Price differential per floor

Not so easy, Depends on number of floors, view and whether there are obstructions on lower levels vs higher levels.

and depends if you are the buyer or the seller..

well lets say on average for an unobstructed building

Look at asking prices for new construction. E.g., the G-line at the Laureate:

11G $1,824,000 +7.61% 0.4377 0.55%
10G $1,695,000 +1.50% 0.4353 0.55%
09G $1,670,000 ........... 0.4329

The 11/10 and 10/9 ratios make no sense, unless 11 clears an obstruction across the courtyard or something. The PRCI, on the other hand, goes up an even .55% per floor.

More illustrative would be old co-op conversions, where share allocations determined the prices tenants paid, so had to be not egregriously off. E.g., your one-bedroom line's share-count went up by one share, or .917% to .82%, per floor.

Also in some building higher apartments in a line get different layouts with setbacks used for terraces for example. But obviously if one floor has view of a building and one above has views of city and river or central park, the mark up ain't gonna be just $10k for that.

Depends, if 8ft ceilings, each floor up is less valuable than 10ft ceilings, and a lot less than if you have 12ft ceilings.

If there is no difference in light and view, for a high-rise, the difference should be minimal - say 1%. When you are taking about very low floor 2-5 in highrise, the difference should be higher even with the same views as each higher floor gives you extra light. At the end of the days, calculations are very subjective. You can look up the listing prices on any new construction with say 15-20 floors. Will give you a good idea. However, beats me why the townhouses are so damn expensive per sq ft as they neither have the view or beaming sun-light.

>However, beats me why the townhouses are so damn expensive per sq ft as they neither have the view or beaming sun-light.

How much time do you spend looking out the window?
Even still, people talk about "pretty blocks" ... how many of them are blocks with hi-rises? So you live in a townhouse on a "pretty block" and that's your view.

The point about the lay-outs being different is very important. Developers have gotten very good at packaging and realize that there's a maximum per square foot that they can get on the one bedrooms that is different than the two, three & four bedrooms.

hberg, around lower 5th ave, there are many high rises and many townhouses. They have the same view and light. However, townhouses are far more expensive that low floors of high rises.

Bottom line, it's embarassing to get into an elevator and hit a low floor button when there are others who are hitting the high floor button. In a townhouse, there's not going to be many on a higher floor and it's unlikely there will be an elevator.

some truth to it.

Some? Give me a break. Each time you get into the elevator with someone on a higher floor, you are thinking "damn, why didn't I just spend the extra $50K to be up on that floor" and the other person in the elevator is thinking, "what a loser, couldn't even come up with $x to be above floor x, and he'll never know that my apartment hasn't even been renovated since 2004".

mercer: do you realize who hunters burg is? if so, do you care?

mercer, do you realize that there is no space between the 'hunter' and the 'burg' in my name?

Also, do you realize that Columbia County is hours away from Mercer Street? If so, do you care?

Has anyone ever seen an outhouse with multiple stories? Maybe in Columbia County?

Would you rather be on the upper floor of the outhouse or the lower floor of an outhouse?

I'm going for the upper floor of the outhouse. Money is no object.

Columbiacounty, I can get you a good deal on the lower floor.

luv the elevator analogy. It's almost akin to RENY telling people at cocktail parties what a shrewd investor she is and how expensive her apartment is on paper.

Expression on RENY's face when she comes to the realization of the actual price of her apartment.

Priceless....

outhouse floor.. lol hahhahhahahhhahhahhhhhaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahhahah ok maybe one too many tonight.. but soooooo funny

There are low-lying neighborhoods in Manhattan where you can have great light and pretty decent views even from townhouses. In my 'hood (Chelsea), it's not uncommon to have Empire State Building views from as low as the third floor if you face north. I've even seen second floor apartments with ESB views.

You go up to high and the view is actually worse in many instances, especially if you are trying to enjoy River View. Too high up and you're looking across to the next state or borough and can't really see the water. High floor is also a great way to pay more taxes for the same square footage.

Riversider makes a very good point. As a river view nut, I would always prefer to be somewhere between the 9th through 15th floors. Any higher and you start to lose that wonderful glint from the river unless you are standing right at the window looking down.

By the way, this UrbanDigs post might be of interest:
http://www.urbandigs.com/2008/04/the_importance_of_views.html

and the 9th floor is better for safety reasons.

As long as going up one floor doesn't clear a view obstructing building, the difference should be minimal. Being on a higher floor is usually more desirable just because you're higher up and the view is slightly better. It also means less noise from the street or neighbors who have backyards or courtyards.

What about price difference between ground/1st floor and 2nd floor?