Housing Market | The New York Observer

The Apthorp, So Close but So Crazy

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 18:43:03 -0400

The Apthorp, one of the Upper West Side’s most iconic and colossal buildings, is three weeks and six days from the biggest moment of its 103-year-old life. If 25 apartments haven’t been sold by Sept. 15, the building’s long, zigzagging, tortured condo conversion will have to end and start anew, according to state rules.

On the one hand, the Apthorp’s chances are looking tantalizingly good. According to a source at co-owner Africa Israel, a building...

Help! I Live In a Building!

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:18:01 -0400

“Oh, my God,” Denise Dell'Olio shouted, pointing to the pink, curtained window across from Teri Karush Rogers' kitchen, “I'm looking at a butt!” Ms. Rogers explained that her neighbor’s fashion tastes sometimes included an apron, though not underpants.

The two women considered the spectacle for a viral video on their blog, BrickUnderground.com—“where NYC homeowners talk.” About everything, particularly their neighbors.

Venturing onto the two-month-old blog feels much like checking out a new...

Is the Manhattan Housing Market Growing Up? Condo Party Busted

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:55:49 -0400

The new condo was the ubiquitous symbol of Manhattan’s housing boom. Tens of thousands—as many as 9,000 in 2005 alone, according to an analysis at the time by The Real Deal—either were proposed for the borough or developed and sold.

Not surprisingly, condos eventually outpaced co-ops in sales—a not insignificant trend given that, even with the condo-building explosion, co-ops still outnumbered condos roughly 3 to 1 in Manhattan. In the second quarter of 2009,...

Back to the Future on Manhattan Housing: How This Movie Ends

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:35:55 -0400

The New York Times on the local housing market: “Even at the peak of the spring buying season, brokerage offices across the city have been eerily quiet, buyers have been holding out for steep discounts and the inventory of unsold apartments has been growing.”

That was June 1989. A years-long wave of co-op conversions had helped drive the market to dizzying heights, altering not only neighborhoods, seemingly forever, but the very perception of home...

Manhattan Housing: Get Some

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:02:46 -0500

You know how this ends. Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel have published a mammoth analysis of the Manhattan housing market from 1999 through 2008. The findings are predictable: prices shot up. The average price per square foot for an apartment in 1999 was $400; a decade later it was over three times as much.

The current recession is supposed to have ended such price leaps. It has—for a time. Apartment prices will, sooner...

The Plaza's Big Russian Foe Has His Price: $12.5 M.

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 14:32:35 -0500

This morning's Observer reports that Andrei Vavilov, the Russian oligarch who sued the Plaza's developer to get out of his $53.5 million deal for a two-unit triplex penthouse, compromised by paying a bit more than $11 million for the smaller penthouse unit.

Mr. Vavilov has already put the 2,906-square-foot apartment back on the market, according to the Brown Harris Stevens' Web site, and he's hoping for a profit: The asking price is $12.5 million.

Famously, Mr....

Yet Another Massive Price Cut: $10 M. Off at Sloane Mansion!

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:32:14 -0500

It's probably overdramatic to call this the great reckoning, but, then again, two of the primmest, most significant, czar-worthy pieces of New York real estate have taken massive price cuts in two days.

Yesterday, the asking price for a fourth-floor duplex at 740 Park, owned by the estate of the former co-op board president, went down from $35 million to $26 million. Today, Brown Harris Stevens' Web site shows that the 18,500-square-foot, 104-year-old townhouse...

And Now the Bad News for Hamptons Rental Market

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:23:00 -0500

Earlier this week came the news that home sales in the Hamptons plunged 41.3 percent annually in the fourth quarter. Now, The Real Deal's Candace Taylor reports that the rental market's just as dismal:

Though it's early in the season, brokers say the number of Hamptons rental transactions so far is way down in the wake of this fall's financial crisis.

Michael Daly, principal broker at True North Realty Associates in North Haven on...

Hamptons Housing Catches Cold

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:22:21 -0500

Did somebody say symbiosis? At a time when Manhattan dwellers struggle with lackluster year-end bonuses and job losses, the Hamptons has suffered its own crisis: one of real estate, the East End playground's great arbiter.

A new Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman report shows home sales off annually over 41 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008; the median sales price is down, too. And listing inventory's up! By over 11 percent! Few Hamptons...

A Housing Lesson in the Rockaways

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:31:57 -0500

The Rockaways are doing poorly. Home sales in the spit of neighborhoods in southeastern Queens dropped 39.8 percent annually in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Prudential Douglas Elliman. That's a steeper drop than in any other area of Queens analyzed in the report, except for northwestern Queens, which is dominated by new condo development and where sharp drops aren't unexpected.

