Items of Interest CONSTRUCTION OF NEW SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES SLOWS IN JUNE The U.S. Commerce Department said housing starts declined 5.3 percent, the slowest pace in 17 years and 64.5 percent lower than the peak of the building boom in January of 2006. Also, issuance of building permits for single-family homes fell 3.5 percent. For all types of housing, starts and building permits posted misleading gains of 9.1 percent and 11.6 percent for the month largely because of a one-time bump in multifamily activity in New York City. (The Big Apple's surge was related to newly building code changes.) Excluding the Northeast multifamily data, which includes New York, there was a 4 percent decrease in overall housing starts and a 0.7 percent gain in building permits for the month. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected June starts to drop by 1.2 percent, according to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that year over year, housing starts were 27 percent below the prior June. HOME PRICES HAVE FALLEN 4.8 PERCENT SINCE MAY 2007 From just April to May, the decline was 0.3 percent, according to the latest House Price Index (HPI) of the Office of Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). Since the April 2007 peak, prices have fallen 4.9 percent. The OFHEO monthly index is calculated using purchase prices of houses backing mortgages that have been sold to or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. SALES AND PRICES KEEP SLIDING EVEN AS SUPPLY GROWS June sales of previously owned homes - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - fell 2.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from May; the volume was 15.5 percent lower than in the previous June, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Total housing inventory rose 0.2 percent to 4.49 million existing homes available for sale, representing an 11.1.-month supply at the current sales pace. That amount was up from a 10.8-month supply in May. The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $215,100 in June, down 6.1 percent from a year ago, when the median was $229,000. Commented NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun: "With short sales and foreclosures accounting for approximately one-third of transactions, it's hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison with a year." BUYERS WITH BONUSES CONCERN LENDERS, BOARDS Those in the financial industry who still want to buy real estate are often unable to persuade lenders and co-op boards to UNLICENSED BROKERS CHARGED WITH FAKING ADS Prosecutors say four apartment brokers defrauded more than 4,000 people out of at least $900,000 by offering New York City apartments that didn't exist or were unavailable, reports the Sun. The four were charged with a scheme to defraud and with acting as real estate brokers without licenses. They didn't have lawyers, so Manhattan Justice Lewis Bart Stone entered not guilty pleas for them. Prosecutors say the defendants ran Innovative Apartments and Screening Services from December 2005 until May 2008. The defendants are accused of advertising nonexistent apartments online and charging clients $200 for background and credit checks that were never done. Prosecutors say the four ignored clients' demands for refunds or gave only partial repayments. FEWER OFFERING PLANS FOR NEW APARTMENTS ARE RECORDED For the first time in nearly a decade, the number of offering plans for new apartments is slowing, according to data obtained by the Sun. The New York State attorney general's office accepted 663 offering plans containing 25,271 units last year, a 4.5 percent decline from 2006. The drop in offering plans is the first since 1999. As inventory in condominiums and co-op apartments decline, prices are likely to rise, industry officials said. In contrast to markets in Florida and California, the data indicate that New York will not be flooded with new properties for sale. "Once the inventory dries up, prices will go up again," a partner at the real estate law firm Belkin Burden Wenig & Goldman, Aaron Shmulewitz, said. "We're entering a valley. How deep the valley will be and how wide it will be, nobody knows yet. But for sure, there's a mountain on the other side." PUT IT THERE According to a parking rate survey by Boston-based real estate research firm Colliers International, parking costs have risen nationwide for the fifth year in a row and they aren't expected to change much in the near term, reports the Wall Street Journal. The median monthly parking rate in the U.S. is $153.79, a 0.9 percent rise from 2007. Colliers says the rise in rates is mostly owing to buoyant office occupancy rates, but a recent Journal article observed that companies are taking less office space across the nation amid the economic slowdown. Midtown Manhattan topped the list of most expensive parking areas