It must be some sort of Central Park effect: The days when the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side had distinct, even opposing, identities may be over. According to brokers, the two neighborhoods have grown so similar, particularly in real estate, that they are sometimes indistinguishable.
“There was a time when both sides of town were very different from one another, and people said they wouldn’t live in one place or they wouldn’t live in the other,” said Klara Madlin, president of Klara Madlin Real Estate, which is located on the Upper West Side but handles sales in both neighborhoods. “But I don’t think they’re that different from one another anymore.”
Historically, Central Park West — though lined with architecturally significant apartment buildings and boasting wonderful park views — never achieved the level of cachet and wealth of its more exclusive eastern sibling. But now there are signs the twain are meeting.
In the first quarter of 2007, apartment sales on the East Side averaged $1,128 per square foot, up 7.7 percent over the prior year quarter; and the West Side averaged $1,088 per square foot, up 6.6 percent over the prior year quarter, according to data from Miller Samuel.
“The difference is almost nothing,” Jacky Teplitzky, an executive vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said. “Now I see people buying and going from East to West, and West to East. I think 10 or 15 years from now, the differences will diminish even further. There is more mobility now between the areas.”
Sales of condominiums have remained fairly steady in both neighborhoods, clocking in at roughly 700 a year through the past decade, with the Upper West Side seeing marginally more sales than the Upper East. The median sales price of a condominium has typically been a bit higher on the Upper East Side, but both neighborhoods have seen the prices of condos grow by more than 200 percent in the past decade.
By contrast, a decade ago the median sales price of a co-op apartment on the Upper West Side was $230,000, actually exceeding — though not by much — that of a co-op on the Upper East Side, according to Miller Samuel’s numbers. Now, the median sales price of a co-op on the Upper East Side, at $755,000, is slightly more than for one on the Upper West Side.
Both neighborhoods have seen a sharp drop-off in the number of co-op sales over the past decade. Co-ops on both sides have appreciated at comparable rates.
On the Upper East Side, the rows of opulent mansions and townhouses around Fifth Avenue, once known as the Silk Stocking District, still fetch the highest prices by far in New York City. The differences in townhouse prices on either side of the park are perhaps some of the more striking remaining disparities between the neighborhoods.
The Harkness Mansion at 4 East 75th Street, just off Fifth Avenue, sold for $53 million last year, dwarfing the sale of the highest-priced single-family townhouse on the Upper West Side to date, which was 247 Central Park West for $15.5 million in 2006.
“The differences have to do with the nature of what’s there,” said Gregory Heym, chief economist for Halstead Property, pointing out that the West Side has fewer single-family homes than other areas of Manhattan. “On the East Side you have large, single-family mansions, and on the West Side you don’t really have many of them and none of the size of any of these East Side ones.”
Still, the Upper West Side has some prime properties to rival the Upper East, though they are typically newer ones. While the Upper East Side holds the record for the highest-priced co-op apartment sale ever — 834 Fifth Avenue went for $44 million to Rupert Murdoch in 2005 — the Upper West Side topped the chart for condominium prices with the $45 million sale of a unit at 15 Central Park West in 2006. That deal set a condo price record for the city until it was broken recently by a reported $56 million sale at the converted Plaza Hotel
“On the East Side you have very old, big prewar co-ops, and not a lot of condominiums on the pricey thoroughfares, while on the West Side, obviously, you’ve got some brand-new condominiums there that are fetching very high prices,” Heym said.
Brokers said the differences between the Upper East Side and Upper West Side may be largely ones of perception now. But those perceptions, some based on history, still have some staying power.
“As far as the difference between the Upper East Side and the Upper West Side, in my opinion, both sides of the park have their charms, but customers are rarely indifferent about where they want to live,” said Gina Serman, a vice president with the Corcoran Group.
She said the Upper West Side buyer is more forgiving of the lack of amenities, such as central air-conditioning, a bath with every bedroom or a full-time doorman, than the Upper East Side customer.
“Where the Upper East Side customers seem to be more conservative [and] less adventurous in their choices, the Upper West Side customers seem less regimented in their attitudes and preferences,” Serman said.
The toughest co-ops in the city are on the Upper East Side, west of Lexington Avenue, said Toni Haber, an executive vice president with Prudential Douglas Elliman, and difference in buying in top co-ops on the East versus West sides can boil down to the amount of money one has to put down on a property.
“On the Upper West Side, there are not as many buildings that require 40 or 50 percent cash down as on the East Side,” she said. “A lot of the co-op boards have higher cash requirements on the East Side, which eliminates a certain part of the market.”
New development appears to be capitalizing on the growing similarities of the neighborhoods. Both sides of the park are seeing a plethora of modern projects developed around their main transportation hubs — 72nd Street on the West Side and 86th Street on the East. Also, the same developers are working on projects in both neighborhoods, Teplitzky noted. One example is Extell Development, which is building the Rushmore at 80 Riverside Boulevard at 64th Street, among several other projects on the Upper West Side, and the Lucida at East 85th Street and Lexington Avenue on the East Side.
“Basically, they resemble each other a lot in the size of the units. We’re talking about large apartments with a lot of amenities,” Teplitzky said. She cited children’s rooms designed by Kidville, a sort of country club for children in Manhattan that offers courses and activities. “The new construction that has been happening during the last five years on the Upper West and Upper East is basically going after the same demographic.”
David Wine, vice chairman of the Related Companies, said his company also has two comparable projects on the Upper East and West sides: the Harrison at West 76th and Amsterdam Avenue and the Brompton at East 85th and Third Avenue. While both buildings are being designed by Robert A.M. Stern to mirror the respective architecture of each neighborhood, the Harrison is inspired by Romanesque architecture and the Brompton will be Gothic. Units in both are designed to appeal to families.
“Today, the definition of a family is so broad that we really design apartments that are completely flexible,” Wine said. “So that a bedroom can be converted into a home office or a family room. An eat-in kitchen can be connected to the room next door to create a family room. You can have a formal dining room, or you can have a library.”
Though the layouts of Related’s apartments may differ slightly from East to West (the East Side apartments are inspired by the classic prewar Rosario Candela buildings organized around longer corridors), in general the demographic is the same, Wine said.
“We anticipate getting fairly comparable prices,” he said.