UPDATED Thursday, April 2, 2020, 9:47 a.m.: The week after Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered real estate brokers to stay home, some were still busy launching listings amid the pandemic.
In fact, last week’s new-to-market properties are pricier than the previous week’s. The total value of the most expensive new listings to come online last week was just over $108 million, compared to the prior week’s total of $62 million.
Three of the five priciest listings are at Extell Development’s Central Park Tower, which first launched sales back in 2018.The other two properties were listed by the same broker, Louise Beit of Sotheby’s International Realty.
Their moves are contrary to the market trend to date, which shows listings being pulled off the market and new listing inventory slowing dramatically. But it comes a week after public-facing portals including StreetEasy and any portal that receives listing data from the Real Estate Board of New York suspended the days on market metric.
When asked why they decided to launch their listings last week, Beit was not available for comment and Extell declined to comment.
Some, including celebrity broker Ryan Serhant of Nest Seekers International and developer Michael Stern, have said they believe there’s no better time for listings to get traffic than right now, when millions of Americans have been ordered to remain in their homes.
“I’m an optimist,” Serhant said days before the governor’s sweeping order went into full effect. “What a better way to show people how important and necessary great housing is than be locking them in their house?”
Stern’s JDS Development is launching virtual tours at various projects in New York, including The Fitzroy, 111 West 57th Street and the Brooklyn condo building at 613 Baltic Street, according to the developer.
“It gives people something to do when they’re bored at home,” he said.
A study of listing portal traffic by Mike DelPrete, a real estate technology strategist, found that traffic had dropped up to 40 percent globally.
DelPrete’s findings relied on data provided voluntarily to him by the portals, which included Zillow (the parent company of StreetEasy), SeLoger in France, Zoopla in the U.K., Funda in The Netherlands and two portals in the U.S. and Europe that contributed data anonymously.
Zillow saw visitor traffic and leads generated drop 30 percent. The unnamed U.S. portal saw traffic drop 25 percent and lead generation activity drop 28 percent.
Here’s a closer look at the five most expensive properties that came online between March 23 and March 29, according to an analysis of StreetEasy and Compass data.
1. Central Park Tower, Unit #80E | Midtown | $33 million
The half-floor condo on Billionaire’s Row is close to 4,300 square feet and faces Central Park from over 790 feet in the air. Though it’s not clear what floor the four-bedroom unit is on, the floorplan notes it’s between the 78th and 86th floors. Extell Marketing Group is handling the sale.
2. 8 East 63rd Street | Upper East Side | $29.95 million
The nine-bedroom townhouse dating from 1878 spans 10,000 square feet over five stories. The home is 25 feet wide and includes six fireplaces and two duplex staff rooms, each with terraces. The property was first listed in 2018 asking $35 million with Erin Boisson Aries of Christie’s International Real Estate Group and came off the market late last year before being relisted with Sotheby’s Louise Beit.
3. Central Park Tower, Unit #92W | Midtown | $19 million
Several floors above unit 80E, the three-bed, three-and-a-half bath condo is facing the Hudson River and the lower Manhattan skyline from 900 feet. Closings are expected to start in the third quarter of 2020, according to the listing by Extell.
4. Central Park Tower, Unit #37C | Midtown | $13.8 million
This three-bedroom apartment is overlooking Central Park from a much lower elevation of a mere 400 feet. Ceilings in the 2,478-square-foot unit are 14 feet high and all bedrooms have ensuite bathrooms. Extell is handling the sale.
5. 260 Park Avenue South, Penthouse A | Flatiron | $12.9 million
The three-bedroom prewar condo consists of over 4,000 square feet with 12-foot ceilings and a wraparound terrace. The apartment is on the top floor of the 12-story building and has a private elevator landing. The home was also listed first in 2018 with the Corcoran Group’s Kane Manera seeking $15 million. He delisted the home in December and Sotheby’s Beit is now handling the listing.
Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com
Clarification: The date sales launched at Extell’s Central Park Tower was added, as was the previous listing history for the properties at 8 East 63rd Street and penthouse A at 260 Park Avenue South.