Suburbanites Swap Full Floor at 988 Fifth for $20 M.

Are New Yorkers being pushed out of the high-end New York real estate market? There’s been lots of talk about foreigners buying up fancy places in the city, and yesterday we told you that Seattle native Paul Allen was expanding his pied a terre.  If you thought that was bad, how about this latest swap involving natives of two of our second cities.

City records show that Philadelphians Barbara and Richard Shiffrin have sold their sprawling apartment at 988 Fifth Avenue. The couple, who hail from an affluent Phillie burb, bought the place back in 2005 for $10.9 million. Despite the crumbling real estate market, they put the three-bedroom, 3.5-bath on the market last year for $22 million. It slipped off briefly before returning at $20 million, the price for which it ultimately sold. That is quite the profit.

The buyer is listed as Amy Abrams, of Brookline, Mass. When she is not buying multi-million dollar apartments, Ms. Abrams is spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on Democratic candidates and causes. While filings list her employment as “homemaker,” the source of those funds is liker her husband, successful Boston hedge fund manager David Abrams, head of the eponymous investment management group Abrams Capital. (He is not listed on the deed.)

The Abrams’ have a comfortable set up in their new condo.  Corcoran’s Deborah Kern offers a particularly glowing description of the space in her listing. “Enter this impeccably and recently renovated apartment through the gracious entry foyer and immediately be dazzled by the view from the living room directly ahead,” she writes. Other highlights include high ceilings, a library, views of Central Park and the Met, and a fireplace in the master bedroom.

As one of the few condos on Fifth, it is a rare redoubt of foreigners.