“Disco House” Sells for $700K

Posted on February 14, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

In our hunt for a townhouse we looked at 30 different places. A few of them were far more memorable than the others. One of the memorable ones was 642 West 158th Street, which we saw in August of 2009. If you’ve ever driven up the West Side Highway and gotten off in the 150s, you drove past it – it’s on the block just as you get off the highway.

Well, it sold January 21st for $700,000. It had been on the market since June of 2009. It’s original asking price was $1.1M, which had been dropped to $895K – so the buyer negotiated $200K off the asking.

It’s a nice wide townhouse – 18 2/3rd feet wide. Including the solarium extension and the room under it, the house has roughly 3,800 square feet, so it sold for about $185/sq. ft.

The house was memorable because it had been completely rehabbed at one point – probably in the late 70s or early 80s and made into the dream house for a playboy. There was a dance floor, red satin curtains, an overly opulent swan faucet in the parlor bathroom, cedar lined closets, and so on. In it’s time it was an over the top “party house” renovation. As we walked through it you could almost envision the parties, the lines of coke, and the sex in the bedrooms upstairs. The house definitely left an impression…

Dance floor in party townhouse

On the upside, while it needed a major renovation, what it needed was largely just cosmetic – but we’re talking major cosmetic work. There was also some cracks in the front façade which might indicate structural issues, and the rear solarium was leaking and there was a pretty serious mold problem because of it. But all in all, the house was solid and probably had newish electrical and plumbing.

Besides the taste issue, on the downside was location… The only subway close to it is the 1 train. There’s lots of traffic passing in front of the house off the Westside Highway – so it’s not a cute tree-lined brownstone block. The neighborhood isn’t as good as some others, etc.

BUT – with just a little work the house was completely livable if you can deal with the decor. So this is another (just north of Harlem) Washington Heights townhouse that’s selling at a pretty economical price. I’d guess it would cost about $150/sq. ft. ($570K) to renovate the place properly, so the total cost is under $1.3M and under $350/sq. ft. But you could spend less and have a perfectly nice townhouse for under $1M. So there are still good deals available if you need space and can only afford to spend under a million.

Interesting Comp – 944 St. Nick Sold For $935K

Posted on January 31, 2011 by BeatingUpwind

I haven’t actually delved into it too much, but I get the sense that townhouse prices are going down a bit again. It’s not really what we want to hear, but it is what it is…

Case and point is 944 St. Nicolas Ave (between 157 and 158). It’s technically in Southern Washington Heights – but just barely outside the northern boundary of Harlem (which ends at 155), and historically it’s in Carmansville – most of which is now called Sugar Hill, which is part of Harlem. Anyway, it just sold for $935K (291/sq. ft. including basement). I’d say the buyers got a great deal – a perfectly livable townhouse for under $1M. If you look at the pictures below you’ll see it was in pretty good shape and appears to mostly just need a little cosmetic work to suit the tastes of the new buyers. (That said, 100 year old townhouses always need some sort of work – sometimes it’s substantial despite pretty pictures).

There are some negatives though… Subway access is OK, but not great – just the A & C trains. It’s in a pretty sleepy neighborhood, and not in a historic district. Aspects of the layout are slightly awkward. It’s “renovated”, but it looks like each of the bathrooms was renovated in a different style. And it’s on a short, 50′ lot with just 10′ of back yard.

Still, it proves good deals are out there for any of you who have budget issues…

Sugar Hill & Hamilton Heights Townhouse Sales, Early 2010

Posted on September 12, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

Continuing with an examination of townhouse sales this year, this time I’m looking at Sugar Hill and Hamilton Heights…

[Remember that price per square foot is generally pretty inaccurate because the measurement of townhouses is not consistent – some include the ground (basement) level in the square footage, others don’t.]

Higher end properties

Sugar Hill

2/17/2010 – 614 West 148th Street, $1,316,199, 3,000 sq. ft., $438/sq. ft. – SRO restricted
4/21/2010 – 545 West 149th Street, $1.095M, 3,264 sq. ft., $335/sq. ft. – SRO restricted
5/19/2010 – 413 West 154th Street, $1.2M, 4,368 sq. ft., $274/sq. ft. – Landmarked, not SRO restricted, Aging ’80s renovations, English basement, 25′ foot wide

