Dealmaking (and Record Breaking) Still Alive in Luxury Real Estate Market 

The luxury real estate market continues to breathe, so says Josh Barbanel of the New York time’s Big Deal blog. Barbanel points out that “someone still has money,” and as evidence cites to the (possibly) highest priced condo (per square foot) transaction to ever occur in New York City: a 15 CPW 38th floor 3-bedder with 2,848 square feet that sold for $27 million ($9,840) to an undisclosed buyer. The crib has 14-foot ceilings and enormous windows affording 3-sided views, with a living room looking south over the Big Apple, a Central Park-facing master bedroom, and two other bedrooms facing the Hudson. The unloader was Richard T. Fields (casino resort developer), who recently took a $316 roll on the Trump Marina hotel and casino in AC. Fields bought the apartment for $13.35 million in March ’06, while the building was under construction, and put it on the market for $35 million last June, immediately upon closing on it. Many were shocked at the exorbitant asking price, and Fields wound up reducing it by 23 percent. Yet it still set a record. It shows that deals are still getting done, just at lower prices. And Barbonel continues on this theme, pointing out that while hedge funders and bankers have been quiet on the housing front, other well-to do professionals have been filling the void, especially on properties that are priced to sell (read: properly).

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/realestate/04deal1.html?_r=2&ref=realestate