The Rockaways' drop reflects a general...

REBNY: Average City Home 10 Percent Cheaper

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:23:56 -0500

You get it everywhere this brutal month: How how far will housing prices drop in 2009? The Real Estate Board of New York, the gigantic trade group that would know, released a report this afternoon that answers the question somewhat, or at least gives signs of just how far, citywide, prices will tumble.

According to REBNY, the average sales price for homes in the five boroughs dropped 10 percent annually in the fourth quarter of...

Economists: Obama Stimulus Not Enough for Housing in '09

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:37:20 -0500

The Wall Street Journal's Jim Carlton this morning runs down the home-building industry's worries for 2009, despite a new administration in Washington and an ambitious stimulus plan for the economy. Basically, it may all be too little too late to really make a big difference this year:

One problem with the $775 billion stimulus plan proposed by President Barack Obama, some economists said, is that it would move too slowly to help much with this...

The Frat Boys Who Lit the Boom

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:56:53 -0500

The Journal's Matthew Karnitschnig and Susanne Craig have the low-down on last week's annual gathering at the St. Regis of Wall Street's very own secret fraternity, Kappa Beta Phi, which contains some of the true titans of city-based finance. The frat's current mood, understandably, is a bit sullen, like a bad hangover you simply can't shake:

"I feel like the mayor of New Orleans after Katrina," quipped Alfred E. Smith IV, the group's leader, or...

The Seven Stages of Broker Reaction

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:57:04 -0500

Appraiser Jonathan Miller, author of the widely watched Douglas Elliman housing reports, runs down on his blog Matrix the stages of reaction for real estate pros facing softening markets: Over hype the positiveSpin, misdirectionDenialDisbeliefPassive acceptanceJump on the bandwagonOver hype the...

Paula Del Nunzio on Manhattan's Mightiest Real Estate

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:55:14 -0500

Max Abelson dined late last week at the Four Seasons with star broker Paula Del Nunzio of Brown Harris Stevens. Their conversation can be found here, and covers everything from Mark Cuban to the $100 million Manhattan home to the psyche of luxury brokers amid the Great Recession....

Apthorp May Get Reprieve

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:07:20 -0500

From the Post's Dareh Gregorian: "The two factions warring over control of the famed Apthorp apartment building on the Upper West Side may get a little more time to pull a rabbi out of a hat. A lender had originally given battling business partners Lev Leviev and Maurice Mann until today to achieve a resolution to their differences over the conversion of the Apthorp into a condo complex, or risk their landmark, $500...

A Bully Thread on Manhattan's 4Q Housing Numbers

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:07:40 -0500

Oliver Haydock wrote in this week's print Observer about what a landing in the falling Manhattan housing market might look like (think co-op sales). Here's one response from a reader in an ongoing thread:

The fact that we held out FOR YEARS and purchased in 1994 and not 1987, at the peak of the prior bubble, had a huge impact on of life from then on. Plenty of money to save for the kids' college,...

One More On the Pyre: Title Insurers

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:58:57 -0500

From The Real Deal: "To the long list of professionals hurt by the cratering residential real estate market -- brokers, mortgage lenders and appraisers, among others -- add another victim: title insurers. These businesses, which sell insurance policies to buyers of apartments, to protect them from sellers who unload homes that were never technically theirs to begin with, are laying off employees in droves, instituting hiring freezes or outright closing, according to industry...

A Nail-Biter of A Week for Apthorp Condo Plans

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:59:34 -0500

From Crain's: "Less than a week after a New York State Supreme Court judge ordered the warring owners of the famed Apthorp apartment building into arbitration to solve their differences time is running out. One of their lenders could throw the project into default this Friday if the two don’t reach an accord.Last week’s ruling came after billionaire diamond dealer Lev Leviev sought an injunction at the end of December to force his partner...

Manhattan 4Q Home Sales by Square Foot

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:22:55 -0500

function popitup(url) { newwindow=window.open(url,'name','height=841,width=280'); if (window.focus) {newwindow.focus()} return false; } The Corcoran Group and PropertyShark provided this handy graphic and key in their fourth-quarter Manhattan market report. It shows the average sales prices per square foot and the volume of unit sales per building. (Click to...

Meanwhile, in Outer-Borough Housing...

