What are the trends in the ever-escalating Manhattan real estate market? The average price of an apartment has shot up to over $1.2 million, with the average price per square foot rising 16.7 percent—for the first time reaching over $900 per square foot.
According to Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel, Inc., an independent real estate appraisal company, records were set in all price categories in the first quarter of 2005. These gains can be attributed to improving economic conditions, rising incomes, expected rising mortgage rates, and a tight housing supply.
The average loft sales price rose to $1,986,626, up 26.6 percent. And in the rarefied “luxury market” (the top 10 percent of all co-op and condo sales), the average sales price reached a new high of $4,533,297, an increase of 23.6 percent. To put it another way, luxury buyers who looked for three months before signing a contract lost approximately $860,000, the equivalent of three black sapphire 2001 Bentley Azure Mulliner Convertibles (about $250,000 each), 100 hours of annual flying time on a NetJets Hawker 400XP business jet ($793,750), or eight-and-a-half wedding dresses like the Christian Dior worn by Melania Knauss Trump (at least $100,000 each).
Real Estate Rush Online
The Internet has become a main supplier of real estate information. In fact, the blog Curbed.com has become the go-to source for real estate news. The site broke the story that a fight erupted at an open house between a broker and the owner of an apartment. When The New York Times picked up the story two weeks later, it noted that the broker had refused to leave, even though the owner repeatedly told her that he was selling the apartment himself. She kept trying to aggressively convince him to hire her, and finally had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, out of his kitchen.
The Internet is also becoming a prime source for property listings. Rather than poring over pages of grimy classified ads, most people now prefer to do a quick Web search. And, instead of waiting for callbacks from brokers, New Yorkers are logging on to real estate Web sites, which offer news, listings, and pictures.
Agents are getting into the action, too. When a new exclusive comes in, the first thing they do is put it online. The more tech-savvy ones are even starting their own blogs.
Stripping Down for Summer
If you are putting your home on the market this season, the best advice is: Strip it down for summer. You, yourself, wear fewer, more revealing clothes in the warm weather. Your apartment, too, should be cleaner, less cluttered, and touched up—if you want it to sell at its best price.
How do you beautify your for-sale home? Paint the walls, polish the floors, replace worn or dirty rugs and carpets, and repair broken windows and fixtures. The money you spend on these projects is likely to pay big dividends, so consider it an investment.
As superficial as it seems, clutter and dirt make your apartment less attractive, and that reduces the price buyers are willing to pay. If you have an excess of toys and clothes, pack them up and put them away. Otherwise, they could cost you $5,000 to $10,000. You should also reduce mess by moving out as many of your possessions as you can. Donate what you don’t need to charity and move the rest to storage or a friend’s basement in the burbs.
You might like your cleaned up apartment so much that you decide not to sell after all. At the very least, you’ll have a head start on packing possessions before moving day.
Home Runs
Where do star athletes gravitate when searching for a home off the field? When British soccer star Robbie Elliott asked us to help him buy a Manhattan flat this year for his family, he said he wanted a midtown location. When Elliott hits the Big Apple, he wants to be close to everything the city has to offer. His wife, Justine (mother of three and owner of a children’s clothing shop back in Newcastle, England), also wanted to be steps from Bloomingdales and the other East Side shops. They settled into the new pet-friendly condominium building at 205 E. 59th St., which boasts a rooftop Puppy Park.
NY Yankee Randy Johnson has settled down in a midtown Manhattan apartment with his wife, Lisa, and their four kids. The 6’10” “Big Unit” snapped up his own “big unit” on Broadway, in the northern reaches of the Theater District, just a short walk away from Time Square’s ESPN Zone and close to Patsy’s and Serafina, two of his favorite restaurants. The notoriously shy fast pitcher, who surprisingly chose this busy, central location directly in the spotlight, is paying $25,000 a month in rent for soaring 58th-floor views, 5 bedrooms, 5-1/2 baths, a library, formal dining room, eat-in kitchen, walk-in closets, and custom climate controls in each room.
The real estate market offers something for everyone. You just have to know where to look.
Lisa Maysonet and Sheri Jedell are real estate agents with Prudential Douglas Elliman. Contact them at (212) 891-4002. For more information, log on to elliman.com.
