Christine Wasserstein Finds Buyer for $34 M. Co-op in Under a Week

The huge S&P/Case-Shiller Index just showed that American home prices dove down in the first quarter of 2008 at the scariest rate in two decades. And yet, ignoring the warning from index co-founder Robert Shiller that Manhattan is “not immune, I can guarantee you that,” the most expensive co-ops in New York continue to levitate, rising higher and higher above the nationwide calamity.

According to a source, the 15-room, six-bathroom, four-fireplace co-op at 1030 Fifth Avenue, put on the market for $34 million on Wednesday, May 14, found a buyer fewer than seven days later.

The seller is psychoanalyst Christine Wasserstein, who kept the apartment after her divorce from New York magazine publisher Bruce Wasserstein, the billionaire CEO of Lazard. A source unrelated to the deal said Mr. Wasserstein was offered the apartment but turned it down—which, if true, would make sense, considering that he’s built his own $26.5 million duplex co-op down the block.

Still, the 1030 Fifth apartment’s floor plan is something to salivate over. The 19.5-foot-wide private landing leads to a 33-foot-long corner living room (with wood-burning fireplace), which goes to the 20-by-20-foot library (with wood-burning fireplace), which leads to the 25.5-foot-long dining room (with wood-burning fireplace), which goes to the 17-foot-long breakfast room, which leads to the 20-foot-long kitchen (with a center island), which goes to one of the two maids’ rooms.

Four of the bedrooms have walk-in closets, and the master suite has two. On the downside, the monthly maintenance is $13,441.

Even though the $34 million Fifth Avenue apartment found a buyer in a handful of days, records suggest nothing in the building has ever sold for more than even a third of that amount. (And here’s a less meaningful tidbit: Nixon villain John Mitchell paid $250,000 for the multi-fireplace apartment 35 years ago, according to a member of the family that sold it to Mitchell.)

Michele Kleier, the listing broker, had no comment.