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:33:14 -0500

As Manhattan housing rightfully snags the spotlight today, here's a snapshot of what's happening in Brooklyn and Queens, courtesy of the Daily News:Brooklyn home sales in the last four years dropped 52.7 percent, from 12,089 to 5,716. In the last year alone, sales fell 37.5 percent Queens home sales dropped 48.4 percent in four years, from 17,962 to 9,266. Sales dropped 34.8 percent in the last year.Home sales in Richmond Hill, Queens, dropped...

Obama Tax Change Likely To Benefit Developers

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:18:43 -0500

From the Wall Street Journal's Jesse Drucker: "The main business tax cuts proposed by President-elect Barack Obama are likely to be a windfall for two industries particularly tied to the current economic meltdown: Wall Street investment banks and home builders. Under the proposal being crafted by the incoming Obama administration and congressional Democrats, companies would be able to use their so-called tax losses to offset taxable U.S. profits earned in the past five...

Ann Jeffery Nabs 834 Fifth's Beloved Buckhantz Listing

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:30:24 -0500

The late Araxia M. Buckhantz's two-bedroom sprawl at the massively proper 834 Fifth Avenue is the kind of perfect little chunk of New York real estate that can make a very important and normally staid uptown broker cackle with excitement. "I absolutely am wild about this apartment," one agent who auditioned for the listing told The Observer last month. “I’d do anything to handle it."

Back then, three sources had said the auditioned brokers included,...

4Q Manhattan Housing Reports: Where's That Cliff Already?

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:06:15 -0500

Three major Manhattan housing market reports for the fourth quarter of 2008 were released on Monday, the first ones that can at least somewhat gauge the impact of the financial crisis. (All involve deals closed in the final three months of last year, but perhaps negotiated many months prior.)

The reports suggest a market definitely impacted by the national recession; but also one that, while down from the points of view of sellers and developers,...

Honesty: 2009's Hot New Marketing Tool!

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:50:51 -0500

Katherine Dykstra, writing in the January issue of The Real Deal:

[W]hat was the perfect pitch in early 2008's real estate market now seems inappropriate. Over the course of one year of tumultuous financial events (a mortgage crisis, bank bailouts and volatile exchange rates) buyers have gone from "more is more" to being wary of ostentation.

"Even [the high-end buyers] don't want excess now," says Sean Osher of Core Group Marketing. "No one wants to...

'08 Greatest Hits: The $48.9 M. Co-op Flip

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:58:59 -0500

Tales from The Observer's '08 stable:

August 28

The City's Most Glorious Co-op Flip! Bommers Selling New Duplex for $48.9 M.

In what will surely go down as one of the most splendid flips in the history of ultra-posh New York City real estate, the young hedge fund executive Scott Bommer and his wife Donya, once an anchor for "Good Day Philadelphia," have sold their duplex penthouse at 1060 Fifth Avenue for around $48.9 million, according to...

Ominous Quote of the Morning

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:56:07 -0500

From that Wall Street Journal story this morning on New York housing's specious buoyancy: "'Right now, people are still living on last year's bonus,'" says Barclays Capital economist Ethan Harris, who is based in New York. "'You can sort of feel the local economy on the edge of a...

A Hopeful Thought on Manhattan Housing

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:01:43 -0500

From Harvard economist Edward Glaeser in The New York Times: "Historically, human capital — the education and skills of a work force — predicts which cities are able to reinvent themselves and which ones are not. Those people who are continuing to pay high prices for Manhattan real estate are implicitly betting that New York’s human capital will continue to come up with new ways of reinventing the city. I won’t be surprised...

What You May Have Missed From Us ...

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:26:53 -0500

We're back at full-steam. But here's what we had during the past week or so:

Predictions, predictions. A rundown of what should happen in New York's residential and commercial real estate markets in 2009. Find out where the apartment market's headed, the office-leasing situation come next fall, and why investment sales will continue to sputter.

Here's one re: housing:

Bonus trend watch: foreign buyers. At one point in 2008, it was estimated that...

2009, Welcome

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 16:39:16 -0500

This year will be remembered in New York as the one when the real estate boom definitively ended. On the ropes since at least the summer of 2007—when the subprime mortgage crisis snowballed into a general credit freeze—the market, both commercial and residential, stood still by the fall of 2008.

Home sales had dropped annually by double-digit percentages in Manhattan and the outer boroughs. On the commercial side, investment sales had dried to...

Barbara Corcoran Advises You To Check the Closets

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:02:03 -0500

Barbara Corcoran on The Today Show on Tuesday has some sound advice for separating the pre-war from the post-war: "Most homes built before 1945 have nice, beautiful hardwood floors. Those after '45, don't. So, if you look in the closets, you'll see the plywood or the hardwood." (Hat tip: The Real...

