LOWER EAST SIDE

138 East Broadway
Six-bedroom townhouse
Asking price: $3.5 million
Selling price: $3.12 million
Time on market: 80 days

ALL IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD A 25-foot wide, three-story vacant townhouse at 138 East Broadway on Manhattan’s Lower East Side/Chinatown border sold for $3.12 million or $333.33 a buildable square foot. It was marketed for a relatively short time before the owner of the neighboring property, a local property developer, snapped it up. The townhouse contains about 3,375 square feet and includes six bedrooms, three bathrooms, a ground-floor garage, and a backyard. The property also has 5,985 square feet of unused air rights, but the buyer isn’t looking to develop the property just yet. Peter DeCheser of Massey Knakal says that in a lot of cases, a neighbor will purchase an adjacent property “simply to control and protect their own equity on the block.”

UPPER EAST SIDE

239 E. 79th St.
Five-bedroom co-op
Asking price: $3,995,000
Selling price: $3,945,000
Time on market: two weeks

A REAL NICHE A five-bedroom co-op at 239 E. 79th St. sold recently for $3.94 million. The 3,300-square-foot space is actually three apartments that have been combined by the previous owner to create one large five-bedroom home. Interest was very strong, according to Lauren Cangiano of Halstead Property, who represented the seller in partnership with Maria Cangiano. She said the sale sets a new precedent for the “unpretentious” co-op.

“It’s difficult for families find a very large apartment in New York,” she said. “You usually have to go to Fifth or Park, and the price points there are all above $5 million. There’s a real niche for these apartments among families who can’t spend that kind of money.”

The sellers – a family with three children – are moving out of town to their country home in Connecticut. The purchasers, also a young family with children, snapped up the fourth-floor property just two weeks after it listed.

UPPER EAST SIDE

300 E. 62nd St.
Studio condo
Asking price: $429,000
Selling price: $425,000
Time on market: about 10 weeks

EXPANSIVE CITY VIEWS A 400-square-foot studio condo in the Paladin building at 300 E. 62nd St. closed recently for $425,000. The seller was an investor who had held the property for about six years but had never actually lived in it. It was sold vacant to another investor who intends to rent it out.

Joe Irving of Bellmarc says that the apartment, which has a small terrace, would probably fetch about $1,900 to $2,000 in monthly rent in the current market – not a bad return for residential real estate. Mr. Irving said there was strong interest for the 16th-floor condo, which has “huge, expansive city views taking in the East River, Queens, and even Long Island on a clear day,” and that the seller received several offers. The property went on the market last November and the contract was signed by January 9.