Items of Interest INDEX OF PENDING HOME SALES IS DOWN 21 PERCENT IN A YEAR The forward-looking Pending Home Sales Index fell 6.5 percent from July, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). It was 21.5 percent below the August 2006 index. Commented Lawrence Yun, NAR senior economist: "Fewer contracts were being written because of mortgage availability issues, and a separate internal survey of our members shows more than 10 percent of sales contracts fell through at the last moment in August, primarily the result of canceled loan commitments." He added that the volume of activity was below sustainable market fundamentals "because some creditworthy people are trying to buy homes but can't because of the credit crunch." The impact has been greatest in high-cost markets that are more dependent on jumbo mortgages, Yun said. In some areas, as much as 30 percent of signed contracts were falling through in August when the credit crunch problem peaked. "The problem has since become less severe, though jumbo loan rates are still higher than they would be under normal conditions," Yun observed, predicting that sales would pick up in this fall. EXISTING-HOME SALES SLUMP AGAIN, SUPPLY IS BIGGER Sales
of previously owned homes fell in August, according to the National
Association of Realtors (NAR). Total existing-home sales - including
single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - were 4.3 percent
below July. That pace was 12.8 percent below one year earlier
and the lowest level SALES AND PRICES OF NEW HOMES NOSEDIVE Turmoil in the mortgage finance system in August led to an 8.3 percent drop in sales of new single-family homes for the month, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The seasonally adjusted annual rate of 795,000 units was 21.2 percent below a year earlier, and the median price of news homes sold in August was $225,700, 7.5 percent below a year earlier. "Today's report shows that the supply-demand imbalance in the single-family housing market still is quite serious, and the imbalance clearly is putting downward pressure on home prices," commented Chief Economist David Seiders of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). "NAHB's forecast shows a trough for home sales in the early part of 2008, assuming that the Fed keeps overall employment and income growth going and that order is restored to key parts of the housing finance system. We also expect builders to strengthen price and nonprice incentives to bolster sales and limit cancellations." The inventory of new homes for sale edged down 1.5 percent, but the equivalent months' supply at the August sales pace increased to 8.2 months, up from 7.6 months in July. KEY INDICES RECORD STEEP DECLINES IN U.S. PRICES Each showed a steeper rate of decline in each of the seven months from January through July, according to Inman News. The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller index tracking 10 U.S. cities was -4.5 percent in July from the same month a year earlier, while the index tracking 20 U.S. cities was -3.9 percent over the same period. The year-over-year decline reported for the 10-city composite index was the lowest since July 1991. The last time prices fell so much, it took more than eight years for home prices to return to their peak level. Here are the 20 cities covered by the Case-Shiller index, ranked from worst to best: Detroit, -9.7 percent; Tampa, Fla., -8.8 percent; San Diego, -7.8 percent; Phoenix, -7.3 percent; Washington, -7.2 percent; Miami, -6.4 percent; Las Vegas, Nev., -6.1 percent; Los Angeles, -4.8 percent; San Francisco, -4.1 percent; New York, -3.8 percent; Cleveland, -3.6 percent; Minneapolis, -3.4 percent; Boston, -3.4 percent; Denver, -0.7 percent; Chicago, -0.9 percent; Dallas, +0.7 percent; Atlanta, +1.2 percent; Portland, Ore., +3.8 percent; Charlotte, N.C., +6 percent; and Seattle, +6.9 percent. IN SOME CITIES, CONDOS ARE REVERTING After years of existing apartment buildings being converted into condominiums, the Wall Street Journal notes that the trend is reversing. According to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based research company, "reversions" - condo buildings that were turned back into rentals - outstripped condo conversions in the second quarter of 2007, the first time that has happened since the 1980s. In Baltimore, for example, there have been 1,430 reversions since January, 2006, while only 430 rental units have been converted to condos. In another shift, builders are refocusing their energy on constructing rental properties. Michael Cohen of Boston-based Property and Portfolio Research predicts that in the 54 markets they track around the country, this year will see the largest number of new rental units on the market since 2004, while the number of new condo projects will continue to drop. "Certainly, there is going to be a migration back toward rental," Cohen said. The uptick in rentals is greatest where the real-estate boom was strongest: Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other areas where people bought up many of the new homes and condos as investment properties. WHAT ARE APPRAISALS TELLING US In some
parts of the country, mortgage lenders - and appraisers themselves
- say they're increasingly coming in with valuations higher than
the contract prices agreed to by sellers and buyers, Kenneth R.