Hamilton Heights

1/20/2010 – 410 West 145th Street, $900K, 3,608 sq. ft., $249/sq. ft. – Landmarked, not SRO restricted, on busy commercial street
3/3/2010 – 522 West 142nd Street, $895,638, 2,872 sq. ft., $311/sq.ft. – Not SRO restricted
6/4/2010 – 554 West 142nd Street, $1.12M, 4,543 sq. ft., $246/sq. ft. – SRO restricted

What’s shocking here is that nothing sold on Hamilton Terrace, Convent Avenue, or the prime, landmarked blocks in Hamilton Heights (with house numbers in the 400s). The other rather shocking thing is the generally low prices. With the high end of Mount Morris Park now pushing $2M, the highest sale in Sugar Hill was barely over $1.3M, and calling $895K “higher end” just feels odd to me…

We actually went through 413 West 154th Street during our search. It sold for more than we expected. A nearly identical sister townhouse just around the corner on St. Nick had sold in August of 2009 for $1.05M and it was recently renovated. 413 needed $200K to $300K in renovations. Still, it was a very solid house in good repair. If you didn’t mind the aging renovations there was nothing that needed to be done.

Low end properties

Sugar Hill

2/16/2010 – 844 St. Nick, $775K, 5,195 sq. ft, $149/sq. ft. – Huge ark of a house on a small lot, had certificate of no harassment and approved plans (under 1968 building code) for renovation to 2 family, some original details, lots of charm with a lot of big huge rooms
4/14/2010 – 427 West 146th Street, $450K, $165/sq. ft. – Habitable, SRO-restricted
5/18/2010 – 521 West 150th Street, $250K, $89/sq. ft. – SRO restricted

Hamilton Heights

1/29/2010 – 48 Hamilton Place (near 140th St), $450K, 3,146, $143/sq. ft. – Active, occupied SRO
2/5/2010 – 505 West 144th Street, $425K, 3,468 sq. ft., $122/sq. ft – Had certificate of no harassment, estate sale, some interesting original details, but smelled (badly) of urine, and on a block that is a bit rough at times

A few of these houses we knew pretty well. We had gone through 844 St. Nick a couple times. It was a wonderful ark of a house with huge rooms, great bones, some original details, a certificate of no harassment, and approved plans for conversion to 2 family (under 1968 building code). It was owned by a friend and initially we thought we couldn’t afford it, then he confided what he really wanted and we bid $765K, but he already had a verbally accepted offer for $775K and so we didn’t get it.

505 West 144th Street was always the one we’d bring up when we got discouraged and thought we weren’t going to be able to buy a townhouse. We went through it twice. Despite the strong sense of dog urine (a ‘caretaker’ had a dog in there for years and didn’t walk it very often), it had some real charm. But ultimately we walked away because we didn’t feel comfortable or safe on the block at night.

With the exception of 521 West 150th, low end prices were slightly higher than I would have expected – especially given the stagnation in the neighborhood in the higher end properties. There’s less of a gap between shells and high end properties than there is in Mount Morris Park which means less opportunity to make a profit from renovation.

It would seem Hamilton Heights and Sugar Hill are are the place to buy if you want a higher end property that needs minimal renovation – the properties are going for a half million less than they are 20 blocks south. What might be hurting sales is the lack of services. Mount Morris Park and South Harlem have great restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Those are sorely lacking in Hamilton Heights / Sugar Hill.

Mount Morris Park Harlem Townhouse Sales Early 2010

Posted on September 5, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

I’ve been meaning to do a series of blog posts on the state of townhouse sales so far in 2010 by neighborhood. Here’s the first in that series – covering the neighborhood that’s near and dear to us – Mount Morris Park…

Generally I find there are two groups of townhouses – 1) ones that need $500K+/- in renovations, and 2) ones that don’t (at least not right away).

On the high end…

Address	Date	Price	$/sq. ft.	Notes
226 Lenox	02/10/10	$1.25M	253	20′ wide, 5 story, former mortuary, needs work
22 West 120	03/31/10	$1.65M	543	Steel and concrete minimalist interior
4 W 123	06/01/10	$1.65M	647	17′ wide, single family, 2,547 square foot (probably not including ground floor), some great details but needed work
5 W 121	07/08/10	$1.55M	353	20′ wide, three family, 4,393 square foot
19 W 120	08/12/10	$1.8M	370	20′ wide two-family w/ original details, 4,865 square feet
115 W 120	08/20/10	$1.975M	412	20′ wide, 4 story, two family, approx 4,800 square feet

The very first one, 226 Lenox was a bit of a special case – it’s probably at the high end of the ones needing around $500K in renovation. Among the others you can see the trend is generally up (slightly). The standard price seemed to be $1.65M (no matter what the size, oddly), but now that’s been broken and prices are just under $2M.

