Kirk Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling

“$80 million is the new $20 million,” Kirk Henckels, Stribling & Associates’ director of private brokerage, told the Wall Street Journal. The upper-most echelon of New York City residential real estate is reaching heights never broached by the pre-recession market, the Journal said.

According to numbers from Stribling, the record sale price was about $6,000 a square foot in 2008, and has now reached more than $10,000 a square foot. [more]

David Duchovny, the Ardsley and the 19th floor unit he’s in contract to purchase

“X Files” actor David Duchovny is in contract to purchase an apartment inside the Ardsley, an exclusive Central Park West co-op, multiple sources told The Real Deal.

The three-bedroom, three-bathroom unit is listed for $6.25 million by Jennifer Callahan and Kirk Henckels of Stribling & Associates. The purchase price for the apartment, which has been on the market since last August, was unknown. [more]

Darren Sukenik and 815 Fifth Avenue

A 25-foot-wide mansion along Fifth Avenue that hit the market last week with a $25 million asking price could ultimately sell for as much as $40 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, which used the property as an example of the strength of the high-end market.

The building, at 815 Fifth Avenue, is currently divided into offices and apartments, but prospective buyers, who hail from around the world, are looking to restore hidden details from the original construction and transform it into a single-family home. [more]

Kirk Henckels

The market was hot for Manhattan co-ops with prices over $5 million last year, according to a new report from Stribling & Associates, with prices and volume of sales increasing.

“Co-ops fared very well because the sellers reduced their prices,” said Kirk Henckels, executive vice president and director of Stribling Private Brokerage. “They got very real regarding bringing their prices back down from the peak of the market.” [more]

From left: 15 CPW, Time Warner Center and the Plaza

Not only is the high-end of the Manhattan housing market healthy, but in some respects it’s performing just as well as it did during the market’s peak, according to the Wall Street Journal. Seven deals worth more than $30 million have been recorded this year, not including Sanford Weill’s recent $88 million sale, the most since 2008 and the third-most ever. Further, the $6,000 per square foot price point that was noteworthy even in 2008 has become somewhat more commonplace, the Journal said.

The astronomical prices are buoyed by a shortage of ultra-luxury apartments, according to brokers, as the world’s wealthiest people are moving assets right now. … [more]

From left: Shelley O’Keefe of the Corcoran Group, Soho Mews at 311 West Broadway, Corcoran Sunshine’s Joanie Achumacher and Kirk Henckels of Stribling & Associates

Two years ago the holiday season was a dark time for New York City’s residential real estate brokers. This holiday season is quite a departure. Appointments are up, housing supply is down and brokers are planning to work through the holidays, making sure to be available for international buyers who will be in town and may just want to pick up a multi-million dollar Manhattan apartment as part of a holiday shopping spree.

The bleak days of 2009 have not yet fully faded from memory. “Nothing compares to that,” said Shelley O’Keefe, a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group and head of on-site sales for Soho Mews condominium, at 311 West Broadway, of the 2009 holiday season, shortly after Soho Mews premiered. But things are more than looking up this year.
… [more]

From left: Some of this week’s top brokers are Kirk Henckels, Alexa Lambert, Karen Foley (Sebiri), Jed Garfield and Daniela Kunen

… [more]

Russian magnates and other foreign investors are buying up some of the priciest residential real estate in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported, as the weak dollar makes for a bargain purchase. They’re interested primarily in high-profile purchases that will make an impression with their friends back home, sources said.

“Those trophies,” said real estate attorney Edward Mermelstein of recent purchases by foreign investors, “they’re buying them to make a splash. They’ll definitely gravitate to a property that’s higher profile as much as to a property with a long-term investment potential.”

New York, California and Florida are the primary markets popular with Russian buyers, according to Miller Samuel, with more than 65 percent of nationwide properties asking more than $20 million located in those states…. [more]

Brooke Astor and her home at 778 Park Avenue

Brooke Astor’s 778 Park Avenue duplex, near 72nd Street, once listed for an eye-popping $46 million, is now available for $24.9 million after its third price cut, the Daily News reported. Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, who was convicted last year of stealing from his mother’s estate, has been trying to sell the 15th-floor apartment, which boasts 14 rooms, five fireplaces and six terraces, since Astor died in 2007. It is listed by Stribling & Associates’ Kirk Henckels — the Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler had the original listing. The price, now nearly 50 percent off of its original, was first cut to $34 million, and then to $29 million last May. [NYDN]… [more]

The return of Wall Street bonuses, albeit largely in stock form, is proving a boon to the lower end of the luxury market, brokers say. After a year of going without, financiers who have bonuses coming to them once again are now looking to take advantage of a perceived trough in the real estate market — and quickly. “People are hearing about bonus money and think they’re going to miss out,” said Michele Kleier of boutique brokerage Gumley Haft Kleier, who said she received a flurry of calls in response to her high-end listings last week. Other luxury brokers experienced similar surges, an unusual event for what is typically a “quite sleepy” January market, said Stribling’s Kirk Henckels. Buyers in the $2 million to $3 million range are particularly active, with Manhattan contracts between $1.5 million and $5 million up 171 percent for the month that ended Jan. 15 over the year-ago period, according to Streeteasy.com. [NY Mag]