of apartments before making their decision. When they decide to make an offer, the offer is typically close to the asking price.
Year
Days on market
2013
147
2012
227
Susan Abrams, senior managing director at Warburg Realty
2011
257
Q: Where is the greatest dearth of homes on the market?
2010
257
2009
267
Source: StreetEasy; averages are for April 14 of each year
14
Sizing up the market
Luxury Listings NYC | MAY/JUNE 2013
A: All over the Upper East Side in the two- and three-bedroom market. Apartment buyers in the $1 million to $4 million range are facing a very competitive marketplace. The inventory crunch is even greater west of Third Avenue.