Sales downtown condo studio

My $.02 is that location remains a more important factor in housing appreciation but let me state the following opinions on studios and other small apartments:
- best to be close to places of work
- best to be in a building with amenities - think hotels
- best to be young and have an active lifestyle so you are not home all day long

Trends are changing and smaller apts. are increasingly popular today for economic as well as personal reasons. NYC recently changed its zoning laws to allow "micro-apartments" of less than 300 sf.

I think demand for studios will grow faster than larger apts. due to affordability, demographics and demand for pied-a-terres.

My first owned apt. was a small coop studio that took me forever to unload when I moved out to take a new job out of town. So I rented it out and went through 4 tenants in four years. So I feel certain that studio apt. turnover is much higher than other apt. types.

You are correct that flexibility is important therefore look for a building with liberal sublet provisions if you outgrow, get married, change jobs, etc. For that reason, I would not recommend a coop.

A new development studio in prime Manhattan around $1,500 PPSF is not bad. I've seen pre-construction being sold out for condos that are around $1,000-1,100 PPSF ... but that involves construction risk (think delays etc.). Of course, finished new developments could easily go for over $2,000 PPSF, and much higher for ultra luxury (over $3,000 PPSF).

With that said, larger studio condos in ultra desirable areas like Meatpacking and Soho can easily go over $2,000 PPSF as well, really depends on the unit.

Whichever route you take, try to get most of your mortgage recording tax back through a home buyer commission rebate through a company like Hauseit. It makes no sense to just by default get tricked into dual agency and let the listing agent earn a double commission payday. Plus, dual agency is very awkward and uncomfortable to begin with!

There's a lot of new development going on in the East Village / Lower East Side as you've mentioned. I have a feeling developers are trying to make it the next it place, like Soho, Meatpacking, Tribeca years ago. They may succeed, though there are more housing projects in that area. Especially tough I think for some projects like 1 Manhattan Square, very pretty building but surrounded by projects. We'll see. Only time will tell. Perhaps there is a way to remove the housing projects, especially with the recent crime wave of random sucker punch and sucker knife attacks. It's quite scary.

JR1, how can you get the mortgage recording tax back through Hauseit? I believe the mortgage recording tax is something like 2.05% (?) on the loan amount. But not for co-ops. That's pretty unbelievable.