within the U.S - $585 a month, or $7,020 a year; rates can go as high as $750 a month, however. Other expensive parking districts in the U.S. include the just downtown Manhattan, with median cost at $462 a month; Boston, at $460 a month; and San Francisco, $350 a month. The cheapest places to park: Bakersfield, Calif., $40 a month; Reno, Nev., $45 a month; and Phoenix, $52.50 a month. In London, monthly rates reach $1,167 within the city area; Sydney charges $775; and its $742 in Hong Kong. WIN SOME, LOSE A LOT A Hagerstown, Md., man who won a four-bedroom house in a charity raffle is having trouble selling it for enough to pay the taxes on the prize, says the Hagerstown Herald-Mail in Realtor magazine. Dennis Weaver paid $100 for a ticket in a raffle to benefit the San Mar Children's Home. He won a restored farmhouse in nearby Big Pool, Md., appraised at $380,000. Income taxes on the prize plus property taxes totaled $170,000. To pay them, Weaver took out a mortgage and put the house up for auction to get enough money to pay off the mortgage. But there were no bidders. Weaver is giving up his apartment in Hagerstown and moving into the farmhouse to avoid paying rent on top of his mortgage. He's given up on the idea of selling - until the market improves. FARGO? HAS AARP EVEN BEEN THERE? The advocacy group's magazine concludes that the top five healthiest cities to live and retire in are Ann Arbor, Honolulu, Madison, Santa Fe, and Fargo (!). Also receiving high marks for vitality and living conditions were Boulder, Charlottesville, San Francisco Bay Area, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Naples-Marco Island. Communities were chosen based on various criteria including opportunities for exercise, number of doctors in the area, availability of healthcare, diagnosis of health problems and healthy eating habits. The magazine also evaluated quality of life measures such as housing affordability, the local economy, educational resources, crime, climate (Fargo?), recreational amenities, and arts and culture (Fargo?) to help make its selections. If you're ready to move to one of the cities, you might want to click here. LEASEBACKS MAY POSSIBLY BE ON THE UPSWING Homeowners buckling under heavy mortgage debt are resorting to a different kind of relief measure: selling their home and then renting it back from the new owner, according to the Wall Street Journal. Such sale-leasebacks have been around for decades, but real-estate agents are seeing a small but rising number of people making this move. Often, homeowners cut a deal with family members or bargain-hunting investors to let them stay put after selling their property. In many cases, such leaseback arrangements are being made when a home's value has fallen so far that the balance owed on the mortgage is more than the house is worth. Banks sometimes are willing to be paid less than the full mortgage on a house as a way for the homeowner to avoid foreclosure. The maneuver could make financial sense for some, especially those who are barely meeting their mortgage payments or are in danger of defaulting on their loan. A LOT OF RAIN ISN'T SEATTLE'S ONLY PROBLEM THINKING SMALL, THESE DEVELOPERS MAY BE ONTO A TREND They build tract houses that are half the size of the average U.S. home and cost a lot more per square foot, reports the Wall Street Journal. What is surprising is how quickly they sell them. Ross Chapin, an architect, and Jim Soules, a developer, are building their fortunes with buyers willing to pay more for less. Their customers say they prefer taking up less room and using less energy. As the surplus of unsold McMansions increases, other developers are starting to lean their way. In the past decade, the two men have built about four dozen Craftsman-style cottages that range in size from 800 to 1,500 square-feet. The houses are squeezed into five boutique-sized tracts, all within a two-hour drive of Seattle. Some were melded into more spacious suburbs under zoning laws modified to ease density restrictions for small houses. Most were built around a grass commons shared by a dozen or so like-minded residents who boast of their tract's smallish carbon footprint. Developers in Milwaukee, Boston, Indianapolis and elsewhere are looking to spread the idea beyond Puget Sound. OF ALL PEOPLE, MICHELANGELO SHOWS UP IN THE DIGEST That's because Malcolm has written a piece on the Renaissance artist's drawings in the summer issue of ARTnews magazine. The article is not available online, but you can find it on newsstands. INFLATION FEARS CAUSE RATE SPIKE The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.63 percent for the week, up from last week's 6.26 percent, reports Freddie Mac. Last year at this time, it was 6.69 percent. The 15-year FRM reached 6.18 percent in comparison with 5.78 percent the previous week and 6.37 percent a year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 6.16 percent this week, up from the prior week's 5.80 percent and but below the 6.30 percent averaged at this time last year. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 5.49 percent this week. Last week, they were 5.10 percent and averaged 5.69 percent a year ago. "Market concerns about rising inflation, further weakness in the housing market and greater probability that the Federal Reserve (Fed) will raise short-term rates this year all combined to push mortgage rates higher this week," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Some of the key drivers to these concerns were consumer prices jumping 1.1 percent (annualized) in June - the largest increase since September 2005 on a year-over-year basis - coupled with consumer prices growing at a 5.0 percent clip (on a year-over-year basis), the strongest since February 1991." RELIEF IS NEAR FOR THE HOUSING MARKET THE FED ISSUES NEW MORTGAGE RULES The Federal Reserve Board unanimously approved a rule aimed at better protecting consumers from deceptive mortgage-lending practices, says the Wall Street Journal. Similar to a proposal issued in December, the rule adds protections for people with higher-priced mortgages. Those loans include those in the subprime market but typically exclude prime loans. The new measures require creditors to verify borrowers' income and assets and to establish escrow accounts for all first-lien mortgages. Lenders will be prohibited from relying solely on a home's value to assess a borrowers' ability to repay loans. Prepayment penalties also will be limited. Additionally, the rule will require advertising to include new information about rates, monthly payments and other loan features, and ban seven deceptive or misleading practices, including representing that a rate or payment is "fixed" when it can change. The Fed's staff is recommending that most changes go into effect by Oct. 1, 2009, thereby letting the barn door swing open for more than another year. Regulations for escrow requirements wouldn't go into effect until April 1, 2010. MORTGAGE VOLUME DIPS The number of loan applications for the week ending July 18 was 6.2 percent lower than the previous week on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Unadjusted, the decrease was 6.1 percent, but the amount was 9.6 percent below the same week one year earlier. Refinancings went down by 5.6 percent, while purchase applications dropped 6.7 percent from one week earlier. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 39.4 percent of total applications from 39.2 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share declined to 8.5 percent from 9.1 percent. GET OUT OF PRISON, PASS GO, GET RICH IN FLORIDA From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession, a Miami Herald investigation has found. Of those, 4,065 cleared background checks after committing crimes for which state law specifically requires regulators to screen, including fraud, bank robbery, racketeering and extortion. More than half the people who wrote mortgages in Florida during that period were not subject to any criminal background check. During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. Don Saxon, commissioner of the Office of Financial Regulation, said he didn't know why his staff issued licenses to bank robbers and racketeers, but would look into the cases cited by the Herald. Good idea. MORTGAGE INSURERS ARE SQUEEZING BUYERS Lenders are offering borrowers fewer ways to avoid purchasing private mortgage insurance, according to the Wall Street FORECLOSURE STATS PROVE TO BE A NUMBERS GAME Which states have been hardest hit by the mortgage crisis? asks the Wall Street Journal. It depends on who is doing the counting, and how. Colorado and Georgia continually rank in the top 10 nationwide, according to a well-publicized monthly ranking of the number of foreclosure filings per households in the state. But by other measures - such as percentage of loans entering foreclosure - those states are closer to the middle of the pack. The situation is reversed for Maine and Kentucky: They're near the bottom in the monthly ranking but high in the other measures. The divergent data reflect different methods and, some say, different goals on the part of their originators.To get into the weeds, click here. BUILDER CONFIDENCE SLUMPS TO A RECORD LOW It dropped for newly built single-family homes for a third consecutive month in July, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI fell below its previous record low of 18 in June to a new record low of 16 in July. "Builders are reporting that traffic of prospective buyers has fallen off substantially in recent months," said NAHB Chief Economist David Seiders. "Given the systematic deterioration of job markets, rising energy costs and sinking home values aggravated by the rising tide of foreclosures, many prospective buyers have simply returned to the