Archive for Real Estate Sausage
In the News
Posted by: | Comments4/25/12 ‘Sex and the City’ Townhouse sold for $9.85 million: The home at 64 Perry Street, listed for $9.65 million in early March with sold for $9.85 million, according to city records. Read the full article at The New York Observer
4/26/12 Useful Vocabulary for Building Watchers: Here are a few architectural definitions that anyone who wants fluency in New York architecture will find useful. Read the full story in the New York Times
4/26/12 Prudential Douglas Elliman releases “The Elliman Report: Long Island Sales 1Q 2012”: Mild winter weather brought consumers into the market earlier than usual, causing the number of signed contracts in the Long Island housing market to jump from year ago levels. Housing prices were mixed, as buyers of lower priced properties took advantage of record low mortgage rates. Although properties took slightly longer to sell, listing inventory fell to its lowest first quarter total in six years. Despite the slow improvement in the national economy, we are encouraged by the state of the market in 2012. See the full report
4/26/12: Prudential Douglas Elliman releases “The Elliman Report: Hamptons & North Fork Sales 1Q 2012”: The Hamptons and North Fork housing markets showed stability in both price and sales activity. Just as we have seen in prior quarters, the high end of the market continued to show strength. While it took somewhat longer to sell a typical property this quarter, listing inventory continued to decline. Considering the slow pace of our national economic recovery and tight credit, the East End housing market has continued to hold its own. See the full report
4/27/12: Space Shuttle Enterprise’s Historic Flyover Wow’s New Yorkers: Did you see it? Hundreds of space shuttle shuttle fans braved the chilly temperatures and biting wind Friday Morning along the Hudson River here to catch a glimpse of NASA’s prototype orbiter as it flew past the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum it will soon call home. See the full article on Yahoo! News
4/27/12: Threats, stormy Exits and…: The setting for the closing on an apartment in the East 50s was a lawyer’s office. Things seemed to be going well between the sellers until the wife found out the price her husband had received for the apartment. This is New York City, where real estate transactions can literally take on the trappings of a blood sport. Unlike most other parts of the country, it is a place where lawyers are invariably involved in the transaction; at the very least, this increases the number of people around the table. Read the full article in the New York Times
4/27/12 Brokers See Bright Future for 2012’s Residential Real Estate Market: The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has released the results of its Residential Brokers Survey for the first quarter of 2012. With the unseasonably warm weather and favorable market conditions, brokers saw an uptick in activity this quarter and are optimistic about next quarter. Of the brokers surveyed, 69 percent reported that they thought the first quarter of 2012 was better than the previous quarter. Additionally, 76 percent of brokers reported that they expect the second quarter of 2012 to be better than the first, a 16 percent increase from last quarter.
Their optimism was based on the improving activity in the market. The survey found that 70 percent of brokers reported completing executed contracts of sale this quarter, a nine percent increase from last quarter. Another highlight from the first quarter of 2012 was that 74 percent of brokers reported closing rental transactions at or above asking prices, which is a 13 percent increase from this time last year. In addition, 26 percent of the brokers reported closing sales at or above asking price, a nine percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2011 and a 4 percent increase from the first quarter 2011.
“Brokers feel changes in the market first and we count on them to help us gauge where the market is headed,” said REBNY President Steven Spinola. “Based on the survey results, it’s clear that broker’s optimism is coming from an improving market and that their view that 2012 will be a strong year for New York City real estate is justified.”
The survey also found a near perfect record of 99 percent of brokers reporting that they received a coop board approval in less than 90 days from the time a completed coop board application was submitted.
Similar to last quarter’s findings the top features/amenities this quarter were: 1) doorman building, 2) laundry in unit, 3) private storage space, and 4) on-site fitness center.
The survey was sent to REBNY’s Residential Broker Members. 404 brokers took the survey this quarter. See the REBNY Q1 2012 Residential Broker’s Survey Results
In the News
Posted by: | CommentsIn The News
4/16/12 The world’s most expensive one-bedroom condo?: And you think New York Apartments are expensive? A one-bedroom penthouse condo was listed recently in Tokyo for 1.8 Billion yen roughly $22 Million. The apartment is 4,400 square feet and loaded with amenities. Read the full article at Yahoo! Real Estate
4/19/12: Prudential Douglas Elliman Releases Brooklyn Sales Market Report for 1QTR 2012: The Brooklyn market continued to enjoy stabilizing prices and a steady level of new development activity. Mortgage rates dropped to record lows, which helped lower priced co-op sales retain greater market share. Listing inventory fell below the five-year average, in turn tightening the listing discount negotiated between buyers and sellers. Despite the economic challenges facing the region, Brooklyn continued to be one of the better performing housing markets in New York City. Get the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman here.
4/19/12: Prudential Douglas Elliman Releases Queens Sales Market Report for 1QTR 2012: Record low mortgage rates helped create a surge in lower priced co-op sales in the fourth quarter that continued into the new year. This trend combined with the decline in listing inventory has brought some stability to the market. Although prices softened somewhat over the past year due to tight credit and a weak economy, we are encouraged with the progress of the Queens housing market so far this year. Get the report from Prudential Douglas Elliman here.
4/19/12 Rental website Rentenna.com seeking “hottest doorman” in the city: Rentenna.com, a website for locating New York City rental apartments, is sponsoring an unconventional beauty contest, the Wall Street Journal reported — for New York City’s doormen. The start-up began accepting nominations for the city’s most attractive doormen last week, the Journal said, and more than three dozen have been put forward by their tenants so far. Get all the details at The Real Deal
New York Mansion Tax? I don’t live in a mansion!