Behemoth at 4-8 East 94th Street Chopped To $49.95 M.

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:17:11 -0500

Last year, Richard Mack, an executive at the multibillion-dollar investment group Apollo Real Estate, which happens to be owned by his father, paid $23 million for Spence-Chapin's 24,463-square-foot headquarters at 4-8 East 94th Street. (It was built from three 19th-century row houses, which explains that address.)

Mr. Mack got permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission in December to replace a homely three-story addition over one-third of the house with a full 60-foot penthouse,...

No Longer a 'Liar!' Nikki Field Gets East 67th Mansion Listing Back

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:05:24 -0500

One of the Upper East Side's oddest townhouse stories--a tale about two top brokers and a herringbone-floored mansion with 18 rooms and 10 fireplaces--has taken an amazing U-turn.

The story started a few years ago, when a convicted sex offender living in California was fighting with his siblings over the family's 13,137-square-foot limestone mansion at 9 East 67th Street. It took three Corcoran brokers and 14 months, but the Russian real estate investor Janna Bullock...

The Local: Condo Buyers Beg Off

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 20:22:22 -0500

When New York’s real estate market was at its peak, condo buyers and investors were not in the position to quibble if the ceiling of their new apartment was a few inches shorter than the one in the sponsor’s offering plan or if common charges were a couple hundred dollars more than expected. Now that the market is in the throes of a recession, those same buyers are finding themselves with the upper hand...

Revisting Beleaguered Builder Bob Toll's Choicest Quotes!

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:02:04 -0500

McMansion pioneers Toll Brothers Inc., our country's biggest luxury homebuilder, reported its bleakest annual results since going public during the Reagan administration. The company may deliver only 2,000 to 3,000 homes during fiscal 2009 (instead of this year's 4,743), which means the recently-posted $297.8 million fiscal loss will likely get worse before it gets better.

"Obviously, there are enormous challenges in our industry,” CEO Bob Toll said in a statement. His tone was different...

Foreclosure Storm Subsides in November; But What of December?

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 11:39:37 -0500

There were 258 first-time home foreclosure auctions scheduled in New York City in November, according to the latest foreclosure report released today by PropertyShark. That is a significant decline from the monthly foreclosure totals of recent months, when there were as many as 397.

In fact, the November tally is identical to the number of foreclosures from last November, and represents the lowest number since December 2007, when there were 129.

So is...

Whatever Happened To 'Central Park North?'

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:52:32 -0500

It's been three years since the Athena Group purchased the lot at 111 Central Park North, occupied then by a low-slung brick building that housed a hair salon and a parking lot.

In the ensuing years, the development company built a glossy condominium tower, outfitting its 88 units with marble countertops, Viking ranges and dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline and Central Park. Jill Sloane, an executive vice president at...

Cracking The $5 M. Zip Code

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 08:15:26 -0500

The Manhattan zip code with the greatest number of home sales of at least $5 million this year has been 10023 on the Upper West Side. (Research site PropertyShark mined the data based on closed deals through Oct. 17.) No surprise, since the area includes 15 Central Park West and the Time Warner Center.

But even without the $5 million-and-up transactions from these ultra-luxury condos – 102 this year! –...

In Swankier London, a Crystal Ball for Manhattan Home Sales?

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:35:37 -0500

Home prices in London's swankiest neighborhoods are dropping faster than in the rest of Britain, according to the Wall Street Journal. The reason? You guessed it: the financial crisis. The sorts of buyers who buoy these neighborhoods are losing their jobs or are facing other economic uncertainties.

While average U.K. home prices began to slide in October 2007, prime London property was still holding up at the end of the first quarter. Since then, it...

Brooklyn Home Prices Dip! Buyer's Market? Um...

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:42:00 -0500

Thanks to the collapse on Wall Street, the Brooklyn sales market took a dip, but not a dive, according to a third quarter market report from real estate consulting firm HMS Associates. The third quarter average sales price of $695,285 marked a 2 percent reduction from the third quarter of 2007, creating a modestly improved market for buyers that could only turn more advantageous as the financial crisis reverberates.

Quarterly sales prices...

Can Ritz-Carlton Condo Go From $28.5 M. to $35 M. in Four Months?