sidelines until conditions improve." Lehman Brothers analyst Michelle Meyer added, "We expect builders to continue to cut construction even though starts are already down nearly 60 percent from the peak and real residential investment has fallen by about a third. In our view, residential investment is unlikely to increase until the spring of next year." SURVEY DELIVERS STARTLING NEWS ON MORTGAGE WOES According to those who have attempted to secure several types of credit and mortgage products over the past year, a majority found it to be more difficult, the study by Deloitte revealed. Well, yeah. Of those who applied for a home mortgage, 67 percent found it more difficult; for a home equity line of credit (HELOC), that number was 65 percent. In addition, three out of four respondents reported they are not at all likely to buy a home in the next year, given the current economic environment, and 69 percent are not at all likely to refinance an existing home. Yet 69 percent are not at all likely to sell a home. Of respondents who have a mortgage, 91 percent have made their mortgage payments either early or on time over the past year. DOES CELEBRITY SELL Nicolas Cage could be leaving Las Vegas. The "National Treasure" star is asking $9.95 million for a 14,000-square-foot home there with garage parking for 16 cars, says the Wall Street Journal, noting that the home has been on the market since late fall without Cage's ownership having been disclosed. Now that his connection has been revealed, will the 2003 seven-bedroom house with pool on a 0.36-acre lot sell quickly? The home has views of the Las Vegas Strip and includes a movie theater and an elevator, according to the listing. Cage bought the property in 2006 for $8.5 million, records show, and purchased a house nearby on the same street for $2.25 million. He sold that smaller home last year for $2.3 million. The actor has in recent years bought and sold houses all over the world, including San Francisco, New Orleans, Middletown, R.I., and Bath, England. In January, Cage sold his main residence in Newport Beach, Calif. for $35 million. ONE WOMAN WHO CHANGED HER MODERN APARTMENT Al Gore's eldest daughter Karenna Gore Schiff and her husband sold an Upper East Side co-op apartment for $6.35 million to a top executive at Estee Lauder, notes the Real Deal. Gore Schiff, a writer and attorney, and her husband Andrew Schiff, a biotech venture capitalist with Aisling Capital, sold the unit at 137 East 66th St. to Fabrizio Freda, Estee Lauder's chief operating officer. The four-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot apartment in Lennox Hill was listed for $6.99 million. The apartment also includes two separate maids' rooms, which were being used as a gym and guest room. Gore Schiff is the author of "Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Changed Modern America." She formerly served as director of community affairs for the Association to Benefit Children. LEATHER AND LACE ARE TRYING YET AGAIN Supermodel Gisele Bündchen and quarterback Tom Brady have both re-listed their former Manhattan pads, says the Wall Street Journal. Bündchen is now asking $5.9 million for her West Village penthouse, a bit more than half of her original asking price last September. Her boyfriend wants $18.29 million for his Time Warner Center condominium, roughly 10 percent more than he asked last year. Bündchen, 28, has had some trouble selling her apartment, which measures about 1,700 square feet over three floors connected by a spiral staircase. After first putting the two-bedroom unit on the market in September for $10.9 million, she lowered the price several times, down to $7.9 million. She finally took it off the market this spring. In 2002, she paid nearly $3 million for the place, which has Hudson River views, a wraparound terrace and a roof deck with hot tub and built-in barbecue. As for Brady, his former three-bedroom residence in midtown Manhattan has views of Central Park. In early 2007, Brady, 30, first listed the roughly 3,000-square-foot home at $16.5 million, $2.5 million more than he had paid for it just months earlier in December 2006. He later took it off the market and has now re-listed it for $18.29 million. Dream on! A BAD BOY FROM BOSTON SEEKS A GOOD PRICE Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer has listed his home on the South Shore of Massachusetts for $5 million, says the Wall Street Journal. The house is in Marshfield Hills, Mass., a coastal hamlet about 20 miles south of Boston. Kramer, 58, and his wife April purchased the 17-acre property in two transactions and in 2003 replaced the existing house with one of their design. The shingle-style home of 6,200 square feet has a recording studio, a pool, a guest house and three standalone garages for Kramer's car collection. (He also is a partner in a specialty auto dealership). The house overlooks the Atlantic Ocean