Harney writes in the Washington Post. Are some sellers giving
in to lowball offers, fearful that they can do no better because
of the subprime mortgage implosion and home-sales bust? Or are
appraisers TAX TIP Although the title is in one name alone, if a husband wife have occupied their property house as a principal residence for 24 of the 60 months before its sale, the couple qualifies for up to $500,000 tax-free capital gains, notes Robert J. Bruss (who died last month) in the Washington Post. Internal Revenue Code 121 does not require the names of both spouses to be on the title or the mortgage obligation. OWNERS OF UNSOLD HOMES ARE SEEKING RENTERS In another manifestation of the housing slump, thousands of property owners across the country are now renting out homes they cannot sell, reports the Wall Street Journal. As a result, developments and condos that once were largely owner-occupied are filling up with renters who some neighbors say are less engaged in their communities and less concerned about maintenance. Fearful of declining property values, some homeowner associations are fighting back - targeting lax landlords and renters with "good neighbor" letters, limiting the number of units that can be rented at any one time, and, in some cases, banning investors from buying altogether. WELL, YOU COULD BE THE GRIM REAPER Do you covet that apartment next door? If an ailing neighbor needs money, perhaps he or she will sell you an option to buy the place at a time within the next 10 years. Nonrefundable option money, applicable to the purchase price, is negotiable. Customarily, says the late Robert J. Bruss in the Washington Post, it is 1-3 percent of the option purchase price. Or you could buy the property now, giving the neighbor a life estate so that person can remain in his home as long as he or she wishes or until death. Check with a local real estate lawyer for details. HOUSING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINTS ARE ON THE RISE An increasing number of individuals are filing housing discrimination complaints, according to USA Today in Realtor magazine. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) logged 10,328 complaints last year, an increase of 12 percent over 2005 and the highest number since HUD began keeping track in 1990. The 1968 Fair Housing Act, amended in 1988, bans discrimination in housing based on disability, race, sex, national origin, religion, skin color or whether a family has children. (State and local laws often add other protected classes such as sexual orientation or occupation.) The law covers rentals, purchases and financing. Reasons for the trend vary. Some areas are dealing with new waves of immigrants. Others have old houses that aren't readily accessible to the disabled. But the increase also could be a result of HUD's greater enforcement efforts, housing officials say. AUCTIONS ARE GAINING IN RESPECTABILITY Buying and selling residential real estate by auction isn't a new concept, but it has been gaining steam in recent years, observes the Wall Street Journal. Recently, the process is also losing its stigma of being an option of last resort, associated only with distressed properties and foreclosures, say real-estate professionals. According to the National Auctioneers Association, more than $16 billion of residential real estate was sold by auction in 2006, an increase of 12.5 percent over the previous year. That's still a fraction of the $1.74 trillion existing-home sales that were made last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. The gains are a continuation of what has been seen in previous years, even during the real-estate boom. The group said that $11.5 billion in residential real estate was sold at auction in 2003; the segment saw a 39.2 percent increase between 2003 and 2006. PLATINUM SHINES FOR ROSIE Comedian, talk show host and actress Rosie O'Donnell is giving her regards to Broadway. Over the summer, she signed a contract to buy a pied-à-terre in the heart of the theater district on the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 46th Street in a new condominium of steel and tinted glass known at the Platinum, says the New York Times. O'Donnell's two-bedroom unit on the 22nd floor of the 43-story building was listed at $1.97 million. She and her partner, Kelli O'Donnell, had been looking for an apartment for several months, but only in the theater district. In October 2005, O'Donnell, who has four children, bought a home in Nyack in Rockland County, and a few months later bought a one-bedroom apartment at the Lumière, a condo development at 350 West 53rd St. NO MINI FOR TIKI Tiki Barber, the retired all-pro Giants running back who's now holding a microphone instead of a football on the "Today" show, is spending about $6 million to connect four adjacent condos at the Miraval complex at 515 East 72nd St. "Tiki was especially interested in the Olympic-size pool," an unnamed source told the New York Post. The 3,500-sf space will be configured into a four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath residence that