What is happening so far in 2018 in Dorchester Towers condo? This year has been categorized as being in a “Buyer’s Market”. 

Apartments are taking longer to sell, year over year prices are down, and more inventory is coming on the market.

Buyers are looking for value, expecting deeper discounts and taking longer before making any final decisions. What’s confusing about the market is that not all segments of the market are reacting the same way – there are some pockets of stability and some segments showing some sluggish behavior.  Naturally, when you are buying or selling your own apartment everybody wants to know where their search fits in.

How does all of that translate to sales at the Dorchester Towers?

Apartments are definitely taking longer time to sell, apartments that were priced too aggressively in the beginning are requiring multiple price drops in order to find a buyer, and negotiations that result in a deals are taking longer to materialize.

That being said, in our opinion actual closing prices are what are most important at the end of the day and they have been resilient.

Let’s dive into what we are seeing this year at the Dorchester Towers:

First, it is important to note that we’ve only seen Studio and One Bedroom units closed so far in 2018.  None of the Junior Four or Two Bedroom style apartment have closed. Currently we have a Four Bedroom+ combination unit on the market that is receiving lots of interest as well as multiple offers.

There have been three (3) One Bedrooms and one (1) Studio sold this year.

Studio Market in Dorchester Towers condo:

Studios at the Dorchester Towers, despite there being an abundance, do not seem to come to market often. Pricing them falls into two general categories. Most of the studios are some variation of an alcove layout that range in size from 550 – 600 square feet – these always sell at a higher price per square foot than what we would refer to as the other category of studios – jumbo studios with two layouts that range in size from 748 – 780 square feet.

The Jumbo Studios are almost never able to sell at the same price per square foot than the alcoves, because if they did they would be selling for $900,000-$1,000,000+ and at that price point, you can buy a One Bedroom condo. Despite their size, often being larger than the One Bedrooms unit in the building, the utility and function of a One Bedroom unit is always more desirable.  

The Alcove Studios often have the the ability of being converted into a One Bedroom, which has an immediate return on an investment, if an owner is willing to renovate. The Jumbo Studios are harder to convert, though we have seen some creative layouts.

This past year we saw one of the Jumbo Studios, apt. 1721 come to market asking $925,000.  That apartment is 748 square feet, which puts it at $1,237 sq/ft, which doesn’t seem bad on a price per square foot basis. However, the overall price point of over $900,000 for a Studio is going to be a hard sell. This scenario turned out to be a bit of a harder sell. The price was dropped to $890,000 and after 124 days on the market, they closed for $837,000. It closed for about 9.5% less than the asking price and ended up at $1,119 sq/ft. The 21- line has one of the most spacious living rooms in the building, the dimensions are about 25’ x 15’ and being on a higher floor definitely helped as this apartment has northern views directly facing onto West 69th Street. This is a good example of a listing that started out a bit too aggressive and took 4+ months to find the right price with an interested buyer.

We had an alcove studio in its’ original condition on the 21st floor on the market asking $750,000, which is about $1,376 sq/ft. There was good amount of interest and a few offers, however we were able to secure a long term tenant and it was taken off the sale market.  

For the studio market, what we have noticed that buyers in this category are very price sensitive. Often looking in the sub $700,000 range, either first time buyers, some pied-a-terre buyers and investors looking to maximize returns. Studios make up a small niche of the market, so they will always be desirable when priced accordingly.  

One Bedroom Market in Dorchester Towers condo:

In our 2017 Year in Review for the Dorchester Towers, which you can read by clicking here, we discussed how prices were strong but at the end of year we began to see the number of days on market start to increase along with more price drops on the horizon. So far in 2018 we’ve seen the sale of three (3) One Bedroom’s and more are currently on the market.  

Let’s look at the closed One Bedrooms first and then we will look at what’s currently on the market.

Apt. 1817  one of the largest One Bedroom units in the building at 693 square feet, is a Northern – facing apartment and has a small dining alcove that has multiple uses.  It was asking $995,000 and closed for $965,000. It took 21 days to go into contract.

