238 West 108th Street (The Columbia House)
238 West 108th Street, New York, NY 10025
Manhattan Valley, Upper West Side
BBL 1018797501 · BIN 1056668
- Year built
- 2007
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 6
- Floors
- 6
- Landmark
- No
Every recorded sale at this building, 2006–2023
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,079
- Listing discount
- 4.3%
- Recorded sales
- 13
- On record
- 2006–2023
Six apartments on a twenty-five-foot lot, and almost everything worth knowing follows from those two numbers. R8B zoning capped the height at six stories; the narrow lot made anything other than a full-floor plan impractical. The result is a building in which every residence occupies an entire floor, with light at both ends, private outdoor space, and an elevator that opens into the apartment rather than into a corridor. Manhattan produces that format rarely, and almost never north of 100th Street, where prewar cooperative stock dominates.
The city's shorthand for the development is wrong, and the correction matters. PLUTO carries a year built of 2007. The new-building application was filed in May 2006, the predecessor building came down that November, the developer took title in December, and construction ran under permits issued in March 2007 — but the condominium was not declared until August 2009, which is when the first residences closed. Temporary certificates carried the building from 2012 and the final certificate of occupancy did not issue until March 1, 2016. Any analysis treating this as a 2007 delivery is two years early on the first closing and nine years early on completion.
The building is genuinely for sale, and the record establishes it rather than asserting it. All six unit lots sold out of the sponsor to six separate, unrelated buyer households between August and December 2009, each with its own purchase-money financing. Five of the six have traded again since — in 2016, 2019, 2021, twice in 2022 and 2023 — each time between unrelated parties, with the sixth held by its original individual buyer until a 2016 resale. The unit lots carry building class R1 rather than the RR classification the city applies to condominium units held in rental use. There is no bulk transfer and no single entity anywhere in the schedule.
The structural fact that most changes a buyer's monthly number is the tax posture. The residences carried a ten-year 421-a beginning in fiscal 2011. It ran its term and expired: the fiscal 2021 roll shows the exemption at zero and every roll since carries none. Nothing steps down further, because nothing is left. The only abatement still in play is the citywide condominium abatement, which attaches to an owner's primary residence.
Architecture and unit composition
The building fills its lot to a depth of about eighty-five feet, six stories inside a contextual envelope that keeps the streetwall in line with the buildings on either side. Each floor is one residence. On a twenty-five-foot lot that produces the classic townhouse-width plan — glass at the front and rear, party walls on both flanks — executed with an elevator. Listing records describe high ceilings, crown moldings, a working fireplace in each residence, central air, and private outdoor space attached to every unit. With six units and a keyed elevator opening into the apartments, there is effectively no public corridor above the lobby.
The assessment roll is a useful proxy for relative size: the base residence and the top-floor residence carry materially higher market values than the four floors between them, which are assessed identically to one another — a pattern consistent with a garden-level or duplexed base unit and a penthouse with roof access, with four uniform full-floor apartments stacked between. Confirm actual square footage and outdoor-space allocation against the unit deed and the declaration rather than against any published figure.
Building operations
There is no staff, and a six-unit building could not support one. Services are a remotely operable video intercom, a keyed elevator and private storage; management is handled by a managing agent for a very small association.
The arithmetic cuts both ways. Common charges in a six-unit building with no amenity program and no payroll are structurally low, which is the format's principal carrying-cost advantage. But six owners also carry the roof, the elevator, the boiler and the facade with no dilution, and a single capital item lands hard. The building is young enough that major systems are original and have not reached first replacement — which is exactly the moment to ask for the operating budget, the reserve balance, several years of minutes and any assessment history. We hold no offering plan and no financial statements for this building in either library; that picture has to come from the managing agent.
Policy framework
Ownership form: Condominium. Purchases close through a right of first refusal rather than a board approval — the faster, more predictable timeline that distinguishes this building from the cooperatives around it on West 108th Street.
Pied-à-terre, subletting, LLC, trust and foreign purchase: All permitted under the standard condominium framework. Confirm minimum lease terms and any sublet registration requirement with the managing agent.
Pets: Permitted per management-sourced records.
Flip tax: Not documented. Confirm before pricing a sale.
Real estate taxes: No 421-a and no other exemption on any unit lot in the FY2023 through FY2027 rolls. Underwrite the full unabated bill on the specific unit, adjusted only for the citywide condominium abatement if the residence will be a primary home.
Local Law 97
This building is below the 25,000 sq ft threshold at which LL97 emissions caps apply. No regulatory capital pressure from this law specifically, current or 2030.
