How low will it go?

Seems there's a pattern emerging based on other similar threads. 50% down buildings with difficult barriers for approval are proving difficult to sell.

A building has to have something going for it that buyers value, and buyers are people closer to age 40 (i.e. a year older than the oldest millennials) rather than 80. This is a group for which the "exclusivity" of a coop is a bug, not a feature. They are more mobile than their parents, more sophisticated about where they invest, and more interested in high-quality amenities. They are willing to live anywhere from Ditmas Park to Strivers' Row, not to mention Westchester. And with the condo boom of the last 30 years, they have more choices about where to live than ever before.

I don't know if coops like this will always be out of favor, but $3M strikes me as an insane price compared to what you can get in Sutton nowadays.

@George - You and a bunch of your friends could take over one of the Sutton or Beekman Place buildings and bring it into the 21st century. Seriously, take your pick and make crazy low offer. You never know. Our neighborhood needs more Georges.
@300_Mercer - Same goes for you!

Ha. Perhaps I will be convinced one day to cash out from my village no frills coop who has never turned down anyone with 20 percent down and ability to carry. Prices are indeed very attractive for high down payment, which I do not mind, Sutton place and UES coops West of Lex needing reno.

The listing in questions seem to need new bathrooms and potentially some reconfiguration. Location is great due to park proximity and public school is fantastic.

That 'wood' fire looks suspiciously fake... I'd want to know whether the so-called 'WFP' really burns 'W' or whether it's actually just a DFP. You know, it's the little things...

All of my friends with a few million $$ or more who are still in the city are in condos or townhouses. Many are non-US citizens or of the wrong race or religion or sexual orientation, or they want a new building with zero reno or even any maintenance. I have a buddy who could easily afford whatever he wants, but they're in a townhouse on the fringes of Brooklyn. Go figure...

Keith, this is why you are going to sell our place quickly when we put it on the market after the New Year... :)

Re listing in question, I am a buyer who really values Central Park (not view of it, but actual proximity to it). When we got to NY we chose proximity to office over proximity to park, but were we idle rich, we’d definitely pay a high premium for that location.

I'm not one for stuffy co-ops with silly barriers-to-entry. However, there will always be those who prefer a country club to a perfectly fine municipal course...

Nothing to scratch your head about regarding living in a townhouse in Brooklyn...

Keith Burkhardt
TBG

---- I am a buyer who really values Central Park (not view of it, but actual proximity to it).----

I have the same feeling about Riverside Park and proximity to it as well as park/river views. Worth a premium to me.

The irony is that many of these people who don't want to live in a coop are members of private country clubs with big initiation fees, Board interviews, and letters of reference from people the Board know. I even did it myself. And I hear the Meadow Club has no shortage of applicants. Xennials and millennials are still joining clubs and organizations (especially if you include SoHo House and Core); they just see less value than their parents and grandparents when it comes to living in one.

Country clubs have been forced to adapt. There has been significant consolidation with those that have the nicest facilities in the richest areas still doing okay, but even these clubs are not what they used to be (thank goodness) in terms of excluding certain groups or new money. Mercifully progress cannot be halted, even if it occasionally stalls. Arc of justice and all that.

Lol. I'm a golfer so I understand country clubs... I didn't mean it completely literally, just saying some people like the restrictiveness and control that a co-op board has. But I agree that many of these old school boards and their agendas will go the way of the dinosaurs.

My country club started allowing dark denim - quelle horreur. And they raised the over-35 initiation to its highest level ever. Initiation still scales down rapidly until basically nothing for junior legacies. Coops are the opposite. The people who bought in 1970 put down maybe a hundred grand, and the generation replacing them is expected to plonk down $1.5 million in the case of the coop in this thread. No wonder the kids aren't biting.

I worked at Douglaston, and it was the home course for my HS golf team back when it was still operated by the Parks Dept of NYC.

As Einstein said, " it's all relative"...those kids today are making $800k a year v.$30K. But then again, how many 30 something's want to live in a stuffy co-op on Sutton Place or Park Avenue...it's a dieing way of life in NYC.

When you you have a policy of 2x purchase price, 50% or more down, you're sending a strong signal. Not a building I would want to live in, even if I could afford it!

I think 50 percent down is probably doable for many 30 somethings but 2 times purchase price is effectively seeking 40 plus people. I am surprised the courts have not ruled that it is age discrimination.