and the North River. Bandmate Brad Whitford sold his home on the same street in 2006 for $3 million. Kramer is already living in another home in the area. A BUSH KIN BUYS A TOWNHOUSE WITH LOTS OF GREEN George Herbert Walker IV, President Bush's second cousin, paid $13.95 million for a townhouse at 6 East 10th Street in Greenwich Village, says the Real Deal. Walker became a partner at Goldman Sachs at age 29. So he must be smart. After serving as the head of Goldman's Hedge Fund Strategies, Walker left for Lehman Brothers' (or perhaps not so smart) to become the global head of its $188 billion Investment Management Division in 2006. He lives at 45 Greene St. in SoHo. The 7,000-square-foot, seven-bedroom townhouse, which has a swimming pool, was sold by a couple who bought the century-old building for just $7.5 million in two years ago. IF MCCAIN LOSES, HE WON'T BE THE ONLY ONE A homeowner has listed the former Phoenix house of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain for $12 million, close to four times what the owner paid Cindy McCain for it in December 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal. The North Phoenix residence, on two acres, was Mrs. McCain's childhood home and the senator's family residence for 20 years. The seller, Jane Popple, a real-estate investor, has overhauled the house in a Tuscan style with new floors, finishes and furnishings. While the basic floor plan is unchanged, Popple added a theater room and a seven-car garage with a four-bedroom guest apartment, for total living area of roughly 14,000 square feet with 13 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms. Furniture is included - as well it should be. WITH THESE TIPS, YOU CAN SEE THROUGH A GLASS LIGHTLY Carolyn Forté of the Good Housekeeping Research Institute recently tested six store-bought solutions for cleaning windows, says the Washington Post. The winner was Hope's Perfect Glass, available at Bed Bath & Beyond and other major retailers. Regular Windex was a close second. Mark Dosch, who calls himself the Window Wizard, uses a product called Glass Gleam 4, which costs $14 for virtually a lifetime supply of a quart from JRacenstein.com. You'll also need appropriate tools. A horsehair brush for soaping, an old terry cloth towel and a surgical towel complete the kit. Surgical towels are cheaper than microfiber and just as lint-free and washable. Dosch prefers a squeegee, though Good Housekeeping's favorite was a microfiber cloth. Said Forté: "The squeegee involves a technique - I've never been able to master it." Newspapers didn't rate highly either. "People swear by it, but newspaper was messy," she averred, "and it made our hands a mess. It didn't absorb as well and didn't leave windows as streak-free as microfiber." FAKING IT IS ACCEPTABLE WHEN IT COMES TO TV Opto-Electronic Design is marketing something called "FakeTV" as a burglar deterrent device that gives off light in just the way a real television does, says Realtor magazine. From outside, a home appears to be occupied, goes the sales pitch. A built-in light sensor turns FakeTV on at dusk, and it stays on for a pre-set period. Computer-controlled LEDs is said to reproduce the scene changes, color shifts, flicks and fades of a real television. "When the burglar sees the light from an operating television, his imagination supplies the image of the person watching it," the company maintains. You can be first in your neighborhood by ordering at FakeTV.com. Or call 888/621-5800. The price: $39.99. DO YOUR SHINY COUNTERTOPS GLOW TOO Allegations that granite countertops may emit dangerous levels of radon and radiation have been raised periodically over the past decade, mostly by makers and distributors of competing countertop materials, notes the New York Times. The Marble Institute of America has said such claims are "ludicrous" on the ground that the amounts of uranium, thorium, potassium and other radioactive materials are not enough to pose a health threat. Indeed, health physicists and radiation experts agree that most granite countertops emit radiation and radon at extremely low levels. They say these emissions are insignificant compared with so-called background radiation that is constantly raining down from outer space or seeping up from the earth's crust, not to mention emanating from manmade sources. But with increasing regularity in recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency has been receiving calls from radon inspectors as well as from concerned homeowners about granite countertops with radiation measurements several times above background levels. "We've been hearing from people all over the country concerned about high readings," said Lou Witt, a program analyst with the agency's Indoor Environments Division. The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission), which is about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day.
