Edge 31, Astoria new condo on 31st dr off Crescent

My boyfreind and I have an accepted offer and are about to sign a contract on one of these units. We'd gone to see about every new development condo in Astoria, and this one just seemed perfect- especially in terms of location. It's near Broadway and all its amenities, walking distance to 3 grocery stores, but tucked away from the noise on a quiet side street. The finishes were also very much to our taste, and the layouts employ a very econmoical use of space. There isn't a wasted square foot in the place. The only thing I'm not in love with is the washer and dryer being in the bathroom instead of in it's own closet, but again that speaks to their economical use of space.

My girlfriend and I tried negotiating with the people of Edge 31, but those guys think they have a gold mine. I know real estate is all about location, but those condos are WAAAAYYY overpriced. Yes, they are perfect if your a bachelor or a bachelorette, but if you plan on having a family in the next five years this place is financially wrong for you.

Your gonna need AT LEAST five years of a growing real estate market to even hope to break even on this place to sell. Remember, rent for a condo like this would go for $1,800. Is that enough to cover your mortgage if you decide you want a bigger place?

Also, your going to be paying over $20,000 in closing costs, because you have to pay $6,000 in transfer taxes.

Apart from how this place will set you back financially for the rest of your lives, the condo is tiny, the amenities are laughable (there is no exhaust vent installed for cooking odors/fumes!!) and the floor plan wastes valuable space with those ridiculous and useless balconies that can't even hold a small bbq.

Like you and your bf, my gf and I also really like this place. Thank goodness we brought in family and friends for their opinion. Everyone is in a different situation, but you gotta remember your not gonna be wanting to go out to cafes, bars, and clubs down the street for the rest of your life.

This a buyers market. Be patient, keep looking. Check out the Ditmars area, still Astoria, but you get mansions compared to what you get by Broadway for the same money.

Astoria Buyer- you're right in that if you're planning on having a family in the near future, buying a 1 bedroom in general isn't a good idea. As for amenities, washer/dryer in unit, a huge storage room, and a roof deck all seemed good enough to entice me. Other stuff, like a doorman, can jack up the common charges. In terms of new construction in Astoria, we felt this place was priced best in terms of psf.

In terms of layout, we opted for one of the larger units, because I agree, the balconies that cut into the facade, and eat away interior square footage seemed ridiculous to me. Especially in the rear units. If an apartment has a small little balcony off of the living room, why would you cut an additional, unconnected balcony into the building eating up 1/3 of the bedroom? That just didn't make sense to me. Not to mention that the smaller units were priced higher than the larger units.

We'd looked at just about everything in Astoria over the last few months, and I didn't really find any mansions we could afford, even over on Ditmars. We liked Plaza 21, but in the end it seemed a bit too much to pay to live that far away from the train.

How much was the PSF of the accepted offer?

Since we're in contract I can't say what we negotiated for at this point, but I can say that the asking price per square foot was $566, which I believe is over $100 less than they are asking for some of the smaller units.

Plaroche, which unit are you in contract with? Do you know if they've sold any of the units? None had been sold wheni
I went to see the units. Did you go with their bank (forget which one was listed on the banner)?

I totally agree that the washer/dryer seems odd in the bathroom and I wasn't too thrilled that everything is electric: heat, water and stove/oven. I'm sure the utilities will be super high.

It is one of the nicer condos in Astoria where you don't totally feel like you're in a shoebox. The condos in Astoria are ridiculous in size and price. It's actually making me look into the co-ops in Manhattan.

Good luck and Congrats!

plaroche, I'm assuming you're in contract on either 2F or 3F since those are the largest apartments in the building. I was told the buyer of 2F paid full asking price of $399,000 without a parking space or transfer taxes being paid for. 3F had a parking space included with a purchase price of $400,000.

If you look closely at the parking lot it seems so small that they had to put the spots in at a 45% angle inorder to fit the cars in. There doesn't seem to be enough space for a car to turn around before driving out from under the building. So you have to drive backwards out of the parking lot, under the building, and then down the driveway out onto the street. awkward.

The common charges seemed very high to me at $400/month considering they did not include heat or hot water and the heat is eletric heat.

This comment was left on curbed:
"Don't trust them!!!!!! They accepted my offer than the next day took one from another one, which is morally wrong!!! Beweare, they like to play games. Don't trust what they say!!!!! As the realtor told me it is a free for all until a contract is singed. You would expect that once a offer is accepted they would honor it."

mieter: Good info.

Cynthia NYC: As far as I know, they have 4 units in contract right now. We are not going with their bank, we've currently got 2 potential lenders vying for us, but we're going FHA so until the building sells 2 more units, and gets their CO (which I believe is happening in the next couple of weeks) we're sort of in limbo. We too were looking at the lower priced coops in Manhattan. Friends of ours purchased one last year in Harlem and love their place, but we just found the common charges on any of the places we liked were so much higher a percentage of your monthly output that with a condo, that we decided to go condo. We also have been living in the neighborhood for the last 5 years and adore it.

Meiter: It's correct that the heat and hot water aren't being included- but the common charges are adjusting down for that. The $400 quoted price was from the earlier offering plan in which those were included. So the current projections for common charges are $100 less per unit than was in the initial offering plan. As for the parking lot- I guess that would depend on the kind of car you drive. We were able to park in there at one of the open houses and didn't have any trouble backing out of the space and driving under the building facing front, but we drive a compact car. I mean, if you're sporting a Hummer then that could be a problem, but our Saturn didn't have any trouble.
As for the curbed comment, I agree, that's shady. We didn't run into any problem like that, and were weeks from accepted offer to contract signing, but hey, maybe that's just because we're getting hosed. The appraisal will tell. Thank god for financing contingencies :)

Any update on PSF range for an accepted offer?

Just curious....is all of the info above regarding Edge 31 ? Thanks!

Plaroche, any updates on your situation? I would be interested to talk to you about your experience with Edge 31

On the Modern Spaces website they have 5 out of 10 units listed as still available in this building and Wells Fargo is requiring 6 in contract to close with a non-FHA loan. Have any buyers closed in this building yet?

Seems to me the units on the lower floors went quickly and the higher floors are sitting there. Maybe the buyers weren't willing to pay as much as the seller thought to live on a higher floor?

plaroche: How do you feel you're getting hosed? Just Curious...

The building finally got the C.O. on 4/15 and there is an accepted offer on a 6th unit as well. Once the 6th contract is signed, they can start scheduling closings

I walked by the building yesterday, doesn't look like anyone is living there.

Appearently after all of this time they still don't have 51% in contract? I guess with the sellers not willing to negotaite on the prices you can expect to sit in contract waiting for a mortgage for a long time.

calldn, where did you hear they don't have 51% in contract? I was told a few weeks ago that they had 7 or 8 our of 10 units in contract.

There are 5 units listed on Street easy. Maybe the listings are a mistake??

Apartments 4F, 4R, 6F, 6R & 2F are listed on here but now the listing for 4R does say it's in contract. So it could be 6/10.

2F is also in contract, so they're at 7/10. 6F will never sell unless they knock the wall down and turn it into a studio. Right now it's a 350 sq ft 1BR with a huge 300 sq ft terrace. The bedroom is tiny and the living room is tiny.

I went to see this building and view 6R. Looks good but the heater is so loud!

To Plaroche: I am very interested in one of the unit! May I ask you if your experience with the building and the area have been good so far? Are the utilities very high. I would appreciate any pieces of information. Thank you very much.