Items of Interest A LOVER OF PURPLE IS EXPECTING SOME GREEN No, not Alice Walker. The creator of Barney, the purple dinosaur character for children, has agreed to sell the former Connecticut estate of beauty pioneer Helena Rubinstein, says the Wall Street Journal. The Greenwich house was bought in 1998 for $2 million, and children's-entertainment entrepreneur Sheryl Leach recently renovated it. The contract's sale price couldn't be learned, but the house most recently was listed at $4 million, down from $5 million when first offered in July. Overlooking a pond and Bruce Park, a mile south of downtown Greenwich, the turn-of-the-century 4,900-square-foot home on one acre has six bedrooms. There's a kitchen with a wood-burning fireplace and a separate two-bedroom cottage of 1,100 square feet. IT'S THE SIMPLE LIFE FOR THEM. . . APPARENTLY Joel Madden and Nicole Richie are moving to New York City at least for part of the year, says the New York Post. The new parents, who were spotted apartment-hunting in August, quietly plopped down a modest $999,999 for a two-bedroom, two-bath downtown condo on the Bowery in December and will consider it a primary residence. In another sign that pregnancy and motherhood has toned down the former wild-child, Nicole's new 1,000 square-foot 11th-floor pad reportedly is very simple, nothing high-design, low-key and unrenovated. JOEL SIEGEL'S ESTATE SELLS HIS CO-OP The late Good Morning America film critic's apartment at 82 Irving Place has been sold to Ariela Avram, an In Style editor for $1.95 million, according to the New York Observer. Siegel died last summer at the age of 63 after a prolonged battle with colon cancer. His wife and the executor of his estate, Ena Swansea, signed the property deed. EVEN FOR VERA WANG, ANOTHER HOME IS JUST TOO MUCH The fashion designer has listed her family's Palm Beach oceanfront 11-bedroom mansion for $19 million - one of a slew of properties she and her brother inherited from their businessman father, according to the Wall Street Journal. Cheng Ching Wang, who died in 2006 at age 87, emigrated from China after World War II, owned companies with interests in shipping, refineries and pharmaceuticals; he was the sole investor in his daughter Vera's brand. She and her brother, Kenneth, also inherited a house in Southampton, N.Y., property in the wealthy suburb of Pound Ridge, N.Y., and a New York City apartment - all of which the siblings have sold. "These are all properties that need to be updated. It's just too much to handle. And I travel a great deal for business," the designer said. "You can't live in three places at once." Last year, she paid $23.1 million to the estate for her father's duplex at 740 Park Avenue, whose residents include Blackstone chief Stephen Schwartzman. She and her husband, Arthur Becker, recently sold their former Park Avenue apartment for $33.6 million and have moved to 740. Wang also bought a vacant parcel on Southampton's Gin Lane from her father's estate and plans a home there. The one-acre Palm Beach property, which the father purchased for $4.75 million in 1996, has a pool and 175 feet fronting the ocean. MAYBE THIS IS ONE HOME THAT WILL LAST Kenneth Cole, the shoe titan, and his wife Maria Cuomo Cole have just paid $14.5 million for a five-bedroom, five-bath prewar co-op apartment at One Sutton Place South for $14.5 million, reports the New York Post. Former George Soros money manager Dale Precoda is listed as the seller on deed transfers. Included in the riverfront residence with a classic Georgian interior design is a gallery, library, drawing room, family wing with four bedroom suites, separate guest suite, family room with river views and an industrial-size kitchen. The Coles, who have been raising their three daughters in Harrison, previously owned a 14-room apartment at 927 Fifth Ave., which they bought in March 2000 for $11.2 million. They added millions in renovations, never moved in, listed the 6,000-square-foot, full-floor apartment in 2003 and sold it for $15 million. WOEFUL HE'S NOT Garrison Keillor and his wife Jenny Lind Nilsson are selling their seven-bedroom home in St. Paul, Minn., for $1.65 million, says the Minneapolis Star-Tribune in Realtor magazine. Yes, seven bedrooms for that price. The star of A Prairie Home Companion public radio program and his wife have made an offer on a home a few blocks away that has 4,000 square feet more space and sits on a gated half-acre lot. While its listing price is no longer public, the house's taxable value was listed at just under $1.6 million. A few months ago, Keillor sued his next-door neighbor over her plans to build a two-story garage-and-studio addition. The lawsuit was settled, and Keillor reportedly contends his move has nothing to do with it. A COMPOSER HAS AWAKENED TO A LIKELY HUGE PROFIT Before he turned 30, Duncan Sheik, the singer and composer, bought a 2,400-square-foot bare loft in a condominium at 195 Hudson Street, a block below Canal Street, notes the New York Times. That was in 1999, long before the latest real estate boom, and the price was just a bit over $850,000. Several weeks ago, Sheik put the put his TriBeCa loft on the market for $2.925 million, but now it's $2.85 million. In what had been a sprawling six-story commercial building, the condo has 12-foot ceilings and concrete columns, a large bedroom, a kitchen with a green slate counter, a wood-burning fireplace and a bathroom and a half. There also is a long soundproof recording studio packed with guitars, keyboards and electronic consoles, and a soundproof control room. For eight years, he used the studio to write and record much of his work, including the cast album for the Broadway musical "Spring Awakening." The show won Sheik two Tony awards last year, and the album won a 2008 Grammy for best musical show album. "I need to be an adult and separate my work space and living space," said the singer/composer, who now has his eye on an elegant three-bedroom loft apartment in a prewar building in the Gramercy Park area. He's planning to build a shared work and recording space with other musician friends on a wooded property owned by a friend in High Falls, N.Y., not far from New Paltz. "It will be totally private, totally peaceful, completely away from the city," Sheik said. "I would have a writing room and a place to record things and record ideas. Now when I go to make a record, I want to get out of my own apartment." THE SONG HE SINGS BELIES HIS LIFE Just months after he tore down his Miami-area house, Julio Iglesias has paid $7 million for another one in the same community, says the Wall Street Journal. The Spanish performer plans to live in the 6,300- square-foot Mediterranean-style house while he builds a new Spanish-style hacienda on his existing four-acre property. Iglesias's latest house, built in 1976, has four bedrooms and staff quarters on a 1.2-acre landscaped lot with 145 feet on the water. It was listed in August for $8.75 