On the low end…

Address	Date	Price	$/sq. ft.	Notes
21 W 120	03/01/10	$425K	95	20′ wide, 4,472 square-foot fully occupied SRO
168 W 123	03/03/10	$530K	147 (117)	Our place. 15′ wide, 5 story, totally gutted shell with fire damage, SRO with a certificate of no harassment
162 W 120	03/04/10	$500K	123	17′ wide, 4 story limestone, 4,058 square feet
104 W 120	04/30/10	$550K	194
20 W 120	05/25/10	$700K	127
128 West 123	06/30/10	$415K	196	4 story brick townhouse with mansard roof
183 Lenox	08/25/09	$795K	192	19′ wide, SRO w/storefront, 4,139 square foot

The first thing to notice is that this is still a great time to buy a townhouse shell in Harlem. There’s over a million dollar difference between the price of shells and the high end places, but you can renovate a shell into a high end townhouse for about $600-$800K, so you’re likely to net between $300K and $500K on the renovation.

Price per square foot is tricky with shells. Taking our place as an example – officially it’s 4 stories and 3605 sq. ft. However, in actuality it’s 5 stories and 4500 sq. ft. Oddly, I thought the number of stories would get fixed as we went through the DOB plan approval process, but I saw the plan examiner look right at the plans and call it a 4 story building. However, they are now billing it as having 4,500 sq. ft. – at least that much is getting corrected. What this means is as you look at townhouses you need to calculate the real square footage and determine your own price per square foot.

The bottom line is, like the upper end, there is an upward trend in prices for shells. Not counting the fully occupied SRO (which you wouldn’t want to touch with a 10′ pole unless you wanted to be a landlord, not a home owner), our place was pretty much the low price on a price per square foot basis at $117/sq. ft. The others since that time have been more money on a price per square foot basis (which is how you really need to price buildings like these). Assuming the recent ones are 4 story buildings misclassified as 3 story buildings – that means the actual price per square foot for shells is now in the mid-$140s.

413 West 154th Street Finds A Buyer

Posted on May 31, 2010 by BeatingUpwind

Well, the market is clearly going up… We looked at 413 West 154th Street last August and it had a lot going for it, but just wasn’t right for us. It sold this past month for more than I would have expected – $1.2M. At approximately 3800 sq. ft. that’s $316/sq. ft. I’ve been thinking the current comp for fully renovated townhouses is around $400/sq. ft. and the difference ($320K) is about right for the amount of renovation that’s needed.

Last year I thought the comp for it was it’s sister townhouse around the corner – 883 St. Nicholas Ave which sold in July ’09 for $1.04M. Thing was, 883 was recently renovated and in better condition, so we figured 413 would go for less than that – probably under $1M.

Aging bathroom needs renovation

413 West 154 had had a day care center in the ground floor which was an English basement, so not completely livable space. The English basement was a bit of an issue for us since Dan wouldn’t have had a cellar to use for an art studio and we didn’t really have the option of a rental apartment on the ground floor unless it was a studio apartment. Despite being it being 21 feet wide, the rooms weren’t that wide because there was a structural wall running the length of the building. The top floor was a one bedroom “mother-in-law’s apartment” – so not legally rentable, but still an independent unit with it’s own kitchen, etc.

The other negatives were that it was a 1/2 block from a large housing project, and while it’s literally “around the corner” from the subway it’s just the C train – and it’s a long walk to express trains.

What 413 West 154 had going for it was that it was incredibly solidly built and completely livable. It looked like it had been renovated in the 80s and everything seemed like it was in working order, though the renovations were looking dated and needed a lot of updating. We knew if we moved into it that we’d want to spend $200-250K on bathroom and kitchen renovations. We never bid on it – there was just too big of a discrepancy between what they were asking and what it was worth to us and the layout didn’t really meet our needs.

Here are some pictures to give you an idea what it was like…

Basement level looking out to garden (previously the day care center)

Living room with spiral staircase up to master bedroom

Back yard with basketball hoop

Back wall showing building was in great condition

So, if you’re in the market for a townhouse, realize prices are starting to go back up. You’ll need to bid higher than you would have a 6 months to a year ago. That’s good news if you’re trying to sell or if you just bought. We’re not talking a huge jump in prices, but enough to be noticeable.