"Phantom loads" (also known as standby power or vampire power) occur in most devices that use electricity - for example, VCRs, televisions, stereos, computers and kitchen appliances, according to the Department of Energy. The Washington Post observes that, because most of these items are plugged in 24 hours a day, their costs can add up. "This wasted standby power can account for up to 10 percent of a monthly electric bill," says Bob Hainey, a spokesman for the Pepco power concern. To avoid unnecessary power drainage, unplug appliances when they are not in use. Also consider consolidating some plugs on a power strip and switching it off before you leave the house for the day or turn in for the evening. Can You Top This? If it's a penthouse, the answer to the question above is this: not likely in the same building. If it's the price of a penthouse, the sky seems to be the limit. As this column has noted before, the very word "penthouse" carries a certain allure. To buyers, it often means some combination of wealth, privacy, silence from above and the opportunity to lord it all over the unfortunate beings below. To sellers, a penthouse means a premium return on their investment. To Gertrude Stein, the concept would not necessarily be rosy. Indeed, the concept "penthouse" should not be refer merely to the top floor of a building, where developers have a habit of creating faux penthouses by adding a "PH" before unit numbers. Almost always, the correct definition includes outdoor space, a layout unique to the building and features such as a fireplace, oversize windows, sliding-glass doors, especially high ceilings and additional levels. It is not uncommon for square footage inside to be compromised by that outside, though, of course, the compensating views can be worth the compromise. As for those high ceilings, don't expect them in penthouses added to the roof as a modern afterthought. When it comes to Manhattan, penthouses make up only 1 percent of the housing stock and, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm, command 10 percent of the market by price. One reason is the all-important terrace, which usually is dressed up with plantings, lighting, comfortable seating and that illegal, but inevitable, grill. What is a penthouse worth? Appraisal guru Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel has said the value of terrace square footage runs one quarter to one half the value of interior square footage on a per square foot basis in Manhattan. "For example, if one third is selected as a generic indicator, a 900 square foot terrace would be equivalent to 300 square feet of adjusted interior space," he has written. "This adjusted square footage gets added to the existing interior square footage and, voila, an adjusted price per square footage is created and the penthouse unit can be compared to a unit without outdoor space. However, this formula does not take into account the other amenity differences so a residual premium usually remains." He goes on to note that the quality of the views can make all the difference in the formula. Miller has his formula, sellers have their price and rarely do the twain meet. Consider two of the penthouses currently on the market on the Upper West Side. The first one is an expensively renovated condo overlooking Broadway in the 90s. In a recently converted pre-war pet friendly full-service building, the apartment has two bedrooms and two baths within its 1,077 square feet. There are high beamed ceilings, herringbone hardwood floors and, in the glamorous yet modest-size kitchen, with Viking, Sub-Zero and Miele appliances. The baths - none en suite - are finished with onyx. Other of the unit's assets include new large windows, central air conditioning, a washer/dryer, and closets customized with solid mahogany and maple inserts. But the living/dining room, with one of its walls faced with stone, measures only 16'6" by 15'16", and the other rooms are proportionately smaller as well. Now, to the L-shaped terrace - all 987 square feet of it. The owners, who had to relocate unexpectedly, spent a wad of cash on that wide outdoor space. It is landscaped, including built-in irrigation, and the terrace makes a strong impression of luxury. Among its features are a pergola, outdoor furniture that goes with the sale and handsome wood treatments on all the walls. Alas, the walls are very high, affording privacy on the one hand but depriving folks who are not standing river or skyline views. The asking price since the beginning of May has been $2.995 million. The second apartment is in the 70s on a corner of West End Avenue. It went on the market