Bloomberg News reported today on the peculiar predicament of Carnegie House, a 21-story co-op on 57th Street near Central Park, where, according to real estate website StreetEasy data, the median home sales price through August 17 was $620,000. A price that low is nearly unheard of for a prime positioned Manhattan property, and indeed it is $360,000 lower than the median home sales price for all of Manhattan, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. But Carnegie House does not own the land it sits on, and as a tenant, its shareholders pay rent to the investors that do. When the property’s lease is reset in 2025, residents could face a staggering rent increase as the terms are aligned with Manhattan land values. Bloomberg reports: Many residents aren’t waiting that long. Listings at the tower have surged this year, with 49 of the 324 apartments coming to the market, as owners choose to escape the specter of added costs that could further erode the value of their homes. The situation is rare in Manhattan, where most co-op dwellers have benefited from the escalating buyer demand that’s pushed marketwide apartment prices to an all-time high.“It’s not very often that we see no growth in asking prices in this market,” said Alan Lightfeldt, data scientist at StreetEasy. “Sellers elsewhere in Manhattan are feeling quite bullish.”
The co-op board attempted to avoid the impending increase last year by purchasing the land housing Carnegie House, but lost to a winning bid of $261 million, which was the most expensive lot purchase in Manhattan for 2014. [Bloomberg News]View full listing (pictured top)