Sometimes, even the fanciest Manhattan apartments get no respect.
Just peek inside 1 E. 62nd St., an excellent Upper East Side building steps from Central Park.
The palatial penthouse — done up in a boldly Baroque polish as unblushing as Marie Antoinette — was the home of Joan Rivers.
The late comedienne maintained until her death in 2014 that her three-level, 11-room home was haunted by a malevolent spirit.
It hit the market in 2021, asking $38 million.
Since then it’s sat, unable to tempt a buyer for 919 days.
Compare that to the average amount of time it took to sell a “luxury” home (price tag: $5 million and up) in the fourth quarter of 2023: 108 days, according to Douglas Elliman.
A “normal” home — one below $5 million — in New York is snapped up in 79 days or less, on average.
But even after a price reduction to $34.5 million, Rivers’ manse didn’t move.
Her estate raised the white flag and took the home off the market last November, putting it into the twilight realm of real estate’s living dead.
Not only are these homes like zombies that refuse to die, but their owners defy the law of supply and demand.
It’s like they’re from another planet, experts say.
“It’s a fact that anything sitting for substantially longer than current marketing times has a pricing problem,” said real estate numbers man Jonathan Miller, president of appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “There is a significant disconnect from the market. [Sky-high prices] are damaging the value of the property, because [sellers are] projecting the message that they’re completely unrealistic.”
Broker Jennifer Lenz, who was working to sell Rivers’ home, argues that it can make sense for a seller to wait for a certain price if they have the ability (i.e.: plenty of cash).
“It’s a much better strategy than using price chops to chase potential buyers,” she told the Post.
But time is money and Rivers’ home has a carrying cost of $16,812 per month.
That means that waiting for the pie-in-the-sky price has already cost roughly $554,796—and the clock is still ticking.
“I guess if you don’t believe in the time value of money and if you want to sit and wait two or three years while you’re paying taxes, common charges, and construction cost … that’s a logic,” Miller said.
Look behind you, because there’s never only one zombie.
A dozen blocks uptown, the stately co-op at 927 Fifth Avenue is also infected with the voodoo hoodoo.
Its ninth floor — a 14-room mansion with 55 feet of Central Park frontage — has so many carats society diamond dealer Harry Winston made it his home.
But since 2018, it’s been dying a death by a thousand price cuts.
Scott Frances for Sotheby’s International Realty
First listed for $39.5 million, it was reduced to $35.5 million, then $32.5 million and $32.25 million, $31.25 million, $29.95 million, $29.8 million, $28.75 million, $28.55 million, $27.95 million, $27.75 million, $27.5 million…and finally where it rests today: $27.4 million, after almost 1,500 days on the market.
Monthly maintenance here is $22,120, which means that the owner has spent about $1.1 million in carrying costs since listing the place.
“Although this extraordinary property has not sold yet, the listing has generated extraordinary interest and we have received multiple strong offers,” said Louise…
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