last August at $3.4 million. In December, the price went down to $2.95 million in December, then to $2.8 million in the middle of May and $2.5 million at the end of that month. (See the last issue's rant about seller expectations by visiting the archives.) What the penthouse offers is narrow terraces of unspecified square footage with enviable views on four sides plus a private elevator entrance. The more than 200-sf master bedroom obviously was stolen from one of the terraces and - with a remotely controlled window covering for the sloped glass ceiling that meets a glass wall - is more greenhouse than sleeping area. Still, it has undeniable drama. The layout of this co-op is awkward, and the rest of the apartment is decidedly unexceptional. The second bedroom, 156 square feet, is currently used as an office and guest room (with that inevitable sleep sofa), and one of the two baths is accessed from it. The compact kitchen, which needs updating, is separated from both the interior and exterior dining areas by the living room. It is a long walk balancing bottles of ketchup or wine on a tray. Dramatic as is the master bedroom, the drama of the walls of this apartment may well overwhelm prospective buyers with distracting memorabilia of luminaries from entertainment and sports going back decades. Among them all and hard to find is a charming picture of the owner dressed for his bar mitzvah way back when. It seems as if every inch of vertical and horizontal space above the floor is covered with signed mementos, but buyers apparently have concluded that the patina of celebrity will neither brush off nor, therefore, tempt them. Even in a full-service pre-war building that is very well situated this penthouse with remarkable views and proximity to fame was listed too long at a price that demonstrably has failed to compel buyers. The square footage of the place is supposedly 1,600, but it feels much smaller. Multiply by even $1,300, unrealistic given the unit's drawbacks, and the interior space alone should run $2.08 million. The square footage of the skinny terraces is not provided, but 800 square feet would be a pretty good approximation; most of the area would not accommodate more than a couple of people at the same time. At a hefty $650 a square foot, the value of the outside space would be $520,000 by Miller's formula. For the whole apartment, the current price offering price of $2.5 million is pretty much on target if using second-quarter statistics and the measurements in the listing. Maybe now that apartment will sell, but only to that small segment of the market that values the concept of penthouse - its cachet and its rarity - higher than its practical use of space. Yes, there is room at the top, but not necessarily for elevated prices that express sellers' fantasies, rather than the market's reality. Below are other recently seen properties, including more penthouses listed by various brokers: Nine Rooms on Carnegie Hill
Upper West Side
East Harlem There is no gainsaying the fact that much of East Harlem - also known as El Barrio or Spanish Harlem - is a distinctly different world with all the energy of a bazaar and the flair of a foreign country. The sidewalks are dense with vendors and a populace at ease with storefront commerce, whether food, clothing or telephone cards. Once the domain of Italian immigrants, the area boasts a concentration of Puerto Ricans as well as, of course, significant proportions of other nationalities and races. It bursts with an aura of authenticity and an edge of earthiness. Indistinctly bounded by First and Fifth Avenues and 96th and 125th streets, much of East Harlem suffers from its inconvenient access to a range of subway transportation, though there is bus service along a couple of the avenues and major crosstown streets. Upscale restaurants, trendy shops, gourmet stores and other neighborhood amenities found elsewhere in the city are all but absent, but construction is now under way on an ambitious shopping plaza at 166th Street and FDR Drive. Called East River Plaza, the project has the opening planned next year of a Target, Home Depot, Best Buy and Marshalls. Such retailers hardly offer the atmosphere or products farther south, but no one denies that the undertaking is a vast improvement for area residents. For now, the tradeoff for living in a neighborhood that is less traditional than more fashionable ones south and west is the price of real estate. A tour of the model apartments in new developments close to First Avenue between 117th and 119th streets proves the point. Prices have started lower than in more popular areas, and many have been cut recently - for example, a $599,000 one-bedroom, one-and-a-half-bath "penthouse" that was $699,000 (not described below). Given that the properties are of the same recent vintage and geared for roughly the same market, it is no surprise that they tend to look the same, paradoxically bland and superficially stylish at the same time. Some of them have the appearance of high end but achieve the look with artifice. None visited can compete in elegance with new developments in, say, the financial district (where those condos also tend to look alike). Herewith a sample of the apartments being marketed by their brokers:
