While many businesses closed up shop late last week as families prepared for Thanksgiving, that didn’t apply to Manhattan’s luxury housing market.
The city’s $4 million-plus market saw 16 sales last week, which led to the second-best Thanksgiving week since Olshan Realty started tracking the sector in 2006. The best year was in 2014, when 17 contracts were signed. The total number, however, was down from 20 contracts signed during the previous, non-holiday week.
More:Two West Village Townhouses Top List of Most Expensive Home Sales in Manhattan
The median asking price last week was $5.7 million, while the No. 1 contract was a four-story brownstone at 21 East 37th St. in Murray Hill, asking $14.5 million, nine times more than what it was last sold for back in 1997.
The 9,300-square-foot townhouse was built by J.P. Morgan’s personal attorney in 1862. The American financier lived down the road at 219 Madison Ave., which was the first mansion in the city to have electric lights thanks to Morgan's financing of Thomas Edison's Electric Illuminating Company.
The attorney’s former townhouse has since been split into 10 apartments with an elevator, but could be turned back into a grand single-family home. Features include a restored L-shaped front stoop, a garden, a music room and a rooftop with views of The Morgan Library (which is just across the road and was built to house Morgan’s private book collection) as well as the Empire State Building.
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The No. 2 contract was 3C at 443 Greenwich St. (a seven-story luxury condominium in the West Village), asking $10.95 million. The 3,667-square-foot-apartment has four bedrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms.
Built in the late 1880s, the building is a former factory that was converted into a 53-unit condominium, and features large windows with huge shutters. Amenities include a lap pool, fitness center, garage with valet parking, landscaped courtyard and a roof deck. Closings started in June.
