Items of Interest SALES AND PRICES DROP OF PREVIOUSLY OWNED HOMES Existing-home sales declined in December following several months of stable activity, with total sales in 2007 still at the fifth highest on record, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops, the decline was 2.2 percent from November and 22.0 percent below December 2006. For all of 2007, the total of sales was 12.8 percent below 2006. Inventory fell 7.4 percent at the end of December to 3.91 million homes, representing a 9.6-month supply at the current sales pace, down from a 10.1-month supply in November. "The fall in inventory in December is encouraging, but inventories remain elevated and buyers have a clear edge over sellers in many markets," commented NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $208,400 in December, down 6.0 percent from a year earlier; for all of 2007, the median price was $218,900, down 1.4 percent from 2006. As for existing condominiums and co-ops, sales fell 3.3 percent from November and were 24.5 below a year ago. Condo sales for all of 2007 declined 11.0 percent, and the median price in December was $222,200, 2.5 percent below December 2006. In all of 2007, the median was $226,400, up 2.0 percent from 2006. NEW-HOME SALES PLUNGE AT STEEPEST RATE SINCE 1963 The decrease in December was 4.7 percent below November, according to the U.S. Commerce Department, which recorded the steepest annual decline, 26 percent, since it began keeping records in 1963. Prices also fell sharply. In December, the median price of a new home fell to $219,200, down 10.9 percent from December 2006. The inventory of new homes was down 2.3 percent, causing the equivalent months' supply at the December sales pace to edge up to 9.6 months from 9.4 months in November. RESPECTED INDEX SHOWS RECORD DECLINES IN NOVEMBER Price drops set records for existing single-family homes that month, the 11th consecutive month of negative annual returns, reports Inman News. The performance marked two full years of decelerating returns, according to the indices released by S&P/Case-Shiller. Its monthly 10-city composite index showed an annual decline of 8.4 percent, a new record low, while a monthly 20-city composite index recorded an annual decline of 7.7 percent. The metro areas tracked in the Composite-20 Index are Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.; all but three of them posted year-over-year price declines in November. The cities with the highest year-over-year declines were: Miami, with a 15.1 percent decline; San Diego, 13.4 percent; Las Vegas, 13.2 percent; Detroit, 13 percent; and Phoenix, 12.9 percent decline. Cities that showed positive annual growth rates were Charlotte, N.C., up 2.9 percent; Seattle, 1.8 percent; and Portland, Ore., 1.3 percent. Said Robert J. Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets and co-founder of the index: "Not only did the 10-city composite (index) post another record low in its annual growth rate, but 13 of the 20 metro areas, with data back to 1991, did the same." MANHATTAN’S 2007 MEDIAN ROSE 11.4 PERCENT, REBNY SAYS The median price of New York City condominiums, cooperatives and one- to three-family dwellings rose 19.2 percent - from $449,000 in 2006 to $535,000 in 2007 - while the median price in Manhattan rose 11.4 percent, the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) reports, according to Inman News. Median home prices rose 4.6 percent in Brooklyn, 2.4 percent in Queens and 1 percent in Staten Island while dropping 2.3 percent in the Bronx compared with 2006, REBNY also reported. The median price ranged from $800,000 in Manhattan to $420,000 in the Bronx, according to the "New York City Residential Sales Report." Median apartment prices, which include condo and co-op units, increased 12.4 percent in Manhattan, and the median sale price was $799,000. Average condo prices jumped 17 percent in Manhattan, with the average condo price reaching $1.43 million in Manhattan. The average residential sale price rose 11 percent in Manhattan to $1.27 million, and the average price went up 12 percent to $1.22 million for condos and co-ops combined. THEY THINK AND, THEREFORE, DON'T SHRINK Columbia's brand-new 17-acre campus in Harlem. Six million square feet of additional space for NYU dorms and classrooms, stretching from Washington Square to the outer boroughs. A Fordham "fortress" springing up on the Upper West Side. Colleges and universities are forecasting unprecedented growth in the coming years, adding as much as 17 million square feet of space - or more than either the World Trade Center or the controversial Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn - and may begin to exert an even greater influence on the ebb and flow of life in the city, says amNewYork. Smaller CUNY schools such as John Jay and Hunter colleges are also eyeing real estate in an effort to boost rankings and prestige. Even tiny Cooper Union, with an enrollment of 920 students, is building new labs and classrooms in the East Village. "Our fear is that the neighborhood could be overwhelmed by these institutions that they have played host to for 150 years," declares Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historical Preservation. He and other neighborhood advocates fear that the low-rise character of the neighborhood