Condo of the Day: 497 12th Street, #1R

Remarkable.

I had a 3-bedroom apartment on 12th Street for a number of years. It was great - corner unit, full floor, 22' wide and 50' deep, newly gut renovated in 1998. The living room was in the corner and had windows on two sides. When I first moved in, the rent was $2,100 in 2002. By 2006 when I left, the rent was $2,500.

The garden is nice, but this place is narrow - it used to be a tenement railroad. The kitchen is just crazy.

I'm sorry, but these prices were all artificially inflated by the excessive wall street earnings that are now finished, probably forever. $800 a square foot for this place is just nuts. I mean seriously - you can get a smallish house twice this size in Greenwich for the same price and you'll have a similar commute to Midtown. Why on earth would anyone pay nearly a million dollars for a tricked out apartment that was built for laborers at the Ansonia factory?

Posted by: Polemicist at September 30, 2008 2:52 PM

11217

Ahh, my old nemesis.

"While that might be partially true, prices also inflated because NYC saw the level of crime plunge to historic lows, the streets cleaned, the parks returned to their former glory, and the world becoming a more urban place in general."

Your knowledge of the neighborhood is decidedly limited. Very little has changed in the vicinity of this property in the past decade. It's mostly the same restaurants, the same stores, and a few notable additions. The park is the same, and the streets are probably less clean due to the larger number of Midwesterners with their damn cars. I think the verdict is out on crime.

"If you think it had everything to do with Wall Street, you are more naive than I thought. "

The price of residential real estate is directly tied to the high end prices of residential real estate. Who precisely can afford a $700,000 mortgage besides such people? To which employment sector is this property marketed if not people who work in financial services? Those artistic, fashion loving lawyers?

"I came here in search of freedom, of expression, of culture and arts, of fashion and yes...a little of that Sex in the City image that NYC presents to the world."

I fail to see how this translates into wealthy people choosing to spend a fortune on a tenement apartment. I typically condemn Sex and the City as nihilistic and decadent, so I will stop with that. It certainly has little relevance to the pricing of this apartment.

"It has been a wonderful place to live and will continue to be a wonderful place to live."

This is also irrelevant to the pricing of this apartment

"You do realize that Wall Street did not even exist when the millions of immigrants came through Ellis Island in search of a better life. Wall Street may be important, but is by no means the reason most people love living here."

Of course, they came here to live the Sex and the City lifestyle! Who cares about jobs? Money is free! Uncle Ben can just give us BILLIONS and we'll live the life of kings! All we need is love!

You're right, what was I thinking?

Posted by: Polemicist at September 30, 2008 3:39 PM

Shyte.

"The price of residential real estate is directly tied to the high end prices of residential real estate."

I meant to say the price of high end residential real estate is tied to high incomes in the financial services sector.

Posted by: Polemicist at September 30, 2008 3:41 PM

11217

I think it's laughable that you don't understand the importance of hard data. I could care less what your brothers and sisters and parents and uncles and god knows who else can afford. I am referring to a specific potential market that we can quantify - i.e. a pool of buyers in specific industries that can afford such a mortgage. If not financial services, what else? Pray tell.

Pretend I am a banker funding the conversion of this building into condos. I would want to see evidence that there is a market of qualified buyers. Who would they be?

49712th

I admire your bravery coming on to this site, but the kitchen seems to suffer what we call in the business "functional obsolescence". There is a stairwell in the middle of the kitchen!

parkedslope:

As I said, I lived by this building for years. You know what? The F train sucks. It's horrible. I would never live by it ever again.

Posted by: Polemicist at September 30, 2008 5:54 PM

11233:

Obviously I know many people who can afford a $700K mortgage, myself being one of them. I live in a similar 8-family building with a much larger 2-bedroom apartment and pay $2,500 a month. Why on earth would I pay twice as much per month for the same apartment when there is almost no chance this place would ever appreciate significantly in the near term? When the city's largest employment sector by dollars earned is literally collapsing before our eyes? You would have to be a lunatic to take on such a death vow.

Such people are as numerous as you believe however, nor do I believe most hard working young people have any faith in the "trade up" game of the most recent asset bubble in this country. I don't know anyone, especially in my profession, who honestly thinks prices like this will ever appreciate to a level they will be able to cash out and flip the place.

The US Census Bureau estimates that in 2006, there are only 22,342 households in the entire borough with a household income above $200,000 a year - what I consider the minimum to be able to afford this place comfortably. When you consider there are literally hundreds of similar apartments on the market, and easily another 1,000 in the pipeline, one must ask the question: From where will these buyers come?

Posted by: Polemicist at September 30, 2008 10:29 PM