W.T.Philly – Hello, Wallflower!
In a hot real estate market like Center City, a home sitting on the MLS for more than a couple weeks is already well past its initial shine. By the time a month’s rolled by, it’s not unusual to start wondering what’s wrong. A home languishing on the market is like a girl left on the bleachers during a school dance, a TV Bachelorette with no rose. These are the wallflower listings, and there’s something a little tragic about them.
Today, in W.T.Philly, we’re taking a look at the extreme wallflowers- homes with FOR SALE signs that have been mouldering for (almost) a year… or more. (Spoiler alert: way more!) These are the succulents of the real estate wallflora, specimens that by any stretch of common sense should have dried up and fallen off the vine by this point. And yet…!
Here’s a little prayer for all the spinster properties of Center City, that someone puts them out of their misery by either snapping ’em up or pulling them off the market. In the meantime, scope out the Shameful Six, the listings that my invisible pixel buddies at Zillow tell me have been for sale longer than any others in town.
*All dates are current as of 06.30.14.
1.) 1817 Delancey St
The Deets: 5bd/8ba (!), 8,120 sq.ft. (!!), $5,200,000 (!!!)
Time On Market: 428 days
There’s no question that the house itself certainly is fine, in this case. It’s more than fine, actually – shoot, this is easily a contender for the sweetest pad in Philadelphia! Stupid gorgeous, insanely big, and smack in Rittenhouse Square, you’d go far to find something nicer. Comcast COO/NBC Universal CEO Steve Burke has been unsuccessfully trying to unload his palatial home since last April. A half-mil price cut in September didn’t do the trick – maybe it’s time to lop a bit more off the top?
2.) 3 N Columbus Blvd APT CN302
The Deets: 4bd/5ba, 3,300 sq.ft., $849,000
Time On Market: 627 days
This condo at Penn’s Landing’s tony Pier 3 features gorg views of the Delaware, but the hunt for a buyer has gone any way but swimmingly. The price is still below the local Zestimate (for all that nonsense means), and the unit is airy, spacious, and completely pretty. Barring a resident poltergeist, I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe Zillow’s next ingenious and helpful tool will be a Supernatural Activity Zestimate? “Guaranteed mostly accurate to within 35% – 50% haunting level, more or less!”
The Deets: 2bd/2a, $649,000
Time on Market: 748 days
Guys. This condo is only five years old, and it has been on sale for over two of those! The place is hella adorable, with an adorable, compact kitchen overlooking the Delaware, windows offering stunning views of Old City, and partial lofting throughout. High ceilings! Pretty hardwoods! PARKING! What it also has is a high price tag. Too bad, because you can tell this place just wants to be someone’s home.
The Deets: 2bd/2.5ba, $1,099,000
Time On Market: 750 days
The description of this condo offers precious little in the way of details. We know that there’s a 350 square foot deck and that the second bed/bath may or may not be incomplete. Bamboo floors and a fireplace, yay! That there’s a tax abatement is pretty cool, until you realize that the unit’s been sitting unsold while the clock’s bleeding out a nice chunk of it for the past two years. Womp womp!
The Deets: 2bd/3ba, 1,488 sq.ft., $539,000
Time On Market: 789 days
This sweet-ass penthouse has it all: sweeping views of the Benny F. Bridge, an Olympic-sized pool downstairs, and even a friggin’ resident Tai Chi instructor onsite. Waterfront Square boasts a 24/7 valet, concierge, and security – are they all teaming up to keep the buyers away? Nah; it’s way more likely that this window-tastic nest suffers from a commonplace occurrence of Overpriceditis. It’s come down $100k since it was first listed (over TWO YEARS AGO), but that clearly ain’t cutting the mustard.
…AND THE WINNER LOSER BIGGEST WTPHILLY OF THE WEEK…
6.) 1138 N 4th St
The Deets: Multifamily, 871 sq.ft., $550,000
Time On Market: 1087 days
I want you to take a moment, dear reader, and process what I just typed out. One thousand eighty-seven days. As of this Saturday, this duplex will have been on the market for THREE YEARS. THREE. YEARS. Do you even remember what you were doing in the summer of 2011? I can tell you what you were doing – wearing some colorblocked Day-Glo and screeching Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” like the hot new track that it was at the time. If this NoLibs brownstone were a baby, it would be potty-trained and heading off to preschool by now. What the actual hell. I’m not sure what’s going on here – I mean, blah blah blah pricing – but I’m interested to know how aggressively a listing agent even markets a three-year listing. Yowzers.