is expected to be completed by December. A DAHL HOUSE IS ON THE MARKET The Rockland County, N.Y., house shared by Arlene Dahl, star of many 1950s films, has gone on the market for $8.5 million, says the Wall Street Journal. The 79-year-old Dahl, whose movies include the 1959 Jules Verne epic "Journey to the Center of the Earth," and her husband, Marc Rosen, 60, restored the 1859 home together. Rosen bought the roughly 10.5-acre property in 1981, while the pair was engaged. In Sparkill, a bedroom community about 22 miles north of New York City, the Victorian house of about 4,000 square feet has nine marble fireplaces and identical front and back porches. The property includes a pool and a barn converted into a two-car garage with a one-bedroom caretaker's apartment above it. Dahl's son, "Falcon Crest" television actor Lorenzo Lamas, was married on the property, and Ginger Rogers, a friend of the actress, stayed at the home while directing a musical nearby. CAN ONE HOCKEY STAR BUTCH UP CHELSEA Once upon time, Chelsea was not a place for 200-pound, $50 million hockey players, the New York Observer says coyly. Stereotypes aside, it really used to be a svelte and wonderfully grubby place, the weekly observes; lonely Leonard Cohen even wrote a song about the neighborhood hotel. Those days are massively gone: The high-scoring center Scott Gomez, who fled the New Jersey Devils this summer to sign a seven-year contract with the New York Rangers, has bought a duplex penthouse at the Chelsea Mercantile on Seventh Avenue. (Look for him on line at Whole Foods.) According to city records, he paid $3.2 million. Despite his NHL contract was for $51.5 million, Gomez took out a $2.24 million mortgage on the 2,062-square-foot apartment. THIS MODEL IS NO APARTMENT Gisele Bündchen, one of the highest-paid fashion models, has placed her Manhattan penthouse on the market for $10.9 million, more than three times what she paid for it five years ago, reports the Wall Street Journal. In the West Village, the five-room condominium of the Brazilian-born model measures about 1,750 square feet and has a landscaped roof deck and terrace totaling roughly 2,500 square feet. The two-bedroom, two-bath triplex has views of the Hudson River from each floor. The condo also has a wood-burning fireplace, windows facing in all four directions, a keyed-lock elevator and a security system. There's an outdoor hammock and hot tub. Bündchen bought the apartment in October 2002 for nearly $3 million, city records show, customized the bathrooms and added closet space and Brazilian wood floors. CHANDRA WILSON TAKES A FIFTH AVENUE PAD The Grey's Anatomy co-star has gone to contract to buy at Fifth on the Park, the 30-story condo complex going up in Harlem. Unnamed sources told the New York Post that Wilson has taken a three-bedroom, two-bath residence with a terrace overlooking the 20-acre Marcus Garvey Park. When completed, the glass-and-brick building will have 150 condos, almost 50 rental units, a full-length lap pool, a landscaped garden, a complete fitness center and a screening room. CELEBRITY STARS SHINE ON ONE MADISON PARK So far, Liev Schreiber and Naomi Watts and Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon are buying condos in the 60-story skyscraper at 23 E. 22nd St., says the New York Post. Schreiber and Watts, who became parents last July, have signed a contract for a 3,300-sf, full-floor, four-bedroom apartment for around $6.5 million. Sarandon and Robbins have put a deposit on a three-bedroom unit that's more than 2,000 square feet and priced around $3.5 million. THAT'S THE WAY IT IS ON EAST 95TH STREET Walter Cronkite recently sold a townhouse at No. 160 for $4.27 million, according to public records, reports the Real Deal magazine. Cronkite made a hefty profit on the three-story, 3,456-sf property, which he bought in 2000 for $1.725 million, the magazine said, quoting published reports. He jointly owned the Carnegie Hill property with his wife, his son Walter Cronkite III and his son's wife. The 11-room property, built in 1899, had been under contract since April. The buyer was listed as Thomas Carter. In 2005, the 90-year-old Cronkite sold an East 52nd Street co-op, at 870 United Nations Plaza, for just under $1 million. NICOLAS CAGE TRIES AGAIN The actor and serial home buyer has relisted his house in Los Angeles's Bel-Air section for $35 million, reports the Wall Street Journal. He listed the roughly 11,500-sf estate, done in an English country-manor style, at the same price last October and then pulled it off the market after five days. Cage paid close to $7 million for the property in 1998 and renovated it substantially, spending more than $2 million. Earlier last summer, he paid about $15.8 million for a nearly 25,000-sf manor house in Middletown, R.I. In recent years, the Oscar-winner has bought homes in San Francisco, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Bath, England. Cage's main residence is a waterfront house in Newport Beach, Calif., that he bought in 2005 for $25 million. The Bel-Air mansion's former owners include