could become overrun by packs of college students and tall dorms to house them. "Every university in the city abuts a neighborhood with a tradition and with its own hopes and desires," says Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "Universities have to exist within their own communities, not overrun them." DETAILED 4TH QUARTER REPORT IS NOW AVAILABLE WHAT’S UP, BLOCK A new web site allows New Yorkers to monitor everything happening on their block, from restaurant inspections and building violations to missed connections posted on Craigslist and news mentions, notes the Sun. The site, Everyblock.com, is the creation of Adrian Holovaty, who won a $1.1 million, two-year grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. His proposal was to create a simple way to answer the question "What's happening around me?" according to the foundation's web site. Everyblock.com, which launched last week, takes data from city government web sites, newspapers, and community sites and then displays it by block, ZIP code, neighborhood or borough. "The main concept is that this is a newspaper for your block," Holovaty, 27, said in an interview. A BUYER'S REMORSE LEADS HER TO SUE HER AGENT Marty Ummel feels she paid too much for her house in Carlsbad, Calif., reports the New York Times. So she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault. Ummel, who seemed to revel in her subsequent Today appearance, claims that the agent hid the information that similar homes in the neighborhood were selling for less than the $1.2 million that she paid because he feared she would back out and he would lose his $30,000 commission. Real estate lawyers and brokers say the case in San Diego Superior Court is likely to be the first of many in which regretful or resentful buyers seek redress from the agents who found them a home and arranged its purchase. The defendant in the Ummel case is Mike Little, a veteran agent with ReMax Associates. He will argue that Marty Ummel, who brought the case with her husband Vernon is trying to shift the blame for the couple's own failures of research and due diligence. "They simply didn't do what is expected of a knowledgeable, sophisticated buyer, and are now looking for someone other than themselves to take responsibility," Roger Holtsclaw, an agent who was hired by Little as an expert witness, said in a court deposition. "If you put someone into a property at the top of the market, you look really bad if it goes down," said K. P. Dean Harper, a real estate lawyer in Walnut Creek, Calif. "There are a lot of letters going out from lawyers to real estate agents saying, 'My client would never have purchased if you had properly evaluated the market conditions and the value of the property.' " HERE'S ONE ALMOST CERTAIN WAY TO GET RICH Best known for his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" personal finance books, Robert Kiyosaki has created Cashflow 101, the object of which is to move around a Monopoly-like board, "buy and selling" real estate, evaluating stock investments and leveraging paper assets to become a millionaire, according to the Star-Tribune in Realtor magazine. But playing can be pricey: Cashflow 101 costs $195, and many devotees gather at company-sponsored games in locations around the country where they pay a $399.50 (50 cents?) annual membership to join in the games and attend seminars. One player is Mike Jacka, a Minneapolis-based real estate investor. He credits the game for helping him become a successful landlord, renting out four single-family homes and evaluating potential deals. Before Cashflow 101, says he, "I couldn't make heads or tails of my real-life balance sheets." CAPPUCCINO BARS ARE HITTING REMOTE AREAS TOO Broad swaths of rural America - from New England to the Rocky Mountain West - are being gussied up just as once-poor urban neighborhoods have been gentrified, observes the Wall Street Journal. Affluent retirees and other high-income types have descended on these remote areas, creating new demand for amenities like interior-design stores, spas and organic markets. For many communities, it's the biggest change since the interstate highway system came barreling through in the 1960s and 1970s. With the Internet allowing people to work from almost anywhere, the distinction between first and second homes has become blurred. Many people are buying retirement property while they're still employed. Millions of soon-to-retire baby boomers, say demographers, will propel this trend for years to come. "What we're seeing is a class colonization," says Peter Nelson, an associate professor of geography at Middlebury College and an expert on rural migration. "It really represents a shift in the nature of the economy from a resource-extraction economy to an aesthetic-based economy." Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute, notes that 76 percent more people over age 50 moved to "recreation counties" - places with lots of amenities and seasonal housing - in the 1990s than in the 1980s. "This suggests that people who are now in their 50s and 60s are moving into these recreation counties more than in the past," says he. WORDS MATTER, YES THEY DO In real estate listings,
the difference between describing your home as "beautiful"
versus "move-in condition" can amount to approximately
