New, cheap & out of control

East Harlem apartments offer irresistible prices for first-time buyers

 

Zack Hirsch figured out a nice way to shave a couple hundred dollars per month off his rent: He bought an apartment.

 

“I am paying, with mortgage and maintenance, $300 less [per month],” says the recently engaged Hirsch, who just signed a contract on a 650-square-foot one-bedroom for $329,000 in East Harlem’s newly finished Pascal building.

 

Granted, Hirsch was renting in Chelsea, where the rents aren’t low: He was paying $2,000 for his part of a shared two-bedroom.

 

But that is what can happen if you look in East Harlem.

 

“I did the math, and it comes out to $506 per square foot,” Hirsch says of his new apartment on East 109th Street, which he is closing on later this month. “For Manhattan, you’re lucky to find something under $800 per square foot.”

 

If you can live with the lack of a Starbucks east of Lenox Avenue, East Harlem offers big bargains for buyers. Studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms are all available in the $500- to $600-per-square-foot range. And we’re not talking about resales.

 

“Everything is new,” says Danny Chan, who is buying a one-bedroom at the new Embelesar 118 co-op building on East 118th Street for $277,000. “When I walk in there, I can design it any way I want -- I don’t have to worry about fixing it, or the way the previous owner” designed it.

 

In that sense, East Harlem is unique among Manhattan neighborhoods. Prices are low yet buildings are new.

 

“Where else are you going to get a one-bedroom that’s 550 square feet with 350 square feet of terraces for under $300,000?” says Eric Agosto of the Corcoran Group, who is selling Embelesar 118 with Dianne Howard and Vie Wilson.

 

Taken in tandem with the new, luxury multimillion-dollar condos popping up on the Harlem end of Central Park, like 1212 Fifth Ave. (where the most expensive unit is $7.995 million) and 1280 Fifth Ave. (which Robert A.M. Stern designed and with a six-bedroom unit for $6.8416 million), the preconceptions about the area are seeming to melt away.

 

“I had friends in middle school who weren’t allowed to come to my house because it was two blocks too far north,” says Mariko Ishikawa, who grew up on East 98th Street in the 1990s and who’s purchasing a 450-square-foot studio at Embelesar 118 for $230,000.

 

Back when Ishikawa was growing up, anything above 96th Street was suspect. Now, with her own 240-square-foot private terrace at Embelesar 118, Ishikawa’s friends are clamoring for invitations.

 

“My mother says it’s a three-season living room,” Ishikawa says. The new terrace will be the site of many a barbecue and outdoor gathering.

 

However, many of Ishikawa’s pals will probably not be hanging around in the neighborhood much when they leave her apartment.

 

“I mostly go out downtown -- I’m not going to lie,” Ishikawa says. “But I go out to eat around here ... the Associated [supermarket] is as big as a suburban supermarket. There’s not a Whole Foods, but I get my meat delivered from a farm anyway. And it’s really nice living next door to a 99-cent store. You get everything down there!”

 

For better or worse, the 99-cent stores still very much abound. And the East Harlem real estate market was hit pretty hard by the recession. Back in 2009, East Harlem buildings were boasting prices around $700 per square foot, which is on the high side for the neighborhood now. Some buildings, like the luxury 119th & Third condo development, were forced to go rental after the market softened.

 

But buildings keep coming. Clarion Uptown Lofts, at 225 E. 111th St. (which is at a slightly higher price point, $640 per square foot, according to Streeteasy.com), is nearing completion and beginning to host open houses.

 

The Baldwin on 101st Street and Park Avenue should start its marketing campaign next month. Corcoran Group broker Grace Chan, who is selling both the Baldwin and Pascal, says the buildings will be in the same price range (the average listing at Pascal is around $655 per square foot, according to Streeteasy).

 

And buildings that are a couple of years old, like, say, the Sedona, at 346 E. 119th St., have been selling for under $600 per square foot, according to Streeteasy.

 

One thing that makes East Harlem apartments even more attainable is that many of the buildings don’t require massive deposits: Embelesar 118 and Pascal, for example, are eligible for SONYMA and FHA loans, allowing buyers to put down 3.5 percent of the purchase price.

 

Of course, even if the product is a bargain, one still has to wonder about the location.

 

“The neighborhood has its own vibe,” says Ishikawa. “The best tacos are two blocks away. Patsy’s [is] two blocks away. Proximity to the park and museums is super important to me. It’s much better than when I was living in Hell’s Kitchen.”