Hoboken
Weathers the Market
By ANTOINETTE MARTIN
Published: June 22, 2008
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| Librado Romero/The New York
Times |
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| ON THE RIVER The Maxwell Place condominiums,
which are nearing completion, include 10 "maisonette" town houses, center, that
face the Hudson River. |
HOBOKEN was often held up as the prime example of the booming real estate market, and now
it appears that the city is showing that it can hold its own in a down market, too.
A rendering of 800
Madison, part of the Upper Grand development.
Average sales prices are still increasing for downtown condominiums in Hoboken, although
most asking prices are open to negotiation these days, as several developers acknowledged
in interviews.
Developers say that their new buildings are still selling
out, if somewhat slower than in the past. (One that didnt, the Velocity, suffered
from construction delays and questions about its site near city housing projects, and
switched to a rental building late last year.)
The Web service Streeteasy.com
reports that waterfront properties continue to command premium prices about 30 to 35
percent above those on Hobokens west side, a former industrial area that was nearly
unimaginable as a neighborhood only five or six years ago.
But development on the west side is continuing, fueled by
interest from buyers and renters, developers say.
The Tarragon Corporation is completing its sixth
residential building in the neighborhood at its eight-square-block Upper Grand
development. The company now has four condominiums and two rental buildings there, and
will soon break ground on the west sides first high-rise condo.
William Rosato, Tarragons president, acknowledges
that the market on the west side has cooled over the last two years. It used to be
that if we asked $500,000 for a condo, five buyers were standing in line to buy, he
said. Now, if you ask $500,000, people wait to come in and begin a negotiation.
Nevertheless, Mr. Rosato added, Prices are holding
pretty strong, as is the pace at which we sell.
Benjamin D. Jogodnik, a vice president of Toll Brothers who
runs its City Living division, said the company had sold more than 400 high-end
condominiums at three Hoboken developments since late 2005, when the statewide residential
market began to deflate.
There are only a handful of units left at one of those
developments, Harborside Lofts, a 116-unit building with balconies and rooftop terraces.
The terraces were sold separately, at prices that reached $225,000.
Mr. Jogodnik said the second buildings at both the Hudson
Tea and Maxwell Place complexes are approaching completion. Both developments have had
steady sales, with Maxwell Place now about 95 percent sold.
Toll Brothers is also building 10 maisonette
town houses at Maxwell Place. The town houses have the Hudson River outside their doors,
and lots of glass facing the view.
The town houses are priced about $1 million above other
high-end apartments in Hoboken. The asking prices range from $2.5 million to $3.8 million,
for houses that range from 2,300 to 3,800 square feet of space.
No marketing has been done since the town houses became
available last fall, and work on the pier outside the windows still obstructs the view of
the river from most of the unfinished condos.
But we have sold four, said Mr. Jogodnik.
Four in six months, at these kinds of price points, in this market? Im O.K.
with that.
Bargaining is taking place at all price points for condos
old and new, according to statistics from Streeteasy.com. While the average price of a
two-bedroom apartment in Hoboken has increased 9.4 percent since the beginning of the year
to $634,917 more than half of the two-bedrooms currently on the market have
had their original asking prices reduced, by an average of 5.3 percent.
Meanwhile, the average price for a one-bedroom unit has
dropped 9.3 percent since January to $420,797 and 40 percent of those units
now on the market have had their asking prices reduced, by an average of 3.3 percent.
There are relatively few three-bedroom units in Hoboken,
most of them penthouses, but the average price is up by 3.3 percent, Streeteasy.com
reported, to $882,943.
More of the negotiating is occurring on the west side than
on the waterfront, Streeteasy.com indicated. About 88 percent of the two-bedroom units
listed on the inland side have reduced prices, taken down by an average 7.4 percent.
Still, new high-end developments keep springing up.
The Vesta Group, a developer of boutique condo buildings in
TriBeCa and Chelsea in Manhattan,
has just begun marketing a 16-unit project on Observer Highway on Hobokens south
side.
Vesta is promoting the building as Hobokens first
with video doorman technology, which allows deliveries of groceries and packages while the
apartment dweller is out. Vesta is selling two- to four-bedroom units for $690,000 to
$1.47 million.
Marketers of this building and others are stressing Hobokens
walkability, and the fact that schools, shops and retailing are close at hand.
There is one residential amenity that Hoboken has been
conspicuously lacking, however, ever since the last movie theater closed in 2005.
But last week, Tarragon, in partnership with Clearview
Cinemas, broke ground on a five-screen theater.
Courtesy of
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