million. Records show it last sold in 1988 for $1.1 million to a trust. The 64-year-old singer also owns houses in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and in southern Spain. Iglesias most recently was asking $25 million for his other Indian Creek house before he decided to replace it. All of which makes doubtful his song "Me olvidé de vivir"—I forgot to Live. MAKEOVERS APPARENTLY PAY HANDSOMELY Ty Pennington, the host of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition snapped up a pristine West Chelsea condo for a cool $2.5 million last month, says the New York Post. When the reality do-it-yourselfer was in New York City on Valentine's Day, the hunky 43-year-old TV personality is said to have picked up furniture at B&B Italia at three times the price of his self-titled Sears line of indoor and outdoor pieces. Since he's on location for 200 days with his show, he'll use this 1,700-square-foot loft as his East Coast retreat while working on the Atlantic coast, according to his manager. The two-bedroom, two-bath boutique condo has a Juliet balcony, 11-foot Venetian-plastered concrete ceilings, wide-plank wenge floors, and a spa-like master bathroom finished in planked teak and hand-blown Italian glass tiles. Other features are central air conditioning, Sub-Zero, Miele and Bosch appliances, and vast north, south and east exposures. RESPECT IS A QUALITY SHE WON'T LIKELY GET FOR THIS The Queen of Soul said an attorney's mistake caused her $700,000 mansion in Detroit to slip into foreclosure over $445 in 2005 taxes and late fees, according to the Detroit Free Press. But Aretha Franklin, who owes a total of $19,192 in back taxes on the property through 2007, said she plans to pay up and reclaim it by the March 31 deadline. "It was a mere oversight on my attorney's part to notify me," Franklin said. "It will be taken care of immediately and thank you for making me aware of it." Franklin risked losing a 1927 Detroit mansion to tax collectors over $162 in 2005 taxes and $283 in interest and fees. The foreclosure judgment was entered earlier this month. Records show Franklin owes $18,746 in back taxes and fees for the 2006 and 2007 tax years, but foreclosure proceedings on those debts wouldn't begin until next year. The slate-roofed brick mansion boasts leaded glass windows, a three-car garage and a backyard that abuts the north course of the Detroit Golf Club. Assessment records list the market value at $712,000. SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING STARTS, NEW PERMITS STILL SLIDE Starts posted a 6.7 percent decline to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 707,000 units, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. It was the lowest rate since 1991 and the 11th consecutive month of decline. Production in the more volatile multifamily sector registered a 14.4 percent gain, limiting the overall decrease to 0.6 percent below the revised January pace. Permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, declined 7.8 percent; the drop comprised a 6.2 percent decline in the single-family sector and 10.8 percent on the multifamily side. The volume also was the lowest in 17 years. MIXING A METAPHOR, BOTTOM FEEDERS ARE CHERRY PICKING They are venturing back into some of the nation's hardest-hit real-estate markets, convinced they can cherry-pick good deals amid broad price declines, says the Wall Street Journal. Among these bargain buyers are affluent baby boomers eager to lock in low interest rates on retirement homes, high-end shoppers who had been waiting for prices to soften and serial investors determined not to miss the boat on a perceived opportunity. Sales have slowed substantially while the number of houses on the market is rising in many localities, particularly those with a high proportion of second homes, such as Santa Fe, N.M., the Outer Banks, Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Napa Valley. Prices already have come down steeply in much of Florida, southern California, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Most deal hunters are avoiding markets with weak economies, such as Cleveland and Detroit, instead scouring places where the underlying economics are stronger. In Las Vegas and Miami, for example, real-estate problems are rooted in overbuilding; in California, tighter lending after the subprime mess has eliminated much of the potential buyer pool. And home prices haven't given up all the ground they gained in the decade-long boom. Despite huge recent declines, prices in Miami remain about 64 percent higher than they were in December 2002, according to Radar Logic, while in Los Angeles prices are 57 percent ahead. WEBSTER HALL, THREE OTHER BUILDINGS ARE NOW LANDMARKS The 19th-century East Village assembly space where F. Scott Fitzgerald once reveled and Emma Goldman urged social change was one of several buildings designated historic landmarks by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, reports the New York Times. Built in 1886, with an annex added in 1992, Webster Hall, a Renaissance Revival structure at 119-125 East 11th Street, is clad in red Philadelphia pressed brick with brownstone trim and red terra-cotta ornamentation. The hall became famous for masquerade balls after a 1913 fund-raiser for the socialist magazine The Masses and became a hub not only for Village bohemians but also for gay men and lesbians. The artists Charles Demuth, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray used the hall, as did F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and political and labor leaders such as Goldman, Samuel Gompers, Margaret Sanger and Dorothy Day. The Progressive Labor Party was established there in 1887 and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, in 1914. In the 1950s and '60s, RCA Victor operated a studio there, where Arthur Rubinstein, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and Marian Anderson performed. Webster Hall later became a rock club. Three other East Village structures also received landmark designation: the 11th Street Public Bath, the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn, and the Elizabeth Home for Girls, built in 1892 for use by the Children's Aid Society. IN 2007, MANHATTAN PRICES SET 11TH STRAIGHT RECORD The average sales
price of a Manhattan apartment set a record for the 11th consecutive
year, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. In 1996,
the unadjusted average sales price was $399,501; the 2007, the
average sales price was $1,351,621, up 4.3 percent over the prior
year TOWHOUSE SALES SWELL TOO OVER A YEAR AND A DECADE The average sales
price of a Manhattan townhouse was a record $4,658,155 in 2007,
