Delusional to Desperate

inonada

Well-known member
For my first thread on UD, I will propose listings that have gone from delusional to desperate.

Suppose you went into contract for your commanding-view top-floor penthouse in 2004 for $10.7M and bought it in 2007:


As did the apt below you, at $10.2M, which then flipped in 2008 for $14.3M, then sold again for $14.1M in 2010 at the “bottom”, then $15.5M:


It’s a nice apt:


Same as yours but not the TOP, and not as redone. Only a fancified kitchen, no extensive millwork, no TV mounted and dropping from every surface imaginable. So clearly when you go to market in 2018, you should go big at $22M:


And spend a couple of years working your way down to $18.8M while “finding” another few hundred square feet laying around to add to the apt:


But, eventually you get tired and want to move on. So you put your tail between your legs, $15.5M for lesser apt be dampened, rename it the PENTHOUSE, and ask $13.5M. Until you wait another 6 months and drop to $11.5M, hoping for an offer to match your 2004 price:


With this sad copy:

The best part of being the buyer right now is the value. Priced under $2,800 per square foot, the Penthouse at 240 RSB is a steal. For perspective this apartment on Billionaire’s row would start with a cost of $40M and on Fifth Ave would start at $30M.
 

Noah Rosenblatt

Talking Manhattan on UrbanDigs.com
Staff member
ionada!! Great to see you here!

Thats quite a story and timeline there. I wonder if we can query others like that, and what that query would look like? hmmm
 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member
Related discussion:
 

inonada

Well-known member
ionada!! Great to see you here!

Thats quite a story and timeline there. I wonder if we can query others like that, and what that query would look like? hmmm
Glad to be here! SE was getting a bit stale: David alone is posting more of the gossipy watercooler RE chatter I crave here!

As far as a query, perhaps look for a high standard deviation of asking prices & sales across the years? Maybe you normalize by last sale price to get it to be on a relative scale rather than absolute. But maybe not, high dollar figures are more spectacular.

Nevertheless, I think you still need a human digging out the juiciest ones hidden behind ever-changing apartment numbers. This one is listed as unit STEII in ACRIS (and therefore sales records), PH-SUITE2 on earlier listings, and PENTHOUSE on the latest listings.
 

inonada

Well-known member
Related discussion:
I considered placing it there. Those were all delusionally priced, but the copy just never had anything like the desperation of this lede:

The words “trophy” and “luxury” in relation to real estate have been diluted by overuse in Manhattan, so let us explain what really makes a property here truly worthy of lavish praise and a prestigious imprimatur. It’s actually quite straightforward – the size and layout of the property, location of apartment in the building (typically the top floor/penthouse), the wow factor of the views, the quality of the interior build, where in town the building is located and how many services and amenities the building offers ALL need to be 10’s for a unit to be accurately called a Trophy.

It just seemed to need a thread of its own...
 

David Goldsmith

All Powerful Moderator
Staff member
Does this level of amenities seem to be the "highest and best use" of the space, or just playing to the desire of "exclusivity" and never having to rub elbows with another class of people, even if odds are these will be vastly underused.
 
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