Real Estate
Why Don’t People Want to Buy Manhattan’s Spectacular Mansions?
For many New Yorkers, a superbly appointed town house is the dream home. But the best examples are lingering on the market for a year or more.
Seven E. 88th St. is a 24.5-foot-wide, six-story limestone town house a half-block from New York’s Central Park. Along with its 19 rooms (6 are bedrooms), it features a rooftop solarium, an elevator, a rear garden, and a fourth-floor balcony.
The mansion was listed at $44 million in 2014. A year later it was taken off the market, only to reappear in 2016 for $34.95 million, where it languished for a year and a half, according to Zillow. In October the price was cut yet again: It’s now listed with Leslie J. Garfield & Co., a boutique real estate agency that specializes in town house sales, for $29.95 million, almost 33 percent below its original asking price.