Pricey Condos in Long Island City, Are They Selling?

WHILE the temperature is hot, hot, hot, are real estate sales in LIC not, not, not? Given the continued paucity of local news we ask that question to drum up readers, and also in light of a somewhat erroneous headline out today entitled ‘Queens Priciest Condo Ups Asking Price to $3.9 Mil.’

Let’s begin with the headline, a quick look at Streeteasy shows that there’s actually a pricier condo already listed in this very building. Sure, it’s only $7k more, but that’s not the only questionable fact in the story as it also states “In 2015, a local taxi mogul listed the penthouse at $5.4 million.” Right building, wrong penthouse. The latter was PHA, the current is PH5 (and the one $7k more is PH9, got it?). The lengthy sale process of PHA we note began in 2014 at $5.388, bounced around with no luck, was taken off and then relisted at $5.688 in 2016 (note the 8’s, ahh what a heady time that was for crazy buyers), and sold in May 2018 at $3.83 million! PH5 has had an equally torturous but not quite as lengthy journey (yet I hear its sat empty throughout), being listed at $4.25 mil in Jan’ ’17 and dribbling down to $3.65 mil before it was pulled off the market in February, only to reappear this week at $3.988 mil – the 8’s have reappeared!

All this persnickety detail is a lead in to what really matters, how’s the sales market in Long Island City for apartments under $3 million, which is where the overwhelming majority of them are listed? What’s the landscape like for sellers who don’t have all the time in the world? If overall NYC real estate headlines are any indication, then soft. If the lack of new development sales in LIC headlines are any indication, then soft, as usually we get stories trumpeting ‘50% of units already sold at…’

Where are things headed? Beats me, but headlines also seem to indicate that rental prices have firmed up despite all the new supply, as potential buyers hold tight in anticipation of sale price decreases. Leading to one final question to which I also don’t have an answer ‘Who will win the waiting game?’

//WHO are the people inside the food carts strewn across the city? Well in the case of LIC we get a great profile, and a mouthwatering review of a lunch cart stationed in Court Square on weekdays. Check it out below.

//FREE SHAKESPEARE – lots of it coming and available this summer to LIC residents, see below.

Queens Priciest Condo Ups Asking Price to $3.9 Million – yeah whatever

Listings in The View – dream on

Burmese Bites: Morsels From Myanmar – great story, short too

Wrangling Begins In Queens DA Recount, Recalling Florida Intrigue – you can read it directly in The New York Times here, or you can read someones regurgitation of The New York Times article elsewhere

Here’s How Queens Residents Can Get Free Shakespeare in The Park Tickets – free Central Park Shakespeare tickets available at LIC Library

More Free Shakespeare Coming to Gantry Plaza State and Socrates Sculpture Parks – Richard III and Midsummer’s Night Dream = 4 shows total in LIC, see dates/details here and our blurb on Hip-to-Hip here