singers Dean Martin and Tom Jones. IF PAGE 6 SAYS IT'S TRUE, WELL Jennifer Aniston has snatched up an apartment at 20 Pine, The Collection - the Armani/Casa-designed condo building in the Financial District that used to house Chase Manhattan Bank offices. Apartments there are priced as high as $4 million. Aniston's so excited about her purchase, a building insider says that she's been bribing workmen to take her up in the construction elevator so she can repeatedly check out her pad. SINGLE-FAMILY HOME PRICES FALL BY 3.8 PERCENT In the New York metropolitan region, they fell 3.8 percent between July 2006 and July 2007, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, reports NewYorkBusiness.com. The index relies on single-family home sales from the city and surrounding counties in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that have significant numbers of commuters who work in the city. It does not include prices from the city's condominium and co-op markets, which appear to have held up better than homes in suburban markets. The decline in the New York area market was on par with the 3.9 percent decline in composite prices in 20 metropolitan areas that the index tracks, as noted in "The Market" above. THE UPPER WEST SIDE GETS HEIGHT RESTRICTIONS The City Council unanimously passed a rezoning plan that limits the spread of high-rise buildings along 51 blocks on the Upper West Side, according to the New York Times. The plan generally limits buildings to 14 stories along Broadway; 10-11 stories along the other avenues; and 6-7 stories on the side streets. Additionally, it imposes design restrictions so that new developments more closely match the neighborhoods around them. The rezoning area is bounded to the west by Riverside Drive, the east by Central Park, the south by 97th Street and the north by 110th Street. Under the old zoning rules, there were no height restrictions and developers could buy unused air rights from buildings on surrounding streets. The new plan ends those transfers. MANY PROPERTY OWNERS SHOULD BE $400 RICHER BY NOW The latest $400 property-tax rebate checks have been mailed out to city homeowners, according to the Daily News. The annual rebates started going out to 626,000 small-home owners, including those in condos and co-ops. To qualify for a check, owners have to live in their primary residence and cannot have owed more than $25 in property taxes before July 1, 2007. FOR NEW NEW YORKERS, RENTING IS HARDER THAN EVER The past
two years have been exceptionally treacherous for financially
vulnerable newbies, observes the Wall Street Journal. Average
rent in Manhattan increased almost 12 percent in 2007 from last
VOLUME FALLS AGAIN For the week ending Sept. 28, mortgage loan applications decreased 2.7 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from the previous week, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association; on an unadjusted basis, the decline was 2.9 percent. Activity was up 0.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. Refinancings fell by 3.8 percent from the previous week, and purchase activity went down 1.8 percent seasonally adjusted. On an unadjusted basis, the purchase volume decreased 2.2 percent from the previous week. The refinance share of mortgage activity slipped to 46.0 percent from 46.4 percent of total applications from the previous week, while the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share increased to 13.8 percent from 12.2 percent. RATES ARE EASING The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.37 percent for the week ending Oct. 4, down from last week's 6.42 percent and up from 6.30 percent last year at this time, according to Freddie Mac. The 15-year FRM was down to 6.03 percent from 6.09 percent last week. A year ago, it averaged 5.98 percent. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 6.11 percent this week, down from last week, when they averaged 6.15 percent, and above the 6.00 percent last year at this time. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.58 percent this week in comparison with 5.60 percent a year ago. At this time last year, the average was 5.46 percent. "Mortgage rates eased slightly this week following three weeks of increases. The initial effects of the credit market turmoil that began in August are starting to emerge in housing statistics," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "New home sales in August fell to the slowest pace in more than seven years and the median sales price had the largest 12-month decline since 1970. Moreover, August's pending existing home sales fell to the lowest level on record, which begins in 2001." TAX BENEFIT PASSED FOR HOMEOWNERS IN FORECLOSURE The House approved a measure to protect borrowers from getting a surprise tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service after lenders foreclosed on their homes, says the New York Times. The bill, which still must pass in the Senate and be signed by President Bush to become law, would prevent the I.R.S. from taxing any debt forgiven in a foreclosure. The