Posted by Leonard Steinberg on September 24th, 2013

Several listings have come to the New York real estate market above $35 million in the past few days, and several more are out there, although not officially listed. There are around 50 apartments for sale in the $35m+ range right now: Just how many buyers exist for these $35 million+ listings? And what exactly do you get for this price?

It is true that several of these properties deliver on many levels and based on international pricing for super-high-end apartments several seem (I hate to say it) reasonably priced. But there are some that are being priced stratospherically high for absolutely no good reason other that to fuel the ego’s of their Seller’s or brokers (or both). Either that or they suffer from grand delusion or mis-information. The recent controversy about pricing certain apartments at or above $ 100 million was very isolated…..at the $35-75m mark this is not the case. Drop the price-point a bit and you find many more listings. In the $ 20-30million range there are over 70 listings (officially) with many more unofficially for sale. Granted this does not add up to a lot of apartments, but it is somewhat annoying when many of these properties are clearly not worth even close to what they are asking…..based on current market conditions. The reality that is.

Developers and sellers please take note: obtaining maximum/pinnacle pricing for real estate should be the result of a great product in a great location with a LONG checklist of attributes within the apartment itself as well as the building. Maximum pricing is not an arbitrary entitlement. I fear that soon we will see some burst bubbles in the wishful thinking of some unrealistic sellers……a dream that lasts too long becomes a nightmare.