Gramercy Unit Sells for $17.3M; Transplants Can’t Cut it in City | South Salem NY Homes

Welcome to It Happened One Weekend, our weekly roundup of The New York Times real estate section…

1)Big Ticket The award for biggest sale of the week goes to 18 Gramercy Park South, where a full-floor, 4,207-square-foot apartment sold for $17.3 million. Carrying costs rounded out at about $11,225.31 and the sponsors, Zeckendorf Development and Global Holdings, bestowed a key to the private Gramercy Park as a customary closing gift, which sounds wonderfully dramatic and fun. We wish we had a key to a secret park . . . [“Big Ticket | Luxury Lodging for $17.3 Million”]

2) Every “The Hunt” column begins with the Hunters describing the apartment they want, and ends with them rationalizing whatever they came away with. This is The Hunt: Dreams vs. Reality The Hunters: a couple sick of city-life looking to move to the ‘burbs Price Dream: $350,000 to $450,000 Reality: $387,500 Neighborhood Dream: Westchester Reality: Hartsdale Amenities Dream: quiet, spacious Reality: 3BR/2BA, spacious Summary After seeing their rent on the Upper East Side skyrocket, this couple decided that city-life (and its modern hullaballoo!) wasn’t for them and decided to look for a two-story home in the suburbs, focusing on Westchester. They eventually settled on a two-story, Cape-style home with three beds and two baths in Hartsdale, attracted by its small ask and spaciousness. They paid $387,500 and are apparently loving life because everything’s cheaper and commuting to work doesn’t make them homicidal. But alas, they now live in the suburbs, trading crippling neurosis for soul-shattering boredom.

[The Hunt/”In Westchester, an End to Elevator and Subway Commutes”]