legislation would be retroactive to Jan. 1, sparing many of those who lost their homes to foreclosure this year from a surprise tax bill if their mortgage was canceled. To pay for the tax relief, the lawmakers approved rules making it harder for people to exclude as much as $500,000 in profit from capital-gains taxes on the sale of second homes. The provision would raise $2 billion in additional taxes over the next decade, according to an estimate by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. LET THERE BE LIGHT African violets need at least 10 hours of bright but diffused light to bloom, notes the New York Times. Southeast or west facing windows are better than direct sun, except in the dead of winter. If they have not been repotted yearly, they are overdue for a change. African violets prefer a very light, freely draining growing medium. Packaged soil labeled for African violets is seldom porous enough. One popular recipe for a homemade version is two parts soilless mix like Pro-Mix and one part each vermiculite and perlite. The mixture should stay barely moist, so water frequently from the bottom with room temperature water. Remove any standing water that collects afterward. Separating the crowded crowns will give you many new plants. But no law says you must keep them all. DESIGN ‘TIL YOU DROP The week of Oct. 15-21 will be the first ever Design Week in New York City, billed as a celebration of New York design to include a wide range of free and fee events and activities in film, shopping, museums, galleries, architecture, tours, workrooms and gardens in the five boroughs. At the core of Design Week is Design Happening '07, which will consist of more than 30 events such as a scavenger hunt, information on finding the best antique dealers and the 2007 Design Leadership Summit with design icons Murray Moss and Ed Schlossberg. For details, check out designhappening.com/events.htm. IF
YOU'RE PLANNING A 1031 EXCHANGE, TAKE NOTE Last spring, hundreds of individual property investors preparing to go to settlement on their half of 1031 tax exchange purchases or sales tried to contact their qualified intermediary in the deals only to find that the qualified intermediary had suddenly closed shop and sought protection in the U.S. bankruptcy courts, reports CoStar Realty Information. Two high-profile bankruptcy cases left investors with more than a quarter of a billion dollars in investments and deals in jeopardy and facing the prospect of stiff tax penalties. While only a handful of qualified intermediaries failed, the cases had a much wider impact, rupturing investor confidence and attracting added scrutiny on the 1031 exchange process, which had become enormously popular over the past several years. IS THE TIME RIPE FOR REITS When the music stopped in the residential-real-estate market, the Wall Street Journal says speculators who got caught with unsold houses and condos began putting them on the market as rentals. This "shadow market" has made investors jittery about price-destroying competition for the real-estate investment trusts that own big apartment complexes. For most of the country, though, it is a landlords' market, with vacancy rates falling and rents rising in many major cities. Despite a selloff in apartment REITs, the shadow market is really confined to real-estate disaster areas such as Florida, Las Vegas and Phoenix. That presents a buying opportunity for stock-market investors. New figures from research firm Reis Inc. show that the nation's apartment-vacancy rate dropped 0.2 percentage point in the third quarter, while rents increased a healthy 1.4 percent. Apartment owners in high-price cities such as San Francisco and New York seem to be benefiting from renters who are getting locked out of the for-sale market because of the lack of so-called jumbo mortgages, which are more than $417,000, says Sam Chandan, Reis chief economist. Rents in New York jumped 3.6 percent in the third quarter. In San Francisco, they were up 3.4 percent. That is all good news for publicly traded REITs that specialize in apartments. The stocks of apartment-owning REITs have a lot going for them. Nearly two million rental households have entered the market in the past two years, including buyers who have shied away from the for-sale housing market and those who defaulted on home mortgages. "In our view, we will have more additional demand for renters than additional supply of rental property," says James Corl, chief investment officer at Cohen & Steers, a New York investment firm specializing in REITs. It is easy to understand why investors have been nervous about apartment REITs. For one, it is difficult to assess the impact of the shadow market because there isn't an accurate measure of the number of individual homes and condominiums that are on the rental market. The most attractive REITs are trading below the total value of the apartment buildings they own and are cheaper than their competitors based on their projected funds from operations, which is essentially their profit excluding depreciation expenses. FUTURES