Mort Zuckerman, the jack of New York trades who, as chairman of Boston Properties, is today closing on the purchase of the GM Building, gave yet another rendition of his gloomy-as-hell take on the U.S. economy to a crowd of brokers at a Real Estate Board of New York luncheon at the Sheraton on Seventh Avenue.

But it wasn't without a sizeable dose of humor, and not without touching on subjects as varied as President Bush’s fiscal policy, the brilliance of TV gab pioneer John McLaughlin, and how practicing law is like lousy sex.

First, the medicinal:  read more »

The intrepid condo buyers who took a gamble on a modestly priced spread in Brooklyn Heights in April 2007 probably had no idea that they would be living in the borough's most expensive neighborhood for condos a year later.

The average condo price increased 170 percent annually, from $613,750 to $1.65 million in April 2008, according to the report from the Real Estate Board of New York.

Other condo price results results by neighborhood:  read more »

It's awards season in retail! That means lots of schmoozing, and carousing and lots and lots of drinking. And, of course, awards.

The nominations are in for the Real Estate Board of New York’s coveted Retail Deal of the Year Awards, which will be presented on June 10 at the REBNY Retail Committee’s annual cocktail party at the 101 Club.

Check 'em out after the jump.  read more »

The Real Estate Board of New York held a luncheon at the Sheraton in midtown today, with members of a panel stacked with CEOs coming to a general consensus that the market’s temperature has dropped substantially from the searing hot days of early 2007.

That concept is hardly shocking for anyone who’s picked up a newspaper any time since August, but it seems relatively significant that some top members of the industry–a profession normally dominated by bullish, positive statements, at least on the record–candidly acknowledged the rough climate.  read more »

Manhattan real estate is a dangerous business. Steven Spinola, president of The Real Estate Board of New York, just sent out a wonderful email today alerting local brokers to a little problem involving lady thieves (who 'may actually be men dressed as women') who are being sought for open house robberies.

Here's the missive, in all its glory:

Dear Residential Member,

I wanted you to be aware of a recent problem relating to open houses.

Although this is rare and may be limited to one particular couple, there have been robberies by individuals pretending to be viewing the open house. The individuals have taken everything from jewelry to prescription drugs.

This particular couple may actually be men dressed as women. Be assured that the police are investigating and are making progress, but we all have a responsibility to keep our eyes open during such open houses.

Again, I believe that this is an extremely rare occurance but the more vigilant we are, the less these incidents will occur.

Sincerely,

Steven Spinola  read more »

The only award sexier than the Scientific & Technical Oscars and more real estate-heavy than the “Ingenies” (if you don’t know what that means, watch John Koblin’s red-carpet coverage) is the Real Estate Board of New York’s Residential Deal of the Year trophy.

There are 33 deals to choose from for this year's award, according to today's press release from REBNY. Oddly, the heavy hitters are missing from the list of nominations! Where’s record-setter Paula? Where’s Rolls Royce Sharon? Where’s Ferrari Roger? Where’s omnipotent Dolly?

Here's the answer: Brokers essentially have to nominate themselves, and of course monumental Manhattan agents are way too chic and unruffled to self-nominate.

Nevertheless, there are some big names here, especially Wendy Maitland (Madonna’s broker, don’t forget) and Armin Allen of the classy boutique Edward Lee Cave. Winners are announced later this month, and the full nominees are after the jump.  read more »

The ever-powerful Real Estate Board of New York unveiled its not-so-powerful ResidentialNYC.com database this week, which should have been a thrilling development for house-hunters (and for real estate voyeurs who obsess over how much neighborhood listings are going for).

After all, wouldn't it be grand to see all of New York's real estate listings on one lip-smacking page?

But the massive firms Corcoran and Elliman and their copious subsidiaries decided not to share their listings with the REBNY Web site, which turns out to be a tragedy.

For example: If you happen to be searching for listings in Carroll Gardens, you’ll find just eight properties for sale--and zero for rent on ResidentialNYC. And the Financial District, which should be positively dripping in new listings, is dominated here by a development called District, an oily-looking condo from the nightlife gal Amy Sacco.

Even in an overly-hot neighborhood like Williamsburg, the Web site shows just two rentals and 17 sales listings. Park Slope is a tad better: There are three rental listings. Or, say, you’re looking for sub-$4,000 listings in the Village, or maybe Brooklyn Heights? You’ll have six options each.

Things get much better up on the Upper East Side, where there are almost 400 sales listings. The Upper West Side shows 200 sales listings (though, on the downside, only 40 rentals.)

ResidentialNYC simply won’t do much good until the big boys jump aboard too, along with the smaller brokerages that already plunk their listings on the public database. That’s not quite likely: Corcoran, for its part, said it would rather “focus its efforts” on the firm's own Web site.

The Corcoran Group, one of the biggest residential brokerages in the New York City area, sent us an email today in response to a question over whether it would participate in the Real Estate Board of New York's new free online home-listings portal, which launches Friday.

The Corcoran Group is a proud member of the Real Estate Board of New York. We applaud the effort to create a public portal as we think it will enhance the exposure of many of REBNY’s members. At this time, Corcoran has chosen to continue to focus its efforts on our own website, www.corcoran.com. However, we have not excluded the possibility of future participation in the REBNY website.

So, Corcoran's out for now. (The Times reported in April that both Corcoran and archrival--and similarly mammoth--Prudential Douglas Elliman would both opt out of the REBNY portal. We haven't heard back yet from Elliman about whether this is still the case.)  read more »

The Real Estate Board of New York sent out a release this afternoon saying it would demonstrate on Thursday for the media its new Web portal for city home buyers and renters, called ResidentialNYC.com. The portal will become available to the public on Friday. But the release included nothing about the participation of the Corcoran Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman, the two largest residential brokerages in the New York City metro region.

The New York Times reported in April that neither brokerage would participate in the portal, which has been a long time coming to the often fractiously terrotorial industry. (Citi Habitats, the city's largest rental agency, also would not be participating, according to the Times, as it falls under the corporate umbrella of Corcoran.) ResidentialNYC.com will collect exclusive listings of homes for sale and rent from REBNY-member brokerages. The media demonstration will be led by Steven Spinola, REBNY's president.

We have a call out to REBNY about the status of Corcoran and Elliman's participation, and are checking with the brokerages.

The Real Estate Board of New York has created one more way for brokers in the city to distinguish themselves from the pack.

The trade association recently announced that it will offer an advanced course for residential brokers who "wish to achieve a level of knowledge over and above the standard state requirement." Essentially, it will be the equivalent of a Master's degree in real estate brokerage.  read more »