$12,500 on a $250,000 home, according to MSN Real Estate. Paul
Anglin, a real estate economist in Guelph, Ontario, says that
homes described as "beautiful" in real estate listings
sell for 5 percent more, while "move-in condition" has
no effect on sale HE MUST THINK THE WILD, WILD WEST IS THE COLOR GREEN Movie producer Jon Peters is asking $39.5 million for four adjoining Beverly Hills parcels he bought in 1996 but never fully developed, though he drew up detailed plans, notes the Wall Street Journal. Peters, 62, spent 10 years engineering, landscaping and planning a compound for the roughly 6.25-acre hilltop parcels. The architectural plans come with the property and include a 30,000-square-foot main house, a guest house, a security cottage, a spa house and a tennis house. The property is in the Beverly Hills Post Office, a Los Angeles neighborhood with the 90210 ZIP Code, and has a 1,500-foot-long gated driveway, a 25-car garage and views of the city and ocean. OPRAH'S BEST PAL JUST BOUGHT A $7.4 MILLION MANHATTAN PAD We should be seeing a lot more of Oprah Winfrey in the Big Apple, since her "best friend" Gayle King has bought a Manhattan apartment, the New York Post smirks. Sources were quoted as telling the newspaper that King, a longtime Connecticut resident, has purchased the penthouse apartment at Place 57 on East 57th Street for approximately $7.4 million. King's full-floor sky palace has three bedrooms, three and a half baths, a large living room/dining area and a 768-square-foot wraparound terrace. The spacious condo features soaring ceilings, two fireplaces, 360-degree views, a gourmet kitchen with Viking appliances and marble baths. "Oprah was very friendly and even took the time to introduce herself to the building's employees," said one insider after the media mogul recently appeared in the lobby. GOLD GLOVE WINNER RECORDS AN ERROR. . . IN PRICE Veteran baseball player Steve Finley, having failed to sell a San Diego-area estate for $18.5 million, has trimmed 3.4 acres from the offering and is now seeking $14 million, says the Wall Street Journal. Finley and his wife Amy originally listed the combined parcels in June. The reduced listing, measuring 4.2 acres, is one of several properties the couple owns in Rancho Santa Fe, 25 miles north of San Diego. Designed by Amy Finley, who owns and runs a Del Mar furniture and interior-design firm, the contemporary home measures about 12,250 square feet - yes, 12,250 - and has an outdoor dining pavilion that seats 50. There are seven bedrooms and a guest house. Finley, 42, is a five-time Gold Glove winner and one of only six players to hit more than 300 home runs and steal 300. He most recently played for the Colorado Rockies and is now a free agent. The Finleys bought the land about seven years ago for $1.7 million and completed construction a year ago. They plan, when the home sells, to move to a nearby property they're developing counties fared worse in terms of sales volume last month, according to the company. THIS WEST SIDE STORY HAS A NEW ENDING The former Dakota apartment of Leonard Bernstein has finally sold and closed after first going to contract 10 months ago, according to the New York Post. Sources say real-estate mogul Philip Milstein paid just over $20 million for the sprawling northeast-corner residence, which went on the market in November 2006 with an asking price of $25.5 million. But he had to bide his time while the seller, Juliana Terian, completed work on her Fifth Avenue home. The 12-room, four-bedroom, five-bath prewar co-op features a large living room, a formal dining room, a library, a pantry, a maid's room, soaring ceilings and several fireplaces. After Bernstein died in 1990, the apartment eventually sold in 1997 to Dakota resident Peter Terian, the owner of Rallye Motors, for $4 million in a private sale. Juliana, a trained architect, took over the car dealerships after her husband's death in 2002, and was in charge of the restoration. JONATHAN TISCH CLEANS UP The New York Giants co-owner (and heir to the multi-billion-dollar Loews fortune) closed the sale on his unlisted duplex at ritzy 950 Fifth Avenue to Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz (and his wife Sheri) for $24.75 million on Jan. 2, according to city records recently filed, reports the Observer. The weekly said in 1997 that he purchased his 10-room, 5,000-square-foot apartment for just $5.75 million. One of the reasons it sold for so low back then was Robert A.M. Stern's odd interior design job, apparently quite heavy on the white marble. FROM RUSSIA WITH RUBLES Russia has purchased a six-bedroom, four-story townhouse at 36 East 75th Street for $35 million, according to public records, reports the Real Deal. The sellers of the eight-bathroom, 12,000-square foot home were Dr. Michael Evan Sachs, a plastic surgeon, and Linda Dawson Sachs. The deed listed the buyer as the Russian Federation. The Georgian mansion, built in 1893, sold for $24.75 million in 2005. The owners originally listed it in 2006 for $25.75 million, and then increased the price several times until it peaked at $38.9 million in July of last year, according to Streeteasy.com. THIS RENOIR IS A HANDYMAN'S SPECIAL A longtime Parisian home of Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is on the market for €3.75 million (about $5.5 