Sale at 155 15th Street #PHA

I was not able to view the document. Do u mind sending the link again. I was thinking of buying there

Umm, try this:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0LePBSJtldfaUZHMlZtT2VOeUU/edit?usp=sharing

I agree pricing seems off. PHA is listed at $917/sqft and PHB at $970/sqft although it is smaller and has smaller outdoor space as compared to PHA. Does any one has any idea why it is so although both are on same floor.

Thanks for the link. Interesting. Also PHB is priced at $ 970 prr sq ft whereas PHA is at $917 per sq ft. Same floor, even more outdoor space in PHA. Unclear of pricing of these units and whether they gonna appraise to that value.

There is a reason the units have been on the market since 2010... Sponsor is unrealistic when it comes to a fair, market price. They are pricing the unit to that one person who has to have it and doesn't realize they will loose money if they try to sell it within 12 to 15 years. As to why PHB is more per square foot than PHA... b/c they just made the prices up! They don't reflect any semblance to actual market value. The reality is the building is really gowanas not park slope. The school district is gowanas and there is a check cashing store across the street but they are pretending they are in the north slope.

Unfortunately your analysis is quite flawed, although I applaud your attempt to do it objectively in the first place. Firstly, your analysis does not take into account the passage of time: an apartment sold in February or March of 2012 would not sell for the same PPSF in 2013, and you are ignoring the impact of the significant appreciation in Brooklyn real estate over that period. Whether that appreciation is justified or not is debatable, but what isn't is the impact that would have on your regression outputs.

Secondly, despite disaggregating the parking and outdoor space, you are assuming that a square foot of interior space on the second floor is equivalent to a square foot on the penthouse level. While the relative value of each is quite subjective, one can argue that having neighbors on only two sides (floor and one wall) is much preferable to having neighbors on at least four sides (floor/ceiling/two walls). Additionally, you have the benefit of superior sight lines, limited noise levels, and I believe somewhat better finishes in this case, not to mention whatever the psychological value (or maybe obnoxiousness - depends on the viewpoint I guess) of having a "Penthouse" address.

Thirdly, along the same lines, you are assuming that the outdoor space for this unit should have the same value as that of the ground floor garden units. Again, one could make the argument that a top floor terrace with views over the city/sound/Brooklyn would have more PPSF value than a ground floor garden with limited privacy and potential pest issues.

I actually had done a similar analysis on this particular apartment myself before I stumbled on this post. I was interested but in the end couldn't get my finances together soon enough to make a bid, so I've been applying my own methodology to other apts in the neighborhood as well. In the end I thought the price at $1.35 was a bit too steep, although I could understand them trying to get it of course. It's funny, the other thing you can do is a time-series regression and depending on your lookback period, you can easily get projections for this apartment of over $2mm in 5 years. Now obviously that assumes a similar appreciation to what we've seen in past years, which is probably unlikely, but still.

I'm still looking myself, but $ for $, I think you are getting more value in Gowanus/South Slope than in North Slope or for sure prime Park Slope/Carroll Gardens. Plus you get some beta to gentrification, which you really don't get in those more developed areas.

And here we are a few years later and these prices look almost quaint - hard to believe. I was just looking at this condo nearby on 13th street (http://streeteasy.com/building/289-13-street-brooklyn/1r ) and for a 2Br 1Ba with ground floor outdoor space you're paying $1.6mm ask. Onward and upward I guess...