Every New Yorker you meet will tell you how much they dream of owning a home in the city.
asserted
they → meet → city
Ask a real estate agent, though, and they’ll tell you that some Manhattan properties sit on the market for months, even years, before finding a buyer.
asserted
properties → ask → buyer
This Upper East Side co-op took nearly seven years, and a series of price cuts, before
Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost finally snapped it up.
asserted
Johansson → take → it
First listed for $27.5 million
Pic credit: Quartz.
This Manhattan penthouse was first listed in 2018.
asserted
penthouse → list → 2018
The asking price was $27.5 million, according to Architectural Digest.
uncertain
price → accord → Digest
Craig and Deborah Cogut were the sellers, The Real Deal reported.
asserted
Deal → report → ?
They bought the apartment for $13 million in 2006.
asserted
They → buy → 2006
With no luck finding buyers, the asking price was lowered over the years.
asserted
price → find → years
By the end of 2024, the price had fallen to less than half the original figure.
asserted
price → fall → figure
In fact, the sale price matched exactly what the couple had paid almost two decades earlier.
asserted
couple → match → what
Whatever profit they had hoped for never materialised.
asserted
they → hop → profit
Actor Scarlett Johansson and comedian Colin Jost, who married in 2020, were looking for a place in the city when they came across this listing.
asserted
they → marry → listing
By early 2025, the celebrity couple had purchased the penthouse for $13 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.
uncertain
couple → purchase → Journal
Spanning 6,000 square feet across three floors, the Upper East Side co-op features six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and sweeping views of Central Park.
asserted
op → span → Park
The penthouse is in a pre-war building designed by architect Rosario Candela in the 1930s.
asserted
penthouse → design → 1930s
It has five terraces, eight balconies and six wood-burning fireplaces.
asserted
It → have → terraces
The unit occupies the building’s upper floors.
asserted
unit → occupy → floors
A private lift opens into a central gallery, where floor-to-ceiling French doors let sunlight pour in.
asserted
sunlight → open → ceiling
Beyond it is the living room, with Parquet de Versailles floors, Venetian-plastered walls and a white marble fireplace.
asserted
room → plaster → floors
Six more Juliet balconies line the room, so the space feels open even on a quiet day.
asserted
space → line → day
Its herringbone floors and goatskin-panelled walls give it a warm, almost old-world feel, according to the listing.
uncertain
floors → panel → listing
Across the gallery sits an oak-panelled library.
asserted
library → sit → gallery
It has a bookshelf-lined alcove, access to a terrace and breathtaking views of the park.
asserted
It → have → park
The lowest floor has a powder room and a galley kitchen that seems to run on for a long way.
asserted
that → have → way
It ends in a breakfast room that opens through bronze and glass pocket doors.
asserted
that → end → doors
The top two levels contain the bedrooms and bathrooms.
asserted
levels → contain → bedrooms
The primary suite takes up the entire top floor and opens onto its own large terrace.
asserted
suite → take → terrace
Before selling the apartment, the former owners spent two years renovating it, upgrading the finishes and mechanical systems.
asserted
owners → sell → finishes
Buyers often look for updated wiring and plumbing in a building this old, so that work likely made the place easier to sell, even at a lower price.
asserted
place → look → price
Johansson and Jost’s purchase was part of a broader trend of high-end Manhattan co-ops selling below their asking prices and sometimes their previous sale prices.
asserted
ops → sell → prices
For instance, a unit at 4 East 66th Street sold for $37 million after being listed for $55 million in 2022.
asserted
unit → sell → 2022
Julia Koch sold her 18-room co-op at 740 Park Avenue for $45 million, about 25 per cent less than she had sought in 2022.
asserted
she → sell → 2022
The penthouse sold for less than half its original asking price of $27.5 million.
asserted
penthouse → sell → million
Other sellers have taken losses, too.
asserted
sellers → take → losses
Grace Hightower, the former wife of Robert De Niro, also sold a co-op on Central Park West.
asserted
Hightower → sell → West
She sold it for $18 million, below the $20.9 million she and De Niro had paid in 2006.
asserted
she → sell → 2006
The Aporia