million), reduced from its listing last year of €4.5 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. Known as the Château des Brouillards (mists), the 18th-century stone house was also the childhood home of famed filmmaker Jean Renoir, the painter's second son. The house is in Montmartre, the Bohemian enclave that lured Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and many other artists. The four-floor, 3,200-square-foot stone house has four bedrooms and a concierge's apartment. There's a front garden and a 1,200-square-foot interior garden. The current owner's family has held the property for about half a century and hasn't renovated the interior. THEIR HUDSON VALLEY HOME IS ON THE MARKET, YOU BETCHA It's not quite as remote as Fargo, but Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand and her filmmaker husband Joel Coen are listing their secluded Hudson Valley hideaway, says the New York Post. Featuring killer views of the river, the Adirondack-style bungalow on a dead-end country road in the town of Esopus includes three bedrooms, two and a half baths, a double-height living room, a formal dining room and a wraparound screened porch. The price: $895,000. Sources were quoted as saying that the couple is scouting for larger digs in the area, which is an hour and a half from their apartment in Manhattan. THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR JOHN LEGUIZAMO The actor, whose film credits include "Moulin Rouge" and "Summer of Sam," has purchased a four-story townhouse at 51 West 9th Street for $5.7 million, according to public records posted, reports the Real Deal. Between Fifth and Sixth avenues, the townhouse contains 3,136 square feet. A WEB SITE IS DANCING ON THE GRAVES OF LENDERS Nearly 150 U.S. mortgage lenders have shut down in the last year, according to Mortgage Daily's MortgageGraveyard.com, a chronicle of failed companies, says Realtor magazine. Companies tracked are those that employ at least 50 people. Small mortgage brokerages aren't included. In 2006 there were 18 failures. So far this year there have been seven. Among last year's failures were American Home Mortgage Investment, Mortgage Lenders Network USA, New Century Financial, Option One Mortgage, Ameriquest Mortgage, Fieldstone Investment, and First Magnus Financial. "The subprime mortgage industry, which took decades to develop, was mostly dismantled over the past year," says Sam Garcia, who spent 20 years in subprime mortgage lending prior to becoming publisher of Mortgage Daily in 2000. "Surviving lenders are primarily originating conforming loans through their own employees." AN APPRAISER SUES WAMU FOR URGING HIGH VALUATIONS In California, the appraiser is accusing the country's largest thrift institution, Washington Mutual Bank, of blacklisting her for refusing to provide favorable appraised values despite declining market conditions, says Kenneth R. Harney in the Washington Post. The lawsuit, by Jennifer Wertz, comes just two months after the state of New York sued an appraisal management company, First American eAppraiseIT, for allegedly giving in to pressure from Washington Mutual to inflate property values for loan applications. EAppraiseIT and LSI, a unit of Fidelity National Information Services, were also cited in Wertz's suit as contractors to Washington Mutual. Wertz said in her complaint that she earned "in excess of $100,000 a year" from her work for the bank. But last May, according to the suit, a Washington Mutual manager upbraided her for describing local property values in an appraisal as "declining." The manager "insisted that [Wertz] change her report to indicate 'stable' conditions so that the loan could be approved." When Wertz refused, the manager allegedly said she would be banned from all further assignments if she did not cooperate. According to the lawsuit, Wertz was then cut off from Washington Mutual business through the appraisal management companies. Wertz's lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court in Sacramento, charges breach of contract, unfair business practices, interference with her ability to earn a living, fraud, conspiracy and slander, among other alleged violations. A spokeswoman for Washington Mutual said the bank would not comment on Wertz's claims. IMMUNITY BRINGS COOPERATION FROM LOAN ANALYST A company that analyzed the quality of thousands of home loans for investment banks has agreed to provide evidence to New York state prosecutors that the banks had detailed information about the risks posed by ill-fated subprime mortgages, according to the New York Times. Investigators are looking at whether that information, which could have prevented the collapse of securities backed by those loans, was deliberately withheld from investors. Clayton Holdings, a company based in Connecticut that vetted home loans for many investment banks, has agreed to provide important documents and the testimony of its officials to Atty. Gen. Andrew M. Cuomo in exchange for immunity from civil and criminal prosecution in the state. The agreement forwards an investigation by the attorney general into the question of whether the investment banks held back information they should have provided in the disclosures that accompanied the huge packages of loans they offered as securities. FORECLOSURES BOOMED IN 2006 The number of households