TRADERS FORESEE FALLING PRICES The outlook for house prices is getting even gloomier as traders on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange bet on steep price declines and the number of homes for sale grows, reports the Wall Street Journal. Traders on the CME expect home prices in 10 major cities to drop an average of about 10 percent from mid-2007 to November 2011, according to an analysis by Tradition Financial Services Inc. of prices for housing futures traded on the exchange. The trading is based on expected movements in the S&P/Case-Shiller house price indexes. Trading is very light so far - about 20 contracts a day, a CME spokeswoman says. That means the contract values provide only a rough idea of the expectations of speculators and people hedging against house-price risks, says Anthony B. Sanders, a professor of finance at Arizona State University. But Sanders says the contracts are a useful signal, and he expects house prices generally to fall in the next couple of years. The current contract prices show that traders expect prices in the Miami metro area in November 2011 to be down 28 percent from the mid-2007 level. The expected drops in other metro areas for the same period are 18 percent for Las Vegas, 12 percent for New York, 19 percent for San Diego, 26 percent for San Francisco and 13 percent for Washington, D.C. Are Condos Kings of the Market? Time was co-ops were the name of the game in Manhattan real estate. Then came the housing boom and the construction of one imposing condominium building after another. Time was condos represented a fraction of the market. But look at the proportion of listings that are now active: approximately a third are co-ops and two thirds, condos. As for actual sales, the balance tends to seesaw but lately has swung toward condos. At Prudential Douglas Elliman for the two weeks until Sept. 28, approximately 33 percent of sales were co-ops and 67 percent, condos (the balance being townhouses). For the three weeks until Sept. 14, co-ops represented 46 percent of apartment sales versus 64 percent for condos. For the prior two weeks, it was 43 percent co-ops and 54 percent condos. All things being equal (however rarely), apartment condos usually run about 10 percent more expensive than comparable co-ops. (Among other things, such a gap applies only if the two kinds of apartments are of the same age, condition and location, more or less.) Please do bear in mind that co-ops tend to be older and come with fewer amenities than condos, explaining an important part of the difference. With board approvals and maximum permissible financing, co-ops are, as well, freighted with a more onerous buying process. Yet closing costs for condos are much higher than for co-ops because they are real estate, not shares of a business. To see a research report on "The Condominium vs. Cooperative Puzzle," click here. Condos that are lofts are significantly more expensive than condos that are apartments. Generally, they also find buyers more quickly than anything else. In the third quarter of this year, the median sale price of a co-op was $668,500 (with a 66.6 percent increase in sales over the third quarter of last year), according to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. For condos, the median was $1,120,075 (and there were 64.5 percent more sales than in the same quarter of 2006). For lofts alone, a mix of fewer co-ops and more condos contribute to the medians above, and their median price in the third quarter was $1.7 million; the number of sales went up 20.1 percent from a strong showing the previous year. Many properties available for viewing and seen since the last issue happen to have been condo lofts, a sampling of which you can find below: The East 20s - A Nameless Neighborhood
The West 20s - Chelsea
Upper West Side
3rd Quarter Manhattan Market Sales Up, Inventory Down, Prices Mixed The Manhattan
residential real estate market saw many of the same characteristics
as the prior two quarters of 2007, according to the Miller Samuel
appraisal firm. There were an elevated number of sales, declining
inventory and mixed results for prices. It is likely too soon
for the impact of the credit crunch to be felt in the third quarter. Co-op Market The average sale price reached $1,118,465, up 2.8 percent from last year at this time. The average price per square foot increased 9.2 percent, and the median sales price dropped 2.4 percent. Inventory levels fell 32.8 percent to 2,472 units as compared with 2006. Virtually all co-op listings are resales, with only about 1.6 percent of new co-op development added to the housing stock. Condo Market The average sales price attained a record $1,638,798, up 9.2 percent from last year at this time and 12.4 percent from the prior quarter. The average price per square foot and median sales price showed respective 9.1 percent and 5.2 percent gains over the prior year quarter. Inventory levels totaled 2,732 units, down 30.7 percent from last year at the same time. New development was estimated to account for 36.7 percent of the condo inventory.