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work with them, says the New York Times. The biggest problem is that buyers who work on Wall Street no longer have the guarantee of huge bonuses to bolster their financial status. And even those who continue to get bonuses are finding that banks and co-ops will not let them count all that money as part of their income because, unlike a salary, it can fluctuate wildly. "They're looking for people who have stable incomes that are not so market dependent," said Melissa Cohn, the president of the Manhattan Mortgage Company, who has noticed the changing standards regarding bonuses in the last month. Now, some lenders allow buyers to count just a third of their bonus. A banker who qualified for a $3.75 million mortgage a year ago based on a $250,000 salary and a $1 million bonus now qualifies for only a $1.8 million mortgage with the same salary and bonus. Buyers who work in finance are having trouble with both condominiums and co-ops. Some co-op boards are rejecting bankers even when they appear to be financially qualified, or they are demanding as a condition of approval that many months of maintenance payments be provided upfront. 
The city is tied with Dallas as having the highest inflation rate in the country, finds Forbes.com. In order, the cities just behind them are Washington, D.C., 5.74 percent; Miami, 5.71 percent; Portland, Ore., 5.68 percent; San Jose, Calif., 5.61 percent; Milwaukee, Wisc., 5.61 percent; Tampa, 5.60 percent; Phoenix, 5.44 percent; and Los Angeles, 5.41 percent. The Web site used an inflation study done for it by Moody's Economy.com in an examination of the 40 largest metro areas in the U.S. The numbers reflect those from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and Moody's figures on price change between January 2008 and June 2008. They track everything from the price of food, taxes, transportation and medical care to entertainment, education and mortgage payments.
The House has approved far-reaching government assistance for the nation's housing market, including broad authority for the Treasury Department to protect the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies from collapse, reports the New York Times. The measure also includes an aggressive plan to help hundreds of thousands of troubled borrowers avoid foreclosure by refinancing their mortgages with more affordable government-insured loans. The White House said President Bush would sign the measure despite his opposition to the inclusion of nearly $4 billion in grants for local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties. Bush's support assures that the bill will become law after final passage by the Senate, possibly on Saturday. The House approved the bill 272 to 152, with just 45 Republicans joining 227 Democrats voting in favor.
Journal, which notes that mortgage insurance, required for buyers who are unable to make a full down payment or who have insufficient credit histories, reimburses lenders in the event of a borrower default. But over the past few months, mortgage insurers have been declaring more and more of the U.S. a "declining market," raising the requirements and making such insurance harder to obtain. While it's difficult to gauge the severity of the impact, industry executives concede insurers' tighter standards are affecting the market. At ShoreBank Corp., a community-development bank with branches in Chicago, Cleveland and other cities, the insurers' tighter standards are "wreaking havoc," says Michelle Collins, director of mortgage lending. During the housing boom, borrowers often avoided mortgage insurance by taking out two loans, one that covered 80 percent of the purchase price and a second, "piggyback" loan to cover the once-traditional down payment. But piggyback loans have all but vanished, so insurers are frequently requiring at least a 10 percent down payment, compared with previous standards that might have included a 3-5 percent down payment. Prices also are rising. 