in foreclosure increased 75 percent in 2007, with about one of
every 100 NOW THE FBI GETS INTO THE ACT It has opened criminal inquiries into 14 companies as part of a wide-ranging investigation of the troubled mortgage industry, F.B.I. officials said, according to the New York Times. The F.B.I. said it was looking into possible accounting fraud, insider trading or other violations in connection with loans made to borrowers with weak, or subprime, credit. The agency declined to identify the companies under investigation but said the inquiry, which began last spring, involves companies across the financial industry, including mortgage lenders, loan brokers and Wall Street banks that packaged home loans into securities. It is unclear when charges, if any, might be filed. The F.B.I. has been warning for years that mortgage fraud is a significant and growing problem. In the 2006 fiscal year, it documented 35,600 suspicious-activity reports related to mortgage fraud, up from 22,000 the year before and as few as 7,000 in 2003. PURCHASE APPLICATIONS SLIDE AS REFIS RISE For the week ending Jan. 25, total volume increased 7.5 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association. Unadjusted, the growth was 10.5 percent; compared with the same week one year earlier, it was up 70.7 percent. Refinancings were 22.1 higher than the previous week, but purchase applications were 17.7 percent lower. The refinance share of mortgage activity rose to 73.0 percent of total applications from 66.0 percent the previous week, while the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share decreased to 8.6 percent from 9.3 percent. RATES TURN UP AGAIN AFTER FOUR-WEEK DROP The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.68 percent for the week, up from last week's 5.48 percent but down from 6.34 percent last year at this time, according to Freddie Mac. The 15-year FRM this week was 5.17 percent in comparison with 4.95 percent last week and 6.06 percent year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 5.32 percent this week, up 5.13 percent. A year ago, it averaged 6.04 percent. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 5.05 percent, above last week's 4.99 percent and last year 5.54 percent. "Mortgage rates ended their four-week descent this week," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "The movement in fixed mortgage rates was broadly consistent with the movements of Treasury bonds over the week." READERS WITH BLACK THUMBS, TAKE NOTE Relatively few houseplants will put up with the rigors of rooms that are too dark, too dry and too hot, not to mention distracted owners, says the Washington Post. But if you lack a green thumb, you already know that. Following are good bets for such hostile environments and their residents: Snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata varieties), which require direct, bright indirect, moderate or low light and heat above 55 degrees; Peace lily (Spathiphyllum wallisii), bright indirect to moderate light and heat above 65 degrees; Corn plant (Dracaena fragrans), bright indirect to moderate light, above 65 degrees; Heartleaf philodendron (Philodendron scandens), moderate to low light, above 60 degrees (a similar easy vining plant is the pothos or devil's ivy; and Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema commutatum), moderate to low light, above 65 degrees. ARE INDOOR-AIR CLEANER MORE HARMFUL THAN HELPFUL Some experts worry that many air cleaners, sold online and via popular retail outlets such as Sharper Image and Brookstone, produce ozone, observes the Wall Street. Ozone is considered a toxic gas by the EPA, and its adverse effects include lung damage, exacerbated asthma symptoms and, at high levels of exposure, an increased risk of death. Ozone-producing purifiers come in two categories. One is the "ozone generators," which release high amounts of the gas on purpose, claiming that ozone breaks down contaminants. These devices, such as Zontec Perfect Air 100 and Jenesco FM-1 air purifiers, can be purchased from a variety of Web sites. Second are the air cleaners more commonly known as "ionizers" or "electrostatic precipitators," which work by electrically charging airborne particles so they can be more easily collected and removed. These release small amounts of ozone as a byproduct. Popular machines include the Friedrich C-90B, the Kenmore K6 85264 and the Honeywell QuietClean. Manufacturers of both types of air purifiers say that the machines are safe when used properly, and that further research is needed to understand their impact. Many ion-generator companies voluntarily comply with the FDA's ozone limits of 50 ppb for their machines, while ozone machines used at home generally produce levels of 250 to 500 parts per billion, according to the California Air Resources Board. FOR A TV ABOVE THE MANTLE, HEED THESE HOT TIPS To avoid having to look up rather than straight ahead, you'll want to sit 13-15 feet from the fireplace if the mantel is 64 inches off the floor, says the Washington Post. When building or renovating a room for viewing, consider using a low mantel and fireplace surround for closer-in seating. Be sure the TV can be set back far enough on the mantel to be protected from rising heat or smoke - 12 inches if possible. (And an extra fire extinguisher if not?) Test heat levels - gas logs and wood-stove inserts burn especially hot - by taping a thermometer on the wall above a burning fire for at least 90 minutes. If the mercury hits 90 degrees, consider installing a glass fireplace screen or putting the television elsewhere. By all means, check the owner's manual regarding your TV's temperature tolerance. Before mounting the set over a masonry fireplace in older homes, have a certified Fireplace Investigation, Research and Education (FIRE) inspector check the wall, firebox, smoke chamber and flue. Masonry damaged during hardware installation can create a hazard. Call in a certified electrician to install the outlet. Wherever you display the TV, do not wedge it tightly into a niche or cabinet. