What are Boehner and his people doing about this "acute shortage" of luxury housing?

The interior of the seven-story townhouse at 80 Washington Place, priced to move at $28.9 mil, making it "the highest-priced single-family townhouse in all of Greenwich Village"

"Village brokers and buyers alike have reported an acute shortage of luxury homes, and fierce bidding wars for fine homes."

-- from Andrea Swalec's DNAinfo.com report, "Most
Expensive Village Townhouse Hits Market for $28.9 Million"

by Ken

I read this report a couple of days ago, and I don't mind telling you that I've been losing sleep since, worrying about this "acute shortage of luxury homes" in Greenwich Village. It's not clear to me whether the acute shortage applies to other neighborhoods as well, but you know it's hard to keep these blights confined to a single area.

Wouldn't you figure Mayor Mike must know about this acute shortage? So what's he doing about it? I mean, you can only spend so much time pretending to care about those poor souls driven out of their low-lying homes by Superstorm Sandy.

Now the property under immediate consideration in the article -- i.e., the Village townhouse that hit the market for $28.9 million ("the highest-priced single-family townhouse in all of Greenwich Village") -- wouldn't appear to be representative of the acute shortage of luxury housing in the Village. For one thing, even at the quantity of 1 it appears to be in abundant supply relative to demand. In fact, it didn't so much "hit" the market as re-hit it.

Developer William Rainero, who grew up in the landmarked 22.5-foot-wide house, spent three years transforming what was once nine separate apartments into one huge home, Robert Dvorin of exclusive broker TOWN Residential said. Rainero and company decked out the home with four remodeled kitchens, 11 skylights and its own stone waterfall.

"Everything in the house was done at the highest level," Dvorin said.

Despite the high-end renovations, the townhouse sat on the market for nearly a year without a sale, listed at $31.5 million by Douglas Elliman in June 2012. The price was cut by 5 percent, to $29.9 million in January, but there was still no deal.

Now, with a new broker and an additional $1 million chopped off the price, Dvorin said he and colleague Clayton Orrigo are confident the home will sell.

"It's priced well now," he said. "We're relaunching it, and the market now is on fire."

As an occasional viewer of Million Dollar Listing, I'm going to guess that you may not have to fork over the full 28.9 million smackeroos to take possession. This despite the broker's conviction that it's finally priced right, especially with the market on fire and all.

So maybe before you make your offer you want to know what you'd be getting for your $28.9 million (or whatever you offer). Okay, it's "a seven-story, 8,800-square-foot townhouse half a block west of Washington Square Park."

With its own "wine-tasting lounge," spa and a kitchen designed by Da Silvano chef and restaurateur Silvano Marchetto, the five-bedroom, seven-bathroom home at 80 Washington Place is billed as offering luxury living in a historic setting.

American composer and conductor John Philip Sousa once owned the Georgian-style building that was built in 1839. . . .

For cooks, the townhouse has four kitchens -- two of which are outdoors -- and a 700-bottle wine cellar.

Outside, the home has a teak cabana dining area and garden, a terrace, and a roof deck with views of Washington Square Park, the Freedom Tower and the Empire State Building.

From the property's previous experiences on the market you might think it has the whiff of a white elephant, but with an acute shortage of luxury housing and the market on fire, are you willing to take chances? This may be a time to buy first and ask questions later. I mean, if you don't like it, you can always sell it again. Or leastwise try.

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