If You Can Demonstrate Market Movement With Comps: West Village Edition

To kick it off somewhat:

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/161-perry-street-manhattan

161 Perry is FAR West Village, but notable that we've got a decent comp here, with 1C seeing 28% appreciation since 2004. 3A currently on the market asking not all that much more than 4A sold for in 2005. Interesting to see what it ends up going for, as it started its listing life at $2.45m, now down to $1.695m.

3A has been on the market for a year and a half. i don't know what the deal is with the sellers; if the actually need to sell the thing, i think you could see a shocking price on this, say 1.1.

bjw are you sure we need a separate thread for every little neighborhood down town? i don't want to have to check 15 threads just to find out what's been cut.

happyrenter, I kind of agree with West81st that the regular comps thread was getting too cluttered and long. I think actual buyers would get more use from broken out versions, especially since most buyers tend to focus on a handful of neighborhoods at best. Those that won't generate much responses will die on their own anyway.

bjw,

that's the problem: "those that won't generate responses will die on their own anyway." then we lose out on the comps from those neighborhoods. if having the entire city in one thread was getting too long, why couldn't we have just tried 'downtown' for a few days and see what happens? now we have all these discussions 'where do i put meatpacking district' or 'flatiron' or 'chinatown' or 'little italy.' i mean, i don't think i have ever seen one comp posted for some of these neighborhoods.

happyrenter, I don't think we have to be super strict about neighborhood definitions. I don't mind including Meatpacking here, for example, but people should sort that out for themselves. Your argument is well-intentioned, but think about it - if you haven't seen comps for some of these areas, the thread will peter out. I don't see why you would need comps from other neighborhoods if you're not looking to buy there (in which case you would hopefully be posting there).

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/building/25-charles-street-new_york

This is pretty interesting. I saw this unit back when it was for sale in 2007 - it was in terrible shape, awful layout, ground floor, though a pretty top location. Was asking $799k, went for $760k in Jan 08. Completely redid it (and pretty well considering what it was) and now asking $979k. Terrible flip timing, I must say. If he needs to sell, I see him easily eating all the reno costs, unfortunately.

bjw-
personally, i want comps from the entire borough, because i want a comprehensive picture of the housing market. i guess that's unusual. anyway, hopefully this works. i usually operate under the 'ain't broke, don't fix' rule, but again, hopefully it works.

as for that apartment, he is going to do more than eat the renovation costs. no one sane is going to pay a million bucks to live in a smallish, ground floor apartment with no garden--gut renovated or not.

more interesting is the 4th floor apartment, although 4th floor walkup is not exactly ideal either. i saw this one a few years ago in horrendous shape, asking around 800 i think. i wish i remembered. doesn't say what it closed for. but the layout is horrendous, and they didn't find a way to fix that.

06/25/2007 Previous sale closed for $1,900,000
10/03/2008 Listed in StreetEasy by Corcoran at $1,995,000
11/11/2008 Price decreased to $1,920,000
01/12/2009 Price decreased to $1,495,000

200 Mercer Street #2B

06/25/2007 Previous sale closed for $1,900,000
10/03/2008 Listed in StreetEasy by Corcoran at $1,995,000
11/11/2008 Price decreased to $1,920,000
01/12/2009 Price decreased to $1,495,000

Thanks for starting this thread. It is worthwhile because IMHO, the WV has resisted price cuts more strongly than any other neighborhood I have seen. I think it is a function of limited inventory and people feeling it is special and buyers will pony up for it. Any other opinions appreciated.

200 Mercer is not West Village.

malthus,

i disagree. i've seen lots of price cuts in the west village. i think the neighborhood gets little attention on here for two reasons:

1. small supply of apartments simply means fewer apartments. there have been plenty of chops, but there are not a lot of units to talk about.

2. because of the nature of the housing stock it is very difficult to comp the units. i see plenty of places that have come down a lot in price and that i know intuitively are asking way less than peak prices. but very few of them have same building comps let along same line comps.

Who said the west village was "different"? look at this apartment rental, they can't give it away:

277 West 10th Street
StreetEasy History
09/07/2008 Listed in StreetEasy by Caran Properties at $4,500
09/27/2008 Price decreased to $4,400
10/06/2008 Price decreased to $4,300
10/17/2008 Price decreased to $4,200
10/23/2008 Price decreased to $4,100
11/08/2008 Price decreased to $3,950
01/02/2009 Price decreased to $3,800
02/10/2009 Price decreased to $3,775
02/19/2009 Price decreased to $3,650

http://www.streeteasy.com/nyc/rental/409846-277-west-10th-street-west-village-new-york

11 units in the building for rent out of 144 total, do you think the landlord is getting nervous?

I didn't say it was different. I said that the owners there may think it is holding up better, and they may be right. Just to be clear, I see prices in every neighborhood coming down for the foreseeable future, but some will be impacted more than others. They already are (see Williamsburg). But while I see a lot of price chops in the UWS, I see far fewer in the West Village. Just my anecdotal experience and limited to the price range I have been eyeing. I'm not trying to start a market will/will not go up debate. That horse has left the barn. Just trying to parse through the info out there in more detail to see where the deals are and will be.

Rentals are different though since they have to adjust quicker. But still useful info. Thanks.

malthus,

you are certainly right that there are fewwer price chops in the west village than on the upper west side. but there are nearly 9x as many apartments on the market on the upper west side as in the west village according to street easy--and this with a very expansive definition of the west village. so you would have to say that there are proportionately fewer price chops--as in, fewer than 1/9th as many price chops in the west village as on the upper west side--to have a valid point here.

I'm not trying to make a point. I'm trying to gather information. But based on what you have laid out, there have been price reductions of 5% or more on 13.7% of the for sale places in the West Village in the last 60 days and 17.1% of those in the UWS. So this particular statistic supports what I believe I am seeing. But I don't think its particularly useful. I get your point though -- you don't agree with me. I hope you are right.

malthus,

The West Village is one of the primary areas I am following. I would tend to agree with you that the drop off on prices has been slower there than in other areas. But I think there are signs it is finally starting to crack.

"But based on what you have laid out, there have been price reductions of 5% or more on 13.7% of the for sale places in the West Village in the last 60 days and 17.1% of those in the UWS. So this particular statistic supports what I believe I am seeing"

Perhaps the UWS prices started higher. Or the WV ones reduced their prices more than 60 days ago. Or... there could be numerous other factors.

Can't look at the stat in a vacuum.