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MUCH JUICE YOUR TV USES Digital monitors, which became available a few years ago, receive a signal transmitted from a second piece of equipment attached to your electric meter, provide instant feedback on your electricity use and its cost, notes the Washington Post. The monitors, which can be carried to any room in the house, do not indicate the power draw of a specific item. But you can easily figure it out by watching the numbers go up and down as you turn a light fixture or television on and off or stand by the refrigerator as it automatically switches on or off. Pilot projects in the United States and Canada have shown that homeowners who used these devices quickly connected the dots about what they were doing, how much electricity was being used and how much it cost. Then they started to trim those kilowatt-hours and save money. UNSURPRISINGLY, THE HOME HOME-OWNERSHIP RATE SLIPS A new Census Bureau
report shows it declined to 67.8 percent during the fourth quarter
of 2007, down a full percentage point from 68.9 percent a year
ago, according to Inman News. The home-ownership The Lap of Luxury If at first you don't succeed, a broker has to keep trying. That's true, as well, for the broker who succeeds the original one. With a so-called trophy apartment, the effort has to be redoubled if there is to be any chance of success. Consider the sky-high condo with breathtakingly sweeping views of Manhattan from south all the way around to north. After the first broker held an open house months ago there, the 2,910-sf Columbus Circle apartment in a 2004 building merited special mention in this space. There were numerous reasons beyond the view of Central Park way below - for example, the stunning kitchen with yards of white marble on the floor, walls and countertops; the 10-foot ceilings; the well-proportioned rooms, including a 36-foot-long living room; the cavernous master bath, also dearly finished; two other bedrooms; a total of three and a half baths; and the inescapable openness inside and out. But the most notable characteristic of the place was the color: There was none. Aside from cabinetry in the kitchen, the hardwood floors and isolated metallic parts of furniture, there was nothing in the place that wasn't white. The walls, the chairs, the couches, the columns, the bed linens, the TV surrounds, the nightstands, end tables - all white. Obviously, it was not an apartment occupied by children. Or, it seemed, by anyone who didn't live in a spacesuit. Although the unit seemed paradoxically antiseptic and, at the same time, striking, apparently it also was intimidating to anyone who could afford it. This is a property that went on the market in December of 2006 at a price of $14 million. Only a month later, it went off the market, permanently, according to the listing. But in April last year, there it was again. In May, a contract actually was signed, only to fall through. The new broker put the apartment back on the market in July for . . . $20.5 million. In September, the asking price was reduced to a trifling $18.95 million. At another open house a couple of weeks ago, the condo had, besides the lower price, a modified new look. There now appear in the capacious gallery two haphazardly placed Mies van der Rohe daybeds (reproductions), each black, evoking the image of a psychiatrist conducting a dual session between two reclining patients. There now are art large art photographs of decent quality and even some color on the walls throughout. Other touches of black have surfaced elsewhere in the apartment, and one of the bedrooms actually looks as though someone sleeps there. Notwithstanding, the phrases "albatross" and "white elephant" inevitably leap to mind. It happens that this was just one of the luxury properties listed by various brokers that coincidentally were seen since the last issue. Immediately below are five others, as well as another in Gramercy Park and additional apartments in different neighborhoods:
Upper West Side
Gramercy Park
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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Expectations
of a market slowdown were not clearly evidenced by the empirical
results of the quarter, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal
firm in its report for Prudential Douglas Elliman. The increase
in the number of sales, rising prices, falling inventory, shorter
days on market and a smaller listing discount resulted in market
improvement over the same period last year, the report showed.