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:25:40 -0500

Leighton Candler, the Corcoran mega-broker who has the listing for Brooke Astor's Park Avenue co-op, just listed a full floor, nine-room, three-bedroom, 5,894-square-foot apartment at the Ritz-Carlton on Central Park South for $35 million. It's an ambitious listing for three reasons, but mostly because it's hard to sell anything expensive nowadays (especially if there are $8,770 monthly maintenance fees and $8,770 monthly taxes.)

Then there's the fact that the Ritz-Carlton doesn't have the...

Canadians Just Not That Into U.S. Housing Anymore

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:08:17 -0500

Brokers, strike another client base from your list!

USA Today reports that that Canadian home-buying spree that took hold earlier this year as the loon reached parity with the buck has evaporated. The U.S. dollar, for those who don't obsessively read the Journal's Money & Investing section every morning, has started to climb back against several other curriencies--including the Canadian dollar.

Canadians accounted for 23.6% of foreign buyers of U.S. homes in the 12...

Rush Limbaugh to New York Property Owners: Sell Now!

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:53:07 -0500

From Rush Limbaugh earlier this week: "Ladies and gentlemen, as you know (and I have mention this had before) I had a fashionable apartment in New York in the Upper East Side. I'm seriously considering selling it. I have owned it since 1994. I love it. It was second home that I ever bought in my life. I stay there whim rarely in New York. I am "rarely" in...

Philadelphia: Where The World Series Can't Stop Falling Prices

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:12:39 -0500

It appears the national housing slump has thoroughly caught up to the city of Rocky and the Word Series Champion Philies. Home sales and prices declined in 2008, according to a comprehensive market report (PDF here) published by Wharton economist Kevin Gillen, and it's not likely either will rebound soon.

The report includes data through the second quarter of 2008 that ended June 30, and found that median home prices had declined by...

Why The Housing Market Has To Bottom Out

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:50:49 -0500

Massey Knakal chairman Bob Knakal, in his latest commentary, tackles the almost Zen question of why the housing market has to bottom out before the overall economy can get stronger:

Much of the consumer spending that has occurred over the last few years has been stimulated by the massive amounts of mortgage equity withdrawal taken by homeowners who have, essentially, used their homes as ATM machines. Additionally, the wealth effect of feeling as if they...

What a Difference 15 CPW Makes!

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:57:27 -0500

Last week, we gave you (via PropertyShark's crackerjack research) the Manhattan zip codes with the most $5 million-and-up housing deals in 2008. That list, however, deliberately did not include The Plaza, 15 Central Park West and Time Warner Center.

The above does, and there's a big difference between the two lists: Gone is the dominance of the Upper East Side.

Upper East Side zips claimed four of the top five spots on last week's list....

One Brooklyn Bridge Park as Symbol of Crisis' Impact

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:49:09 -0500

From Bloomberg News: "Nowhere is the high-water mark of New York real estate more visible than the former Jehovah's Witnesses distribution facility at One Brooklyn Bridge Park. The 14-story condominium complex shattered the borough's price ceiling when real estate entrepreneur Elizabeth Stribling agreed in March to pay $6.05 million to live there. Now, two- thirds of the 449 units in the 1.2-million-square-foot building remain unsold, testament to the financial excesses brewed up across the...

Lending Troubles at Manhattan House Stymie Condo Deals

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:00:09 -0400

From The Real Deal: "The record $1.1 billion Manhattan House conversion on the Upper East Side has run into resistance from several major commercial banks that have either refused to finance condo deals there or demanded exorbitant down payments from contracted buyers. Sources familiar with the building said at least a dozen condo buyers have either been turned down for loans, or asked to provide 30 to 50 percent cash deposits, which in some...

Buy Now? No, Buy Later

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:25:35 -0400

Welcome to the buyer's market: Supply is up, demand is down, and prices are teetering. Brokers say buy now – after all, there are deals to be had! But what if you waited?

Here’s four areas (and one borough) where buyers would be fools to rush in now.

1. MANHATTAN
In Manhattan, prices are falling. But several gauges indicate that, in the...

REBNY Residential Award Winners (And Their Bosses!)

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:10:55 -0400

Some of the Real Estate Board of New York's Residential Deal of the Year award winners on Wednesday night, with their managers:

(Left to right) Steven Spinola, REBNY president; Kent Swig of Terra Holdings and Swig Equities; Michael Goldenberg; Dan Danielli, first-place winner of the Residential Deal of the Year sales award; Ruth Yeskel, third-place winner; Don Correia, second-place winner; Gordon Golub of Citi Habitats; Judy Oston, third-place winner; Richard Grossman; Norman Horowitz, second-place winner;...