up 14.1 NEW RATES WILL JOLT RESIDENTS Residents of New York City will see the biggest one-time increase in their bills for electric service next month because state regulators have approved a $425 million increase in rates for Consolidated Edison, according to the New York Times. Starting in April, the typical household in the city will pay about $4.25 more each month for the delivery of power by the company, regulators said. In Westchester County, where the company is also the main utility, the typical residential customer will pay about $5.60 a month more, the regulators said. RENTS DIP A BIT, BUT PROBABLY NOT MEANINGFULLY It is slightly cheaper to rent a Manhattan apartment now than it was a month ago, except for studios, says the New York Post. In doorman buildings, one- and two-bedroom apartments are $22 less than they were in February. The average one-bedroom in a doorman building rents for $3,578 and a two-bedroom, $5,265. Studios in those same buildings rented for an average of $2,586 this month, up $7 from February. In non-doorman buildings, studios are renting for $2,059 this month - $4 more than in February. One- and two-bedroom apartments in the same buildings were $30-70 cheaper. But few conclusions can really be drawn over one month, especially the slow month of March. Despite the one-month results, rents generally have held up. On the East Side and in the Financial District, the average rents continued to increase. EVEN VACANT LOTS ARE OFFERED FOR LOTS So reports the New York Observer, which asks readers to consider the 80-foot-long vacant lot called 22-28 Downing Street, near Bedford and West Houston in Greenwich Village. In July 2004, it sold for $2,625,000 from its longtime owner to a real estate developer; then three years later, it sold to a developer named Gary Sherman for $10.54 million. Nothing has changed, but late last week Sherman put that same vacant lot on the market, split into three sections, for a total of $20.25 million (or about $6.75 million each). And for $45.4 million he'll sell you the lot with three fully built houses. The future townhouses, each five floors and around 6,250 square feet, have been listed individually for about $15 million. How do you spell s-p-e-c-u-l-a-t-o-r? THE CITY BUCKS DOWNWARD POPULATION TREND The Big Apple grew a bit bigger last year, with the city's population inching up by 23,960 - modest growth that still managed to buck the downward trend among cities in the Northeast, according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, says the New York Post. "New York City is continuing to grow unlike any other major city in the Northeast. It's not runaway growth and it's not growth that rivals Nevada or Phoenix, but the amazing thing is that it is growing," said Cornell University professor Warren Brown. New York City's population reached 8,274,527 last year, an increase of 0.3 percent over 2006. Since the last Census in 2000, the city's population has grown by 265,873. The latest year-to-year estimates by the Census Bureau show the largest population gain in Manhattan, which grew 0.51 percent by adding 8,237 new residents last year and thus bringing the borough to 1,620,867. Brooklyn remains the city's most populous borough with 2,528,050 residents in 2007, an increase of 5,003, or 0.2 percent. Queens remains second largest, growing 0.25 percent, or by 5,677, to bring its population to 2,270,338. The Bronx rose by 2,306 residents, to 1,373,659, and Staten Island swelled by 5.7 percent, to 481,613, with the addition of 2,737 persons. COLOR BUILDERS BLUE The Multifamily Condo Market Index (MCMI) ended 2007 on a low note, with the component of the index tracking builder confidence in current conditions standing at 18.8, down nearly 11 points from the same time a year ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). "Given that the condo market became so overheated during the peak of the housing boom, it is not surprising that the market now continues to struggle, considering the difficulties in the mortgage sector and the fears about the economy in general," Chief Economist David Seiders ran on. "It is going to take time for the extra inventory to be absorbed." The index is derived from a quarterly survey of multifamily builders and developers in which responses are rated on a scale of 0 to 100, with a rating of 50 generally indicating that the number of positive responses is about the same as the number of negative responses. Twenty-eight percent of survey respondents reported sale cancellation rates in the fourth quarter of 2007 of 19 percent on average; the median was 12 percent. Approximately two-thirds of builders reported lowering prices to bolster sales by an average of 11 percent, and more than 70 percent said other incentives included optional items at no costs and payment of closing costs, fees or points. THEY'RE BLUE ABOUT SINGLE-FAMILY HOMES AS WELL Confidence remained unchanged in March, according to the latest NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI was near its historic low in December of 2007. Said Chief Economist David Seiders of the National Association of Home Builders: "A temporary home buyer tax credit, FHA modernization and GSE oversight reform are the three most important things that Congress can accomplish right now to help ensure that housing does not drag the economy into a full-blown recession. Provided that the necessary actions are taken promptly, a housing market recovery most likely would take shape by the second half of this year." POPULATION GROWTH SLOWS IN THE SOUTH AND WEST Increases in many fast-growing counties, particularly in the South and West, started slowing last year, suggesting that the housing crunch may be forcing many Americans to stay put, reports the Wall Street Journal. People "are paralyzed in their quest for jobs in growing areas in many parts of the country because the housing market has shut down across the board," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. The Census Bureau's annual estimate of county-population changes covers the 12 months that ended July 1, 2007. It shows that many Americans continued moving to sunny counties in Florida, Georgia and Arizona, but that the rates were slowing. The data show a marked deceleration in population growth in several suburban counties that are farthest from urban centers - the kind of counties to which some city residents had flocked in prior years for bigger houses and a different lifestyle. At the same time, urban areas and close-in suburbs were seeing population decreases slow, and in some cases reverse. "It's a year of a migration correction, just as there was a correction in the housing market," said Frey. Americans continue to seek out the Sunbelt. The 10 counties with the largest population increases were all in California, Nevada, Arizona and North Carolina. HOME EQUITY LOANS ARE HURTING BANKS TOO Falling home values are leaving banks with little or nothing to collect on many home-equity loans in case of default, says the Wall Street Journal. Some stretched borrowers are keeping up with their mortgage and credit cards - but not their home-equity loan. The problems are already causing trouble for J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, and