The market indicators in this report provided evidence of modest
overall gains in measurements such as median sales price and the
number of sales. The robust gains in overall price indicators
of average sales price and average price per square foot were
skewed by the sharp price gains in the luxury market sector, so
their relevance was limited the quarter. There remains concern
about the adverse impact of the mortgage/credit problems in the
financial markets on both employment levels and bonus compensation.
price.
Anglin and his colleagues from the University of Windsor and researchers
from Canada Mortgage and Housing examined about 20,000 real-estate
listings and sales data in Windsor and Essex counties, Ontario,
from between 1997 and early 2000. Listings with the words "beautiful"
or "gorgeous" sold 15 percent faster, they found. "Landscaping"
in a listing hastened a sale by 20 percent. Describing a property
as in "move-in condition" quickened the sale by 12 percent.
Calling a home a "handyman special" cut sale time by
half. Other familiar jargon, such as "must see" or "vacant,"
or including the information that a seller was moving, had virtually
no effect on the time before a sale. The kiss of death appears
to be language that reeks of desperation - words such as "motivated"
and "must sell." These slowed sales by 30 percent. None
of this is to suggest that opting for "must see" over
"must sell" is all it takes to sell a property quickly
and garner a higher list price. The hot words have to be used
accurately, and they must be combined with one other thing: "The
single most important message that a seller can send to a buyer
is their choice of list price," Anglin's study says.
U.S.
households at some stage of the foreclosure process, according
to the latest numbers from data aggregator RealtyTrac, says Inman
News. Nationwide, RealtyTrac tallied 2.2 million foreclosure-related
filings during the year on about 1.3 million homes, a 75 percent
increase in filings from 2006. Foreclosure-related filings include
default notices, auction sales notices and bank repossessions.
Because one home may be subject to several filings, the number
of foreclosure-related filings is larger than the number of foreclosures.
The foreclosure picture improved at the end of the year for some
states - for example, Ohio, Indiana, New York and New Jersey.
But foreclosure filings were up sharply in December in some of
the states already hardest hit by foreclosure such as California,
Nevada and New Mexico. According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings
fell dramatically during December in Ohio (-26 percent), Indiana
(-34 percent), New Jersey (-23 percent) and New York (-20 percent).
rate,
which had hovered around 64 percent during the 1980s and early
1990s, began a steady upward climb in 1995, breaking 69 percent
during three quarters in 2004 and 2005 before beginning a retreat
last year. Erosion of home-ownership appeared to accelerate in
the fourth quarter, falling 40 basis points from the 68.2 percent
rate recorded in the second and third quarters of 2007. Home ownership
was highest among whites (74.9 percent) and lowest among blacks
(47.7 percent) and Hispanics (48.5 percent). At 83 percent, the
rate of home ownership among families with incomes greater than
the median far exceeded that for families with incomes below the
median (50.9 percent). In 2007, the number of owner-occupied units
declined by about 600,000, to 75.2 million, as the number of occupied
rental units grew by 1.5 million, to 35.7 million. The homeowner
vacancy rate was higher in major cities (3.7 percent) and lower
in the suburbs (2.4 percent). 