Luxury Market The average sale price was the second highest on record: $5,085,883, up 12.8 percent from last year and 10.3 percent from the second quarter. The average price per square foot and median sales price showed 16.7 percent and 16.3 percent gains respectively over the prior year quarter. Loft
Market The average sales price was $2,069,364, up 4.9 percent from the same quarter last year but down 14.2 percent from the prior quarter. The average price per square foot and median sales price had respective 8.8 percent and 20.1 percent increases from the previous three months. Some of Manhattan's Latest Listings Please click here to view available properties. (To view all photos, tours, floor plans and maps, please use Internet Explorer.) Click Here to Sign Up For Your Free Issue of Realty Digest!
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2007 Service You Can Trust |
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in
five years. "The unusual disruptions in the mortgage market,
including a significant rise in jumbo loan rates, resulted in
a fairly high number of postponed or cancelled sales, with many
buyers having to search for other financing when loan commitments
fell through," said NAR Senior Economist Lawrence Yun. "Lower
sales contributed to a build up of unsold inventory." Yun
said he expected similar results for home sales in September.
Total housing inventory rose 0.4 percent at the end of August
to 4.58 million existing homes available for sale, representing
a 10-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 9.5-month
supply in July. Two years ago the figure was below five months.
The current excess supply in forecasting leads analysts to say
that an upturn in sales and prices may not come until 2009. The
national median existing-home price for all housing types was
$224,500 in August, up 0.2 percent from August of 2006. Single-family
home sales fell 3.8 percent lower than July, and sales were 13
percent below the previous August. The median existing single-family
home price was $223,900 in August, essentially even with a year
ago. Existing condominium and co-op sales also dropped, falling
8 percent from July and 11.7 percent lower than the previous year.
The median existing condo price was $228,500 in August, up 2.1
percent from August 2006.
simply lagging behind downward market adjustments? "We're
seeing it a lot now," said Patrice Yamato, president of Plaza
Mortgage Group in Jacksonville, Fla. "Appraisals are coming
in higher than the contract" - a reversal of the pattern
during the housing boom, when appraisals often came in at or occasionally
below the contract price. "I think buyers are pushing very,
very hard," Yamato said - and they're walking away with steals.
Appraisers insist that their value opinions are based on hard
numbers: recently closed comparable sales, current comparable
listings, pending sales, statistical trend analyses and adjustments
for special features of the property and its location. "We've
got to use the most recent market data that is available to us,"
said Patrick Turner, an appraiser in the Richmond area. "We
can't just make it up" to hit a contract price, he said.
"If [the appraisal] comes in above the contract, that tells
you something unusual is happening out there" - perhaps too
much property has been sitting unsold for too long, and some sellers
are suddenly feeling time pressure. 
year,
according to Property & Portfolio Research Inc., a real estate
research and advisory firm. A studio apartment in Manhattan now
goes for $1,958 on average, according to a local rental agency.
A one-bedroom rents for $2,632 and a two-bedroom, for $3,721.
People with short resumes and small account balances have perennially
struggled to win leases in Manhattan's competitive, expensive
real-estate market. New York City's rental vacancy rate since
the 1960s has historically been one of the lowest in the country,
below 5 percent. The rate was down to 2.2 percent in the third
quarter, according to data from Reis Inc., a New York property
research firm. Landlords usually decline playing referee to hoards
of applicants, and instead hire rental brokers, who then charge
chosen tenants about 12-15 percent of one year's rent. The trial
doesn't end once you've found a place you can barely afford. Landlords
are known to charge move-in deposits that can rival home down
payments in humbler cities.