are expected to hit other large banks when first-quarter earnings results are released next month. The pain is likely to deepen through the rest of 2008, sapping capital levels and resulting in tighter lending standards as banks try to reduce their risk. "These losses are well beyond what we would have modeled. . . and continue to get worse," said Charles Scharf, head of J.P. Morgan's retail business. A LANDLORD LEARNS THAT THE ARM OF THE LAW CAN BE LONG The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has charged Cesar A. Lopez, a Chicago landlord with housing discrimination for posting an on-line ad that discriminates against men and families with children. The Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful for a housing provider to make, print or publish, in print or on-line, any statement or advertisement that states a preference based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status or disability. Two years ago, a fair housing testing coordinator at Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under law (CLC) noticed an on-line posting for an owner-occupied three-story dwelling; in it, Lopez said the place was "Great apartment for a single person" and "I prefer young college students or single females." Later, Lopez told the CLC that he was just "being honest" because "girls really are cleaner." A hearing on the charge will be held by a U.S. Administrative Law Judge on May 20 unless any party elects to have the case heard in U.S. District Court. Housing discrimination charges heard before an administrative law judge carry a maximum civil penalty of $16,000 for a first offense, in addition to actual damages for each complainant, injunctive or other equitable relief, and attorney's fees. YET AN APPEALS COURT PERMITS CRAIGSLIST DISCRIMINATION Online classified and community site craigslist is just a "messenger" and is not liable for discriminatory ads posted on the site by its users, a three-judge panel for the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has concluded, according to Inman News. The judges found that craigslist does not induce anyone "to post any particular listing or express a preference for discrimination." Craigslist was no more responsible for the discriminatory postings than a phone company, courier service or the computer manufacturers that built the machines used to transmit the discriminatory posts, the judges found. The decision also makes it clear that people who post discriminatory ads on such online sites "can't run and hide behind some Web site," and the opinion provides support for sites to give up information about users who post discriminatory ads, "whether they do it voluntarily or through court order." WHAT'S UP WITH CHICAGO ANYWAY In the Windy City, a 50-story high-rise building, "The Sterling Private Residences" at 345 N. LaSalle St., has earned the dubious distinction of being the city's "foreclosure capital," according to a Crain's ChicagoBusiness.com article cited by the Wall Street Journal. Within the past three years, lenders have filed 95 foreclosure suits - for loans totaling $40 million - for units in the building, a large number of which are investor-owned. About one-third of the suits involve defendants who own several units in the building, the article says. Many investors bought into the building (which was completed about six years ago) because of sweeteners offered by the developer. American Invesco offered to pay property taxes and assessments for as long as two years and to rent out investor-owned units. But these owners saw monthly payments soar when the enticements wore off, prompting a rash of foreclosures. As a result, resale prices in the building fell 17.4 percent from 2005 to 2007, Crain's says. RATES PLUNGE The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 5.87 percent for the week, down from last week's 6.13 percent and last year's 6.16 percent. The 15-year FRM was 5.27 percent in comparison 5.60 percent the previous week and 5.90 one year earlier. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) were 5.56 percent below last week's 5.58 percent and 5.91 percent the prior year. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs averaged 5.15 percent, up from 5.14 percent; at this time last year, it was 5.40 percent FORECLOSURES DIP IN JANUARY, BUT SOAR OVER ONE YEAR EARLIER Foreclosures in February were down 4 percent from January, but the rate of foreclosure remains high year over year, according to RealtyTrac in Realtor magazine. The February rate was up 57 percent from February 2007. "The year-over-year increase this February was significantly higher than the 19 percent year-over-year increase in February 2007, indicating we have still not reached the peak of foreclosure activity in this cycle," says James J. Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, which markets foreclosed properties. The 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates were, in order, Nevada, California, Florida, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Ohio, Georgia, Indiana and Tennessee. The 10 states with the most foreclosures were, in order, California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Arizona, Illinois, Georgia, Colorado and Nevada. EVEN WELL-TO-DO BORROWERS HEAD TOWARD FORECLOSURE Affluent consumers with annual incomes of $100,000 or more who are increasingly being ensnared in the home mortgage crisis, reports the New York Times. People in all income categories "are facing the shock of new payments that can be twice as much as previous ones," said Susan M. Wachter, professor of business and a real estate specialist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Nor will falling interest rates help most of these homeowners, as their low initial payments skyrocket and the worth of their homes erodes, said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. According to Loan Performance, a unit of First American CoreLogic, a real estate information company based in Santa Ana, Calif., about 870,000 borrowers took jumbo ARMs - mortgages of $417,000 or more - from 2005 to 2007. In the fourth quarter of 2007, 8.10 percent were two or more payments late, it found, while 2.62 percent were in the foreclosure process and 1.35 percent had been foreclosed. All the numbers were up from the third quarter. Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody's Economy.com, predicted that eventually 8 percent of these jumbo ARMs will be foreclosed. In the first quarter of 2008, "the delinquency and foreclosure rate will clearly be higher," he said. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY REPORTS (SARs) SNAG NOT ONLY SPITZER Those related to mortgage fraud increased 31 percent in 2007 compared with the year before, to 46,717, with 60 percent of those incidents involving false claims on loan applications such as employment history and claimed income, says Inman News. According to an annual report on such fraud by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute (MARI), Florida and Nevada led the nation in the rate of suspected mortgage fraud cases, followed by Michigan, California, Utah, Georgia, Virginia, Illinois, New York and Minnesota. MARI's report, which relies on statistics from the FBI and the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), does not capture all cases of suspected mortgage fraud, because only federally insured financial institutions are required to submit suspicious activity reports to regulators. Rising home prices "led some individual real estate investors to speculate and stretch the truth on applications for multiple properties, especially in active markets, such as Florida and Nevada," MARI reported. "They were aided in this tactic by industry professionals who hoped that any future loan problems would be covered by a profitable sale of the collateral. Credit standards were loosened. More importantly for fraud, documentation requirements were also reduced." HERE'S A COOL NEW ALTERNATIVE TO REVERSE MORTGAGES Available to residents
of California, Florida and New York who own property with a cumulative
value of at least $500,000 and have at least 30 percent equity
in their property, a new product called Equity Key accepts primary
residences, rentals, commercial and second homes, according to
Inman News. The Equity Key model is an appreciation-sharing model.
In other words, Equity Key pays the property IF CHOOSING A REVERSE MORTGAGE, CAVEAT EMPTOR The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is urging homeowners to weigh their options before tapping into their home equity through reverse mortgages to obtain additional income for their retirement years. A reverse mortgage - an interest-bearing loan secured by the equity in a home - can jeopardize their financial futures, FINRA warned. With a reverse mortgage, a bank makes payments to a homeowner instead of the homeowner making payments to a bank. The loan is repaid, with interest, when the borrower sells the house, moves out or dies. Reverse mortgages have high fees - typically about 7 percent of the home's value - and they make it difficult for homeowners to leave the property to their heirs. The warning notes that, in some cases, those who sell the mortgages may profit from the their sale, giving them twice the incentive to talk someone into a loan they may not need. VOLUME DROPS FOR CONFORMING MORTGAGES For the week ending March 14, loan application volume decreased 2.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. On an unadjusted basis, the change was 2.8 percent; it was off 3.7 percent from one year earlier. Refinancings were 4.6 percent below the previous week, while purchase applications declined 1.0 percent seasonally adjusted. The refinance share of mortgage activity slipped to 49.7 percent of total applications from 50.6 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share decreased to 7.9 from 15.5 percent. FREDDIE AND FANNIE OBTAIN NEW FLEXIBITY The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies, eased a major restriction on the companies in an effort to unfreeze credit markets and stabilize housing prices, according to the New York Times. By reducing the extra cushion of capital the two companies have been required to hold since 2004, the regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, is enabling the companies to invest $200 billion more in home loans. In essence, the companies are being allowed to take billions of dollars that had been used as a reserve against possible further losses and invest that money now in the housing market. "Additional capital will enable the companies to help more homeowners and will strengthen the underlying fundamentals of the mortgage market," said Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. Officials hope that, by unshackling Fannie and Freddie, they can begin to reduce the cost of borrowing for prospective home buyers or refinancing for people who already own homes, help unlock the credit markets and possibly reduce some of the downward pressure on home prices. But critics said that if the housing market continued to decline, the move could put the two companies on a less sure footing and ultimately require a huge taxpayer bailout. OH SAY CAN YOU SEE Four years ago, an eight-foot-tall banner depicting Swedish ball bearings on a crimson field fluttered from a Manhattan light pole to promote the reopening of the Museum of Modern Art. Today, says the Washington Post, it hangs in Peter Knockstead's dining room in Northwest Washington. Dawn Laguens was smitten by a banner showing a detail of Georgia O'Keefe's "Red Hills with Flowers" at the Art Institute of Chicago. She bought one last Christmas for her partner, Jennifer Treat, and now the ceiling-height work radiates red, yellow and magenta in their living room. Both banners came from BetterWall, a four-year-old Denver company that scouts, buys and sells these outdoor exhibition promos from 25 U.S. museums and galleries. They are impact pieces measuring six-eight feet tall and 30-36 inches wide. Prices start at $300, with the rarest examples costing $1,495. All include free shipping, hardware and hanging instructions. The company (betterwall.com) currently offers Amish quilts from the Denver Art Museum, a black-and-white Chuck Close self-portrait from a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and an image of a Japanese geisha that once flapped outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. NEW GUIDELINES CAN HELP WHEN GOING GREEN IF REMODELING The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) have just launched the nation's first green residential remodeling guidelines. Organized into the 10 most-common remodeling projects, the REGREEN guidelines are designed to provide professionals and homeowners with resources and tools to green their home remodeling projects. The guidelines can be applied to a variety of projects, from remodeling a kitchen to executing a full-scale renovation. The market for residential remodeling is massive, topping $200 billion per year, and it is projected to nearly double within five years because of the aging of our housing stock. Visit regreenprogram.org or thegreenhomeguide.org to see the guidelines. WATCH WHAT YOU DRIVE TO SEE WHERE YOU SHOULD WALK When it comes to style and design, European trends typically lead the way, and in 2008 it appears that is the case in new flooring trends, according to Realty Times. With flooring, lighter colors that have dominated the European market are now gaining popularity in North America, with more buyers seeking out flooring that has a faded or distressed appearance. Observed Rob Banks, executive vice-president, sales for BuildDirect: "Across different flooring categories you saw everything fading to lighter colors, and gray-washing and white-washing of all different types of flooring materials." At a trade show, he discovered that color choices are often influenced by what's happening in the European luxury car market. "It used to be that anyone buying a new Mercedes or BMW was looking for a dark interior, but they have seen a growing demand in Europe for lighter colored car interiors which is influencing trends in building materials as well." In addition to colors, buyers are seeking new and nontraditional ways to use flooring - for example, by putting bamboo, stone, porcelain and slate flooring tiles onto walls and ceilings to achieve a certain look. "I think the other big trends you will see are oil finishes on hardwoods that provide a very unique look, an increase in sales for luxury vinyl tiles that are going to start moving from commercial applications to becoming more popular for residential use, and more use of wood-grain porcelain tile that gives some of the advantages of hardwood while being easier to maintain and more durable," added Banks. HOW GREEN IS YOUR (HOUSE-CLEANING) ALLY Many house-cleaning
