In NYC, You Can Get a Townhouse for Half the Price Despite Pandemic Woes

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Though the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on Big Apple real estate, the townhouse market had some activity. As per a recent article in the NY Times, discounted prices led to several townhouse sales in November.

The townhouses, especially below $10 million, are increasing in demand because staying home during the Coronavirus crisis has led people to crave larger homes. Activity has been slow in NYC real estate, but the townhouse sector “seems to be doing a whole lot better than condos and co-ops,” said Jed Garfield, the president of Leslie J. Garfield, a brokerage which specializes in townhomes.

The largest townhouse sale closed in November was a West Village townhouse owned by Melissa Schiff, who was married to Robert Soros, the eldest son of billionaire George Soros. The townhouse sold for $31 million to a mystery buyer with a limited liability company named FRVHM. The four story late-1830s red brick home boasts roughly 6,650 square feet of interior space.

Another notable November townhouse sale was in Greenwich Village. The Greek Revival building at 20 East 10th Street, was purchased for nearly $15.9 million. The home was recently asking $18.3 million. The seller, Michael Nierenberg, chief executive of the New Residential Investment Corporation, purchased the home in 2015 from actress Sarah Jessica Parker, and her husband Matthew Broderick, the Broadway actor. The 6,800 square feet home includes six bedrooms, five full and three half baths, and seven wood-burning fireplaces.

As per the NY Times, two townhouses were also sold in Gramercy Park. One was sold by model Paulina Porizkova for $9 million. Located at 140 East 19th Street, the four-story home has 5,760-square-foot of space with five bedrooms, four and a half baths. The other, just a block away, was sold by Colin Mitchell, the former head of global marketing for the McDonald’s Corporation, and his wife. The four-story townhouse at 315 East 18th Street sold for $9.35 million. It features six bedrooms, four full baths and two half baths.

Finally in Brooklyn Heights, Behzad Aghazadeh, a biotechnology investor, purchased a brownstone at 81 Pierrepont Street for $12.5 million from the Brooklyn Home Company. Mr Aghazadeh has plans to combine the five story, 8,250 square feet home with a neighboring two story carriage house, which he had purchased in October.

Several notable co-op closings also took place in November, the largest of which was at 220 Central Park South, where a 10th-floor unit with four bedrooms, sold for $40 million. The sale had been under contract since the end of 2019.