There are a lot of reasons buyers don't bite and place an offer on an apartment. Maybe there aren't enough bedrooms, or the location on Eleventh Avenue stinks, or there's giant tufts of mold spouting from the ceiling. But one dealbreaker, according to the WSJ's latest investigative study into the capricious nature of New York residential real estate, is when a unit is on the 13th floor. Take the ridiculously awesome penthouse at the Studio Building pictured above, which got PriceChopped in June from $20 million to $15.5. Why? The listing agent claims... "[O]ne feature has been mentioned by every potential buyer: It's on the 13th floor."
Maybe because it was meant for artists or something, the Studio Building is an exception in its embrace of taboo: out of 1,500 mid- to high-rise condo buildings surveyed by CityRealty, less than 5 percent had a 13th floor. These include big names on the horizon like 56 Leonard and the residential towers in Hudson Yards, plus notable recent developments such as the Aldyn, the Rushmore, spa-condo 515 East 72nd Street, Trump's 200 Riverside Boulevard, 225 Rector Place... yup, the list goes on. Some scoff at the cow-towing move, but on this particular subject, most developers are united in opinion. Says the developer of 56 Leonard: "I'm not particularly superstitious myself, but not having a 13th floor is a no-brainer... You don't want to preclude anyone, a buyer who happens to be superstitious." Apparently the millions these buyers have stored away in Swiss bank accounts don't buy common sense, eh?
· A 13th-Floor Condo? No Such Luck [WSJ]
· The Studio Building's Insane Penthouse Now $4.5M Cheaper [Curbed]
Loading comments...