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According to New York State, if the purchase price of an apartment is $1 million or more, you are buying a mansion! Therefore your purchase would be subject to a 1% Mansion Tax, calculated on the entire purchase price, not just the part that exceeds $1 million. Buy at $999,999.99 no tax; buy at $1,000,000.00 or more, and you’ll owe $10,000+ tax.
If you’re thinking you’re safe if the purchase price is less than $1 Million, but are paying fees or taxes that would have otherwise been paid by the seller, think again. Those fees become part of the consideration for the property and could lead to being responsible for the Mansion Tax.
According to Joel E. Miller, a Queens tax lawyer, although the mansion tax is not deductible, however it does increase the property’s tax basis so it will ultimately reduce the tax paid on a gain on the sale of the property.
Mortgage Market Trends for week ending October 29, 2010
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MARKET RECAP
Were we smart or lucky? We’d like to think smart, but we won’t discount luck either. We are speaking of the housing sales trend that unfolded after the tax credits expired at the end of April. We noted back in May that we expected sales to dip post-tax credits, and they did. We also noted that we expected sales to rebound once the market became acclimated to standing on its own feet, and that appears to be occurring.
Indeed, sales of existing-homes strengthened across all categories to jump 10 percent in September to 4.53 million annualized units, while sales of new homes rose 6.6 percent to a 307,000 annualized rate. The surge in sales helped push supply down to 10.7 months for existing homes and down to eight months for new homes.
The obvious question is how much discounting was required to stimulate sales? It appears some discounting occurred, when holding sales composition firm. The national median price for existing homes fell 3.3 percent to $171,700, with the average price falling 3.5 percent to $218,200. Meanwhile, the median price for new homes rose 1.5 percent to $223,800, with the average price dropping 1.2 percent to $257,500.
We’ve been vocal in our belief that home prices have stabilized. We stand by that sentiment, even though we wouldn’t be surprised to see some price volatility over the next month or two, thanks to the brouhaha over the foreclosure processes of the large banks and the expectation that foreclosures could swell into 2011.
That said, it’s important to remember that the housing market is much more orderly and stable than it was a year ago. All the malinvestment and all the excesses of yesteryear have percolated to the surface. We know what we are dealing with, which means foreclosures will certainly be handled in manner that won’t be too disruptive to the market. After all, the people selling foreclosed houses still want to sell at the highest price possible; the highest price possible isn’t achieved by flooding the market with inventory.
As for the foreclosure-servicing issues, the NAR warned that a single related court order could take 20 percent of the homes off the market. We’re somewhat circumspect. To be sure, an unfavorable court order could happen, but the pressure is great for it not to. If we were to balance the odds on a scale, we think the scale favors it not occurring.
As for balancing lower or higher mortgage rates, we side with higher. That’s not just our opinion. Bill Gross, a highly respected bond manager at PIMCO, noted this past week that a Fed announcement on additional monetary easing “will likely signify the end of a great 30-year bull market in bonds.” In other words, Gross expects bond prices to fall and interest rates to rise, which would translate into higher mortgage rates.
Let’s Get On With It
The time for waiting has ended. Confidence will return; that is, if it hasn’t already returned. Merrill Lynch reported on Bloomberg this past week that Americans – at least those with a few dollars to invest – are feeling more financially secure today than they were a year ago. Merrill surveyed 1,000 people with investable assets of at least $250,000 and found that 78 percent of those surveyed are confident their economic circumstances will improve in 2011.
For everyone else, confidence is within reach. Claims for jobless benefits unexpectedly dropped last week to a three-month low, an optimistic indicator that the U.S. labor market is on the mend. What’s more, the total number of people receiving unemployment insurance dropped to a two-year low. Meanwhile, consumer spending – a direct measure of consumer confidence – continues to move higher, and could give employers reason to add workers ahead of the holiday shopping season.
We think this latest slate of good news portends a robust economy for the New Year, which is why we think the opportunity to take advantage of historically low mortgage rates and low housing prices is dwindling for this year.
Graph Courtesy from NY Times in an article by Lynnley Browning October 29, 2010. Data and Commentary provided by Fred Ashe, from DE Capital Mortgage.
Harry Potter Buys Townhouse In West Village
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Daniel Radcliffe buys Manhattan townhouse in West Village
Daniel Radcliffe, the 20-year-old Wizard in Broadway’s Harry Potter production, has purchased his third New York City property, a five-bedroom, 3,000-square-foot West Village townhouse. The price: $6.4 million.
Celebrity publications report Radcliffe now owns more than $16 million in Manhattan area condos and apartments, plus a luxury condo in his home United Kingdom neighborhood of Fulham in London.
As reported by Real Estate Channel
The Most Annoying Words In Real Life & Real Estate
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A "Wordle" of 2br/2bth co-ops & condos =>$1M in Manhattan
In a recent Marist poll, nearly half of Americans – 47% – said they find “whatever” most annoying. The other sayings weren’t quite so loathed. 25% say they find “you know” most grating; 11% can’t stand “it is what it is”; 7% would like to ban “anyway” from all verbal exchanges; and 2% reported that they could do without hearing “at the end of the day.”
After reading thousands of Manhattan apartment descriptions, I have come up with my top list of real estate words and phrases that I find most annoying:
- Boasts
- Oversized (also ample or generous)
- Sun-drenched
- Residence
- Triple mint
Here’s a “finger-nails-on -the-black-board” apartment description:
This triple mint, sun drenched apartment boasts oversized windows and generous maintenance. You must call me for the non-negotiable price, a private showing or whatever. Anyway, if you have to ask the price this residence may not be for you. You know, at the end of the day it is what it is.
