On New York City’s Roosevelt Island, a sliver of land across the East River from Manhattan, real estate broker Ben Garama is trying to set a record -- and make a statement.
The Corcoran Group agent has listed a three-bedroom condo there for $2 million, the highest price ever sought -- or paid -- for a residence on the island, once home to a smallpox hospital and now bustling with construction of a new Cornell University campus.
With three-bedroom apartments in Manhattan selling for a median of $3.15 million, Garama says his potentially record-setting price is a bargain for homebuyers hunting for more space and who might consider the island over the more traditional alternatives of Queens and Brooklyn.
“My job as a broker is always to push the envelope,” Garama said. “Yes, it’s a new threshold, it’s a new price for the island, but it makes sense because I know we can get it.”
While $2 million can buy you a mansion in much of the U.S., it’s the going rate in Manhattan. The average home price in the borough was $2.1 million in the first quarter, a 2.6 percent increase from a year earlier, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. On Roosevelt Island, meanwhile, the median price of the 13 units that sold was $786,306.
“The share of apartments listed at $2 million or more has climbed substantially, in part because of the frenzied pace of luxury construction in the city,” Grant Long, a senior economist with StreetEasy, said in an email. Thirty-seven percent of Manhattan homes listed last year were priced at that level, according to data compiled by the property-listings website.
“As the $2 million price point becomes more prevalent, an increasing number of sellers of existing units are going to feel entitled to a price in that range,” Long said.
Previous Record
For Corcoran’s Garama, it’s not too far a stretch. One of his previous listings at the same Roosevelt Island building, 415 Main St., set the current price record when it sold last May for $1.75 million, according to StreetEasy. He originally sought $1.85 million for that three-bedroom apartment, on the 15th floor.
Since that sale, Garama said he’s received countless calls from house hunters seeking three-bedroom units in a somewhat similar price range.