companies are labeling themselves "green" by using nontoxic
and nonpolluting products and procedures, notes the Wall Street
Journal. Maid Brigade (maidbrigade.com), for PAINT THAT ROOM. . . FLAT After you’ve decided on color, what about a finish? asks the Washington Post. Flat will not reflect light. It's not washable and it absorbs stains. Good for ceilings and imperfect walls. Matte is the lowest sheen that's washable, scrubbable and stain-resistant. Good for any room but a kitchen or a bath. Eggshell gives "extra glow or richness." It's washable and resists stains and moisture. Good in many rooms, including infrequently used bathrooms. Satin has quiet shimmer, can be washed often and is very resistant to stains and moisture. Good for kitchens, bathrooms and homes with children. Semigloss is highly reflective and very washable. Good for doors and trim. High-gloss is mirror-like and shows all wall flaws. (Consider having a pro paint this finish.) Good for molding, doors, window frames and accent walls. NEW CONFORMING LIMITS PRESENT INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY If you want to acquire a two-unit property in a high cost market, the FHA limit is now $934,700, Kenneth R. Harney reminds readers of Realty Times. For three-unit buildings, the maximum goes to $1.13 million; for four unit properties, FHA will now back loans up to $1.4 million. FHA generally will let you use a large portion of your anticipated rental-unit income to qualify for your loan in the first place. That means you don't have to have a jumbo-sized income to buy a three- or four- unit building in high-cost local markets such as San Francisco, Manhattan or Boston. Your tenants' rental payments will take care of the lion's share of the cost of the mortgage. Unlike FHA, Freddie Mac's jumbo investor loan standards do not permit two- to four-unit properties. But they do allow non-owner-occupied single family rental unit purchases up to $729,750. TAX TIP The Internal Revenue Service recently issued a Revenue Procedure ruling that spells out how vacation properties can qualify for 1031 tax-deferred exchanges, which involve the exchange of investment properties. At the same, time, some investors are thinking they may forego such like-kind exchanges on the chance that the capital gains tax will rise. The new guidance aims to clear up the debate about whether vacation homes are investment or personal use properties. The ruling states that the property must be held by the taxpayer for 24 months. The holding period is broken into 12-month blocks, and the property must be rented at the fair market rate for no less than 14 days during each. Additionally, the owner can use the property for 14 days or 10 percent of the days rented, whichever is greater, plus a "reasonable" number of days devoted to maintenance tasks. Worried that a new administration will raise capital-gains tax rates, some owners are starting to pay taxes now while rates are low, reports the Wall Street Journal. The trend is more pronounced when bare land is involved, but investors with other kinds of business property may also save by paying capital-gains tax when they sell instead of deferring it, according to financial advisers. All kinds of real-estate investors may be affected, from big firms that handle tracts of land to an individual who buys an apartment building to diversify his portfolio, and even homeowners who meet certain requirements. A Tangled Web Where clothing was manufactured for slaves on southern plantations, gangsters once ruled the streets, the world's biggest department store grew up, and its leading industry has spawned celebrities known around the world, the neighborhood is bound by Ninth Avenue to the west and Fifth Avenue to the east. Its southern boundary is 34th Street, and the area extends north to 41st Street. It, of course, is the Garment District, which real estate brokers have taken to calling the Fashion District or Fashion Center. Whatever its name, the neighborhood is indisputably the fashion center of New York City and the fashion capital of the nation, generating billions of dollars in annual sales. There, especially along Seventh Avenue, can be found the likes of Donna Karen, Calvin Klein, Liz Claiborne, Oscar de la Renta, Nicole Miller and a host of others whose designs appear in stores virtually everywhere. Throughout the area toil the nameless folks, many of them immigrants, who work long hours cutting, stitching and fitting garments, while others rush racks of hanging clothing along congested sidewalks and across streets that are always clogged and often chaotic weekdays. Today, their number is far smaller (and the ethnic mix has changed) than at the height of the industry strength, in 1939, when more than half a million workers were employed in factories, supply companies and craft shops. While New York's days as the textile-manufacturing capital of America may be over, there remain numerous fabric shops in the Garment District, many open only to the trade. Some carry just bridal fabrics and laces and others specialize in woolens, but most have a little bit of everything. Apparel fabric wholesalers also have retail stores or showrooms in or near the Garment District, and wholesalers of trims or buttons and other fasteners are clustered nearby. Grimy buildings that once were crammed with a panoply of vendors are now being converted into residential condos. New construction is wedging itself into existing or, more likely, created spaces. But the neighborhood retains its grittiness, its crowding and its overwhelmingly gray ambience. Few parts of the city are closer to major transportation, Broadway theater, a busy sports and entertainment facility, and prime shopping within the same several blocks. Approximately one square mile in area, according to Wikipedia, from which most of what follows has been purloined, the district encompasses or borders Javits Convention Center, the General Post Office, Penn