Data is one thing; people are another. The Real Deal is going to regularly visit open houses all over the city in a new feature called “Inside the Open Houses.” Below, Riva Froymovich offers snapshots from recent weekends on the Upper West Side.
Upper West Side: Cheaper is busier
Two Corcoran Group brokers waited for their guests at 136 West 75th Street.
Priced at $1.45 million, apartment #6A has a big draw, said agents Debra Hoffman-Brill and Amanda Cernitz: a private 1,200-square-foot roof deck. “People are looking for something special,” said Cernitz. “Before, for the past three or four years, people were trying to get whatever they could get.” Today, the feeling is buyers want pre-war buildings, outdoor space, high ceilings, a skyline or river view — something more.
When, by 12:30 on a Sunday afternoon in mid-September, no one had yet arrived, the two salespeople explained that the later hours of open houses draw the Upper West Side crowd.
“We don’t bring 50 fact sheets anymore, as opposed to two years ago when you’d have a nonstop flow of people,” Cernitz said, nodding to her marketing pamphlets. The papers peddled a gourmet chef’s custom kitchen, washer/dryer, state-of-the-art lighting and sound system, and a dining room, all in mint condition.
Yesterday’s bidding wars have fallen by the wayside, Cernitz and Hoffman-Brill said, and the buyer’s market has re-emerged. Negotiability has even re-entered the vocabulary.
“There was a supply and demand issue,” said Cernitz, and buyers previously were bidding too high for mediocre properties. (Cernitz recalls a client who paid $45,000 more than the asking price on the Upper West Side for a view of a brick wall; “everyone is committed to a neighborhood,” she noted.)
“We’re getting truer comparables now,” Hoffman-Brill said. “It’s a fairer market.”
The change in the real estate market dialogue on the pages of newspapers and across Sunday brunch tables — from “expanding bubble” to “unsustainable heights,” followed by “decent time” and “more properties” — seems to have left some Upper West Side buyers cautious rather than confident. They’re “just looking,” Cernitz said.
As far as pricing, “No one is getting a steal and no one is giving anything away,” she said.
Meet the buyers
“We’re trying to figure out if we can stay here in this area or if we have to move to Park Slope for more space,” said Kim Lenderink, a 29-year-old freelance graphic designer, as she eyed the master bedroom of a two-bedroom co-op at an open house in 213 West 80th Street. The unit is listed for $639,000.
Lenderink and her husband currently own a smaller place on West 89th Street and have lived there for two years.
“It’s time,” she said.
But for now, the couple is just “getting a feel” for what they have in store.
The 80th Street apartment was bustling with young buyers; by 1 p.m., 10 potential customers had already signed in. The Sunday before, about 18 parties attended the open house.
The apartment sits just above a Tibetan boutique in what Jay Overbye of Halstead Property calls the “heart of the Upper West Side.” Neighbors include Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York Sports Club, H & H Bagels and Filene’s Basement.
It has been on the market since three weeks prior to Labor Day, Overbye said. “The market is much more balanced,” he said. “That means the buyers have a little more time.”
On the Upper West Side, the new balance is partly due to new choices, he said, including a greater amount of inventory and new buildings. For instance, there are Extell Development’s new towers on West 99th and 100th streets and Broadway as well as the Hudson Condominiums on West 60th Street, one of several projects planned for the far reaches of the lower portion of the Upper West Side.
“I’ve been looking off and on for a year,” said one browser, a 35-year-old psychiatrist who currently rents in the neighborhood and wished to be unnamed because of her patients.
Looking around the 11-foot-8-inch-by-8-foot second bedroom, she added, guardedly, “I’m interested.”
In a single Sunday, she visited about five places in her price range. Last year, she noted, there was nearly nothing. “It was more expensive then.”
Park Slope: A busy September?
The Park Slope buyer, always practical, appears to be getting younger as more first- or second-time city buyers come to terms with reality: They want an adult apartment for less money, brokers say.
The Sunday following Labor Day attracted more than 20 parties up the stairs of 839 Carroll Street, where Luis Martinez of Warren Lewis Realty Associates had the listing.
People come to Park Slope for the park, the public schools and the community. They may even appreciate the crying babies along Seventh Avenue.
Open house attendance generally increases after Labor Day, Martinez said, and he seemed to be proven right by a doorbell that was abuzz just as the open house got started.
“It’s going to be crazy,” he whispered.
The fourth-floor two-bedroom walk-up he was showing for $665,000 comes with a south-facing bay window, oak parquet floors, a wood-burning fireplace and a renovated kitchen.
“I’d be surprised if there were any more open houses [on this property],” Martinez said.
However, the “big frenzy,” in the market in general has slowed down, and apartments stay on the market a little longer, he explained. (Hence, the second Sunday showing).
Outside, stoop sales abounded and a bride posed for pictures around the corner at the Church of the Virgin Mary on Eighth Avenue.
Amanda Hesserman, 35, a new mother of two, came in with her mother and a friend. Hesserman currently lives in Park Slope with her family and plans on staying nearby. They looked in Manhattan when they first thought about buying, but there was no space for a family, she explained.
“The price range is what’s phenomenal [here],” Hesserman said. And, “it’s a home.”
Another prospective buyer, a 33-year-old magazine editor who declined to give her name, admitted at the open house that she currently “has a very cheap rent, but a very bad apartment.
“Williamsburg, where we live, is ugly,” she added. Everyone is 21 or 45, “but thinks they’re 21,” she added. “We don’t want to be Dorian Gray.”
Her husband said they were taking a “financial approach,” to apartment hunting, and seeing the housing stock that pops up in their range in the neighborhood.
“Park Slope has lots of stock,” he said. “Last spring, it felt like everything was for sale, and you better take it now. Now, people will negotiate.”
Scouting over budget
Down Eighth Avenue, a sprawling condo complex with a shared courtyard attracted many visitors. 444 12th Street offered a real family-sized unit for $1,185,000: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a walk-in closet and a wide living room, all in the P.S. 107 zone.
The 1,600-square-foot unit has had a couple open houses as well as offers, said Susan Hoffman of the Corcoran Group. No final decision has been made.
Jonathan Moryl, 34, and Adam Robertson, 34, weren’t rushing either.
The two were scanning the area to figure out what they could get for their money. “We’re trying to stay under half a million,” Robertson said, although their favorites surpassed the limit.
Moryl has lived in the neighborhood for nine years. He said he loved the diversity and beauty of Park Slope. “I don’t want to feel like I’m in a hipster ghetto,” he said.
“This is the premier type of building for young families,” broker Hoffman said, describing the child-friendly living space, which also allows pets and includes parking. “This is a very desired area. This is South Slope.”
Inside, Moryl cooed to Robertson about the apartment’s spaciousness. “It’s like a house.”