See full Local Law 97 analysis →Recent sales
The Columbia House prices as boutique full-floor new-construction condominium product in a submarket whose inventory is overwhelmingly prewar cooperative. That is the positioning: condominium rules, full-floor plans, private outdoor space and direct elevator access, on a block where the alternative is a share purchase, a board package and an interview in a building from the 1910s or 1920s.
Two things should be priced explicitly. The 421-a is gone, so buyers comparing against abated inventory will find the monthly number higher than the headline suggests, and it does not improve from here. And with six residences and roughly a dozen recorded transfers across the building's entire life, there is no meaningful same-building comparable set — pricing has to be built floor by floor against the small pool of new-construction condominiums on the surrounding blocks, not from a building average that six sales cannot support. Market statements should be indexed to the last complete year rather than the partial current one. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 18, 2023 | 2 | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,854 sf | $2,000,000 | $1,079/sf | off-mkt |
| Jul 21, 2022 | PH | 2 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,810 sf | $2,450,000 | $1,354/sf | -5.6% |
| Jul 11, 2022 | 4 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,810 sf | $1,900,000 | $1,050/sf | -4.3% |
| Feb 10, 2022 | 3 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,810 sf | $1,875,000 | $1,036/sf | -3.8% |
| Jun 25, 2019 | PH | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,789 sf | $2,575,000 | $1,439/sf | -7.4% |
| Jun 10, 2016 | 5 | 3 BR · 2.5 BA · 1,789 sf | $2,095,000 | $1,171/sf | -2.6% |
| Jan 6, 2012 | 3 | 3 BR · 1,857 sf | $1,110,323 | $598/sf | off-mkt |
| Dec 16, 2009 | 4Sponsor Sale | 3 BR · 1,300 sf | $1,210,950 | $932/sf | -4.3% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2023) cleared a median $1,079/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.3% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 1-01879-7501) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
The 421-a has fully expired. The benefit began in fiscal 2011, ran ten years, and produced a zero exemption from fiscal 2021 onward. If a listing or valuation model shows an abated figure, it is stale. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost Calculator against the current bill.
Do not use PLUTO's 2007. First closings were August 2009; the final certificate of occupancy issued March 2016.
Six owners, no dilution. Ask for the budget, the reserve, the minutes and the assessment history before contract. One elevator modernization here is a materially different event than in a sixty-unit building.
Confirm the outdoor space in the deed. Terraces, roof rights and garden use in a small condominium are allocated by the declaration and the unit deed, and limited common-element rights are not always what the marketing implies.
No landmark constraint. Unusually for this part of the Upper West Side, the lot carries no designation of any kind and LPC has no permit history here. Window and exterior work go straight to DOB — a quiet advantage over most of the surrounding inventory.
Test the light. All the glass is at the front and rear. Walk a specific floor at the hour you would actually be home.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the format. A full-floor residence with private outdoor space, direct elevator entry, a working fireplace and condominium rules is not something the surrounding blocks can match. That argument is worth more than a finish list.
Be direct about taxes. A buyer's attorney will find the expired 421-a in the first week. Presenting the current full bill up front converts a discovery into a disclosed number.
Have the association's documents ready. With no offering plan or financials in circulation, buyers price uncertainty. The budget, reserve position, house rules and minutes on day one remove that discount.
Price against condominiums, not co-ops. The prewar cooperatives on this street carry different economics, different approval risk and a different buyer pool.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 238 West 108th Street, also evaluate:
- 272 West 107th Street (The Straus Park Condominium) — a 2004 ground-up condominium a block south; the nearest new-construction alternative, at full-service scale
- 545 West 110th Street — a 2005–06 ground-up condominium; similar vintage, far larger denominator
- 610 West 110th Street — a 1921–22 building converted to condominium; prewar rooms with condominium rules
- 285 West 110th Street (Circa Central Park) — a 2016 ground-up condominium; the newest alternative nearby
- 241 West 108th Street — a 1911 cooperative across the street; the prewar co-op alternative on the same block
- 255 West 108th Street (The Manchester) — a 1910 corner cooperative at Broadway; the full-service prewar alternative
- 329 West 108th Street — a cooperative assembled from 1899 townhouses; the small-building co-op alternative
- 300 West 109th Street (The Manhasset) — the landmarked Broadway apartment house a block north; a very different scale and ownership structure
The neighborhood
For the full corridor — architecture, schools, transit, and pricing across Upper West Side — read The Roebling Team Guide to Upper West Side.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at The Columbia House?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Columbia House would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.