Condo of the Day: 189 Schermerhorn Street, #15B
The high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows are the big selling points at this one-bedroom condo at 189 Schermerhorn Street (aka be@schermerhorn). The 15th-floor pad weighs in at only 662 square feet, though, making the asking price of $739,000 aggressive — especially when you consider that it traded for $425,000 in 2010. On the other hand,…
The high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows are the big selling points at this one-bedroom condo at 189 Schermerhorn Street (aka be@schermerhorn). The 15th-floor pad weighs in at only 662 square feet, though, making the asking price of $739,000 aggressive — especially when you consider that it traded for $425,000 in 2010. On the other hand, a 75 percent rise in value in four years isn’t out of line with a lot of other properties in the area. And those views sure are nice.
189 Schermerhorn Street, #15B [Corcoran] GMAP
I’ll take it for $600,000.
This price seems heavily weighted on the market continuing to push upwards in a big way. 20% down would leave you with a 2995/mo + 529 cc + 25 taxes + utilities, for at least 3600 a month there are better deals to be found on both a ppsf basis or as a renter that would be investing instead of putting down all that cash.
You know GMAP=Google Maps and is a separate link from the Brownstoner Marketplace link (which does indeed have an awful, awful picture-viewing experience), right?
Oh you know what I just noticed, 14B sold for 650k last sept, and was listed to rent for 2900. Perhaps there is a significant difference to account for the larger pricetag, but renters don’t usually care about that. I’m not sure you could get 3300/mo as a rental, especially when they have multiple B units renting for 2900! 8B, 4B, and 14B.
Speculation or (for now) a crappy investment. In my head I use a little metric: the rent should cover all your costs in the event you are forced to be a landlord (loss of income, job transfer etc.), in this case the rent for this unit was 3300, and in our scenario it costs 3600+ per month. I didn’t look too deeply but the tax amount would indicate there is an abatement in place. As the owner you can expect that cost to rise too. Oh and if you did have to sell, don’t forget about the broker fees, taxes etc. I think buying this with any intention of flipping it would be dumb.
It’s a nice enough place and it’s in a good location, but the numbers aren’t right.