Apt. 333  it came on the market with an asking price of $999,888. The 33 line is one of the more interesting layouts in the building, it has a Southwestern – facing view within the circular driveway, and a somewhat unique bedroom shape with huge closets and the ability to create a huge walk in closet or home office. This apartment closed for $965,000 after being on the market for 80 days. This is a good example of the days on market increasing.  

The last one bedroom to close was Apt. 824 – a Broadway facing, fully renovated unit. It came on the market asking $1,100,000 – which would have set a new high for a One Bedroom sale in the building. This unit took a long time to find a buyer. They went from $1,100,00 to $1,060,000 and then back up to $1,100,000. After 190 days a buyer was found and it closed for just under $1 million at $998,000. We have to assume the buyer did not want to have to pay the mansion tax of 1%, which is triggered for a closed sale at or above $1,000,000 in New York. This unit is a good example of what happens when a property is too aggressively priced – 190 days is a long time to be on the market. Despite being on the market for over 6 months, we feel the closing price is still very strong for the owner. The buyer was able to get a fully renovated One Bedroom unit which is hard to come by for less than a 1 million in this market in our location.  

Something that we track in the yearly report, which you can see below is the price per square foot, average prices. So far in 2018 the average price per square foot was $1,490 square feet, so we are pretty much tracking the same as last year.  In addition, we are introducing a new metric – Days on Market –  that we will feature on the 2018 Year Report.

Days on Market is important to track because in a market like this where apartments are taking longer to sell, you can really see the direction of the market using this statistic. You can see that the last couple of years the one bedrooms were selling in about a month, so far this year, the average days on the market has been 97 days, which is a huge jump. The apartment that took 190 days definitely pulls that number up a lot, but we think the message is that apartments are taking longer to sell now.  Despite the longer days on market the average closing price so far has been $976,000 which is very respectable.

Currently on the market right now there are three different One Bedroom units.

There is a One Bedroom on the 15th floor, that is currently in-contract, so we do not know the final closing price. Its original ask was $975,000. It then made a size-able price adjustment to $899,000. There was a tenant in place, which always poses a tricky situation as you are limited to whom is usually interested in buying. This apartment took approximately 128 days until it went into contract.

There has been a small one bedroom on the 2nd floor that originally went on the market last year.  It came on the market asking $900,000. It went into contract relatively quickly, but the deal never went through, more than likely the buyer could not secure financing. After that the apartment adjusted the price to $875,000 and the listing expired after 9 months.  The apartment has been re-listed, now asking $850,000 and as of September 24th, 2018, remains active. Essentially, this apartment has been on the market for about 290 days.

Another 2nd floor apartment just came on the market asking $865,000. This is a Broadway facing One Bedroom, which traditionally is one of the most in demand views. However, we expect that being on the 2nd floor is going to be an objection for buyers who are sensitive to noise and are particular about their view.  

It is going to be interesting to see what these One Bedroom units on the market actually sell for.  In terms of averages, they will definitely pull down the overall numbers as they are all below the $900,000 price point. In our opinion, the fact that they are on 2nd floor or have a tenant in place are valid reasons why they would not sell for the same price point that the other One Bedroom units were able to sell for so far this year.  

In Conclusion:

It is always hard to say as we need to see the final closing prices, but some of the statistics for this year do show that its taking a lot longer to sell right now.  Despite it being clear that apartments are taking much longer to sell this year, looking at each apartment individually, selling prices are quite respectable. What we find is that despite a slowing Real Estate market, apartments at the Dorchester always sell well because we have strong fundamentals, a great location, functional layouts and attractive pricing that reaches a large segment of qualified buyers.

We also send out a hard copy of our market report, if you would like to receive a hard copy, drop us an email here.

Dorchester Four Bedroom+ Corner combination unit

Dorchester Towers Condo 2017 Year End Report

Dorchester Owners Testimonials after working us