Station, Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Times Square and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. New York first assumed its role as the center of the nation's garment industry by producing clothes for slaves working on Southern plantations, says Wikipedia; it was more efficient for their masters to buy clothes from producers in New York than to have the slaves spend time and labor making the clothing themselves. In addition to supplying clothing for slaves, tailors produced other ready-made garments for sailors and western prospectors during slack periods in their regular business. The need for thousands of ready-made soldiers' uniforms during the Civil War helped the garment industry to expand further. By the end of the 1860s, Americans bought most of their clothing rather than making it themselves. With an ample supply of cheap labor and a well-established distribution network, New York City was prepared to meet the demand. During the 1870s the value of garments produced in New York increased sixfold. By 1880 New York produced more garments than its four closest urban competitors combined, and in 1900 the value and output of the clothing trade was three times that of the city's second largest industry, sugar refining. New York's function as America's culture and fashion center also helped the garment industry by providing constantly changing styles and new demand; in 1910, 70 percent of the nation's women's clothing and 40 percent of the men's was produced in the city. German and Central European immigrants to America around the mid 19th Century arrived on the scene with relevant business experience and skills just as garment production was passing from a proto-industrial phase to a more advanced stage of manufacture. In the early 20th Century, a largely Eastern European immigrant workforce powered the garment trades, and their influx forced the trade to shift. The powerful Fifth Avenue Association and its Save New York Association which said in a New York Times advertisement that the legion of immigrants was threatening "the fine residential and shopping district" of Fifth Avenue, Broadway, upper Sixth and Madison avenues and the cross streets." Argued the ad: "The evil is constantly increasing. It must be stopped." Thus did the burgeoning apparel industry move west of Broadway after World War I, and the first of the area's signature buildings begin to rise in 1919. In the early 1920s, the United Hebrew Trades union asked Lepke Buchalter and his Jewish and Italian gangster friends from Brooklyn to work as union enforcers. Buchalter deployed 250 enforcers, who threatened owners and threw acid on the merchandise of companies that dared buck the union. Sometimes, his troops squared off with those of another Jewish gangster, Dutch Schultz, who broke strikes for the garment bosses. Occasionally, the two gangsters would work both sides of a strike for mutual benefit. Buchalter allegedly struck up an alliance with Sidney Hillman, founder of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, which represented 50,000 garment industry laborers. Hillman also was a close advisor to Franklin Roosevelt. But the ambitious Buchalter wasn't content merely with being hired union muscle. Grasping how the industry functioned, he launched a plan to control it. The business, he realized, couldn't operate without the 1,900 workers who cut the cloth and shipped the goods. If you had the power to withhold their labor at will, you'd have leverage over the entire industry, notes Wikipedia. By the early 1930s, Buchalter had persuaded the Amalgamated cutters' local to align with him by offering their officials protection from rival union forces, and he managed to get the drivers behind him, too. In exchange for labor peace - he could now shut down business with a word - Buchalter coerced the garment companies into doling out sweetheart contracts to trucking firms that gave him kickbacks. Buchalter died in the electric chair in 1944 for the murder of a trucker. It took Carlo Gambino, who assumed control of the garment district in 1957, to transform what was a mob-influenced industry into a full-fledged organized crime cartel. He and his family used their control of the unions to take over the trucking companies that serviced the Garment District so that few manufacturers could get a delivery or make a shipment without their say-so. The Gambinos became owners of what had become the district's most important trucking company, and they acquired interests in other trucking firms, sometimes partnering with rival crime families like the Luccheses. By the mid-1980s, operating 90 percent of the trucks that serviced the garment district, the mob held the industry in a vise-like grip. In the early 1990s, to take just one example, a production manager for fashion designer Nicole Miller testified that once, when he tried to use a small gypsy trucker, trench-coated mob goons showed up and stood around menacingly, hands in pockets, until the frightened independent operator fled. But the $2.5 billion garment industry suffered. Records from the early 1990s showed that mob trucking companies generated yearly revenues of about $50 million and operating profits of $22 million, a hefty 44 percent profit margin, compared with the 10-15 percent margins that typical city truckers averaged. The added costs that mob trucking imposed, in other words, amounted to $15 million to $17 million yearly. The estimated mob tax on the district as a whole - if extortion, double billing and other illegal activities are included - was a staggering $60 million a year by the early 1990s. Combined with New York's inflated legitimate taxes, the costs accelerated the flight of garment jobs from the city. From the time that the Gambinos took over the garment district until 1992, the business shrank 75 percent, costing New York 225,000 jobs. Some organizations have been working to protect the industry, such as the Fashion Center Business Improvement District and the Garment Industry Development Corp. Currently under consideration is a proposal to create the Garment Center Historic District. It would run between Sixth and Ninth avenues and 35th and 41st streets. Revised zoning also is being discussed to allow more square footage for office space, hotels and destination retail, but the Fashion Center's current business owners oppose the plan. Meantime, the expansion of residential housing marches on, with prices there noticeably lower than in Chelsea to the south and somewhat lower than Clinton, or Hell's Kitchen, to the north. For residents who value convenient transportation and value above three-lined streets and a surfeit of gemütlich restaurants and bars, the Fashion District may be just the thing. Below, a small sample of apartments on the market there as well as properties listed by various brokers elsewhere: Fashion District
Upper West Side
Upper East Side
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!
