Sale at 473 WEA #4C: Déjà vu, with a $925K markup.

hey--the herb is quite powerful these days--

this is a seller's market, don't you know. we are back to drinking bubbly for breakfast and smoking the hydroponics for CA.

don't wait, jump on this unit today or the price will be increased by another $500K.

Once fully decoded from brokerspeak into English, it sounds like they repainted the hallways and renovated at least one bathroom. For a cool million.

$925K paint job... nice.

i saw that apartment the first time around--didn't love it then, don't love it now.

Don't be so fast to judge.
The Reno was completed by the crack contractor team of Spitzer & Sheen.
Those walls...painted by high end coked up escorts.
Have you any idea how much turpentine you need for that clean up?

happyrenter: Agreed. The one that caught my eye back then was #11C - a much better value at $1.67MM

The listing has been amended. The new text seems less specific, but no less misleading:

"New on the Market! PRE-WAR CLASSIC 6. TRIPLE MINT CONDITION. HUGE EAT-IN KITCHEN/DEN COMBO. Newly renovated home maintaining all the exquisite original detailing i.e. hardwood bordered parquet floors, crown, base and chair moldings and high ceilings. Spacious entry foyer opens to large formal dinning room and elegantly proportioned living room. The two generous bedrooms have updated en-suite baths. It is an end unit with north, south and west exposures, 6' double-hung soundproof windows and garden views. The large kitchen/den features custom crafted cabinets, sub-zero refrigerator, thermador grill-top, disposal, washer/dryer and wine cooler plus windows galore. Cover feature in a decorator magazine 'Designer Live-In Kitchen and Den' it really is a wonderful home."

A comparison to the 2008-2009 listing supports Maly's conclusion: "Newly renovated" in this case means "Renovated at some point by the previous owner."

that seems to be very common these days.

ab_11218's post three months ago was eerily prophetic:
"Don't wait, jump on this unit today or the price will be increased by another $500K."

And sure enough...
05/11/2011 Price increased by 20% to $2,750,000.

Now that's just dumb.

damn, i am smoking the good stuff now seeing this kind of stupidity.

what happened? did they paint 1 wall that the people didn't like for 3 months and added 1/4 Mil in value?

The owners clearly should hold on to their fast-appreciating property.

Gotta love entertaining in your ~$3 million apartment and having to sheepishly point your guests to the bathroom through one of the bedrooms.

UWSFamily: You beat me to it!

"Building Wealth Through Renting
By DAVID LEONHARDT

I replied:

Yes, building equity is a good thing. But the advantages of it are exaggerated.

For one thing, how do you know you’ll be building equity, as opposed to making an investment that will lose money? People who bought in Florida, Las Vegas, Phoenix and much of inland California in 2006 thought they would be building equity. I interviewed some of them. But they did not. In many cases, they lost all of their equity. There is definitely some downside risk in the New York market today.

Second, by buying a house, you’re making a decision to tie up your capital in a specific sector — real estate. It’s entirely possible that the money you spent on a down payment would have earned more money in the stock market, for instance.

Finally, buying also involves throwing thousands of dollars down a hole: in mortgage fees and interest, in property taxes, in repairs and renovations, in tens of thousands of dollars of closing costs. Renting doesn’t involve the huge up-front costs that buying does. Owning also involves some continuing costs (e.g. repairs) that renting does not.

Living somewhere is always going to involve costs, just as education, health care and food involve costs. Financially, the decision to buy is basically a decision that your investment will increase in value by an amount sufficient to make up for all the additional costs of buying. (Put it this way: you’d never buy an apartment if you were staying in a city for just a week, in an effort to build equity. You’d rent — a hotel room.)

Sometimes — often — the decision to buy works out. But it does not work out far more often than is commonly understood."

Here is another one on the market a few months ago that didn't sell and now back on at 200k higher and well above previous sales.

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/607736-condo-272-west-107th-street-manhattan-valley-new-york

isnt David Leonhardt a proponent of reverting to the gold standard and raising gasoline taxes. How's that going to work out for us?

Well, the price increase was fun while it lasted. It was either a setup for a dramatic price cut or - more likely - a typo.
05/11/2011 Price increased by 20% to $2,750,000.
05/13/2011 Price decreased by 17% to $2,275,000.