Actress Jennifer Aniston has long sought to trade the (unrealistically spacious) apartment she inhabited on “Friends” for a real, flesh-and-blood Manhattan home. For years, she’s been spotted checking out everything from newly constructed Financial District condo 20 Pine to the Village co-op 552 LaGuardia Place.
Now, Aniston has finally made up her mind. Last month, her purchase of two units at the West Village condominium 299 West 12th Street hit public records, signaling once and for all that Aniston is ready to commit.
Whether her buy at the building, developed by prewar tastemakers Bing & Bing, indicates a market recovery is less clear.
According to the listings website StreetEasy, Aniston paid $4.95 million for an 18th-floor terraced penthouse owned by the celebrity hairstylist Sally Hershberger, some 16 percent less than its last asking price of $5.9 million. However, she paid more than the $1.8 million asking price for the downstairs one-bedroom Apt. 17G, plunking down $2.1 million, roughly $2,500 per square foot.
Apartment 17F is also in contract for just under its asking price of $1.99 million, listing broker Jeffrey Stockwell said. However, he said Aniston is not the buyer.
Now, 17G’s higher-than-expected price could be the result of savvy negotiating by the listing broker. But it’s also symptomatic of an overall schizophrenia in the marketplace, brokers said.
Holdouts like Aniston now seem willing to come off the sidelines, brokers noted. Still, it’s difficult to predict which apartments will launch bidding wars, and which ones will sit.
“It’s astounding to me how some apartments get 10 appointments a week and others get one, and the apartment with one can have lower pricing,” said Elliman’s Leonard Steinberg. “There’s almost no rhyme or reason.”
Ari LeFauve, senior vice president and associate broker at MNS, said he’s noticed a similar trend.
“In some cases, bidding wars are becoming prevalent again, and in other cases a listing will sit stale for months,” LeFauve said.
Ray Assis, an associate broker at City Connections Realty, said geography plays a role in demand, but it’s still unpredictable.
“I’m seeing bidding wars with studios and two-bedrooms in the Columbus Circle area,” he said. Meanwhile, a $4 million exclusive in FiDi “had little activity,” with only a few buyers looking at it.
Would-be purchasers remain obsessed with getting a deal.
“Pricing, pricing, pricing; it’s all about pricing,” said Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Jacquelyn Lew.
Often buyers’ perception of price is more important than the actual dollars and cents.
“If it is perceived that a property is asking a realistic price, there is enough demand that you may experience a bidding war,” LeFauve said. “If the property is perceived to be overpriced, it will languish unsold.”
Buyers are displaying more urgency than they have in the past.
“The amount of people out shopping has definitely increased,” said Steven Halpern, a senior vice president at the brokerage A.C. Lawrence.
“The process has gone from molasses-in-the-winter slow to rapid,” added Kristin Hitsous, associate attorney at real estate law firm Rosabianca & Associates. “I have had to, at times, drop everything to review an offering plan and financials … for a client anxious to sign a contract.”
These bidding wars also mean that some properties are going into contract above their asking prices, which was virtually unheard of in recent years.
“We are seeing well-priced properties moving quickly, with bidding wars and many contracts above asking price,” said Stephen Dore, a real estate salesperson at Bond New York.
Stockwell, a senior vice president at Stribling, said several of his sellers in recent weeks have “refused to countersign contracts that the buyers had signed. They think they’ll get 50 percent more in a few years.”