©
2007 Service You Can Trust |
||
record
of $1,295,445 and up 238.3 percent from the average sales price
in 1996. However, the pace of price growth has slowed for the
second consecutive year. After a recent high water market of 21.6
percent price growth in 2005, the pace of overall price growth
slowed to 6.1 percent in 2006 and 4.3 percent in 2007. There were
a record 13,430 sales in 2007, a 58.1 percent increase over the
2006 total of 8,493 sales. The 2006 number of sales total had
been consistent with the 8,510 average annual number of sales
over the preceding decade. The significant increase in the number
of sales in 2007 resulted in a 13.5 percent drop in inventory
levels. Without the addition of new development to the housing
stock in 2007, the decline in re-sale inventory was more pronounced:
There was a 26.2 percent year-over-year decline in the number
of co-op apartments listed for sale, yet the number of condo units
was unchanged. Co-op apartments primarily make up re-sales because
new development entering the market is nearly exclusive to condo
property types. The year-over-year change in condo inventory was
0 percent, indicating that the sharp decline in re-sale inventory
seen in the co-op market was offset by new development condo inventory
being added to the market.
percent
from the prior year record average sales price of $4,082,837,
reports the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. The 2007 record is more
than twice, or 116.5 percent higher than, the $2,151,653 average
sales price in 1998. The median sales price showed a similar pattern,
setting a 2007 record of $3,125,000, up 15.7 percent from the
prior year record of $2,700,000. Because the average square footage
of townhouses dropped sharply in the past year, the average price
per square foot jumped over the same period. Average price per
square foot reached a record $1,137 in 2007, up 32.8 percent above
the $856 price per square foot seen in 2006. This indicator is
145 percent above the $464 average price per square foot in 1998.
Other than the decline seen from 2000 to 2001, the price per square
foot has been the same or higher than the prior year for the past
decade. 
owner
a specific amount (approximately 12-15 percent of the property's
value or an annual recurring payment in the approximate amount
of 0.9 - 2.4 percent of the home's value.) In exchange, Equity
Key takes a partial ownership position and splits any future appreciation
on a 50-50 basis with the property owner. The owner retains the
equity that he or she has accumulated. When the owner dies, Equity
Key sells the property and the accumulated equity (all the equity
the owner had prior to the Equity Key transaction plus 50 percent
of what accumulated subsequently) goes to the owner's heirs. The
homeowner's estate has the first right of refusal to purchase
the property at the current market value. The Equity Key program
is designed for homeowners between 65 and 85 who are in good health
and able to qualify for a life insurance policy. Ineligible homeowners
include those with Type 1 diabetes as well as those who have had
recent bouts with cancer, and smokers. Equity Key takes out an
insurance policy to protect its interests in case the homeowner
dies prior to the time that it recoups its initial investment.
As with a reverse mortgage, the money taken from Equity Key is
not taxable. But instead of paying up to 5 percent in closing
costs, the owner pays a small application fee of $300. No credit
check is required and there is no income requirement. 
example,
is a national maid service that uses cleaning solutions with Green
Seal's certification. (Green Seal is a nonprofit organization
that awards a seal to products that it considers safe for the
environment. EcoLogo is another widely recognized certification
program for environmentally preferred products.) Eco-friendly
cleaning companies should use vacuums awarded a Green Label by
the Carpet & Rug Institute, which means the vacuums remove
potentially unhealthful particles in addition to visible dirt.
Lowimpactliving.com, which promotes sustainable living, lists
green maid services by state. The site also lists several eco-friendly
dry cleaners. Conventional dry cleaners use the industrial solvent
perchloroethylene, which is toxic to humans and pollutes the air,
says the Environmental Protection Agency. Safer dry-cleaning methods
use carbon dioxide or liquid silicone solvents. A list of dry
cleaners that use liquid silicone is available at Greenearthcleaning.com.
The Hangers Cleaners national chain uses carbon-dioxide solvents.
