Items of Interest WHEN YOU BRING IN PLANTS, BRING IN NOTHING ELSE Examine houseplants for pests before bringing them indoors, where the bugs could multiply and harm the plants, suggests the Washington Post. Small but conspicuous whiteflies are obvious culprits. Other insects are harder to spot: Mealybugs have a white cottony covering and hide in buds and leaf joints. Brown scale insects cling to leaves and stems. Use a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to kill insects individually or spray the plants with an organic insecticide labeled for target pests. LANDLINES ARE GOING THE WAY OF THE DIAL In a survey of Internet users, Jupiter Research found that 12 percent "do not subscribe to fixed voice service, and nearly two-thirds of them are ages 18 to 34," the New York Times notices. It is true that 70 percent of online users still have fixed lines in their homes provided by a telecommunications company; fifteen percent receive fixed-line service from a cable company (cable providers are attracting customers with "bundled" offers) and 3 percent from an Internet-based service provider. Alarmingly for the fixed-line providers, though, "12 percent of online users indicate their intent to replace home phone service with exclusive cell phone use during the next 12 months," Jupiter says. IT'S LIKE - WELL, IT ACTUALLY IS - WATCHING PAINT DRY Water-based (i.e., latex) paint dries to the touch quickly, often in an hour or so, but the paint film remains soft and slightly tacky for weeks, notes the Washington Post. That's particularly a problem on shelves, where books or other items press against the paint, which then tends to stick and lift when you move the items. Lint from book covers also sticks to the paint, making it appear dirty. But you could switch to oil paint - only after removing all of the existing paint first. A simpler solution would be to scrape or sand to get a smooth surface, then coat the shelves with a non-latex primer such as one containing shellac. After an hour or so, apply water-based paint as usual. Leave the shelves empty for several weeks. Or speed up the time by applying water-based polyurethane over the paint. In that case, wait a week before putting everything back. 3RD QUARTER PRICES RISE, BUT BEFORE THE ECONOMIC CRISIS The average price of a Manhattan apartment rose slightly to $1.5 million in the third quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, propelled largely by a few purchases at the high end of the market, according to reports released yesterday by four large real estate brokerages, says the New York Times. But the average price has fallen from the first quarter, when it reached $1.7 million. And data tracked by the brokerages indicates that the market has slowed: There are fewer sales than in the last five years, there are more apartments for sale now than in the past eight years, HIGHER TAXES ARE COMING, HIGHER TAXES ARE COMING Worried about the effects of the global financial crisis on New York City's economy, Mayor Bloomberg said his administration is considering imposing a 7 percent property tax increase on homeowners in January, according to the New York Times. The mayor said the move, which would generate an additional $600 million in revenue next year and require City Council approval, would help the city weather a worsening fiscal situation. New York City is heavily dependent on the financial services industry: An estimated 10 percent of its tax revenues come from Wall Street. The increase - which would essentially eliminate a popular 7 percent tax cut included in this year's budget - would appear in quarterly bills sent out in December. It would increase taxes by an average of $308-358 annually for residents of co-ops or condominiums in buildings with 11 or more units. Now that should help Bloomberg's bid for election to a third term. Even before the economic crisis, the Bloomberg administration was predicting a budget deficit in the 2010 fiscal year of $2.3 billion. One thing that Mr. Bloomberg seemed reluctant to embrace, however, was eliminating a separate $400 property tax rebate. QUEENS PUSHES CITYWIDE FORECLOSURES TO THREE-YEAR HIGH The city total of 383 was the most since PropertyShark.com started tracking foreclosures three and a half years ago. Queens, which rose 113 percent above August of 2007 and 43 percent above last July, was largely responsible for the increase. Three quarters of Queen's foreclosure auctions were unsuccessful; out of those, nearly three quarters still have not been resold and are remain in the lender's possession. The citywide total was 13 percent higher than July's and 53 percent higher than a year earlier. In general, first-time foreclosures were higher in the outer boroughs and relatively non-existent in Manhattan, where there were only 35 foreclosure auctions scheduled in the three months ending Sept. 30. Staten Island had the second-highest number, with 174, followed by Brooklyn (165) and the Bronx (79). Every borough but Queens experienced an improvement in the number of new foreclosures compared with July 2008: Brooklyn was down 29 percent; Manhattan, 21 percent; the Bronx, 17 percent; and Staten Island, 9 percent. MORE BUYERS ARE DEFAULTING ON CONTRACTS Developers of new condominiums are finding that apartments they thought had sold are unexpectedly coming back into their hands as buyers default on contracts, according to the now departed Sun. In some cases, these supposed buyers are having to walk away from five- and six- GOAL FOR AFFORDABLE HOUSING IS HALF ACHIEVED Mayor Bloomberg says his plan to create and preserve 165,000 units of below-market rate housing over 10 years has passed its halfway mark, the Observer reports. But the Bloomberg administration is struggling to meet its goals for new construction (currently targeted at 91,637 units) and will likely need to shift the balance more toward preservation (73,395 units). More than five years since the mayor rolled out the plan in an earlier form, the city has no doubt exceeded expectations in preserving affordable apartments, counting more than 50,000 units in that category. But the creation of new ones, which is considered substantially more important in terms of increasing affordability citywide, has lagged far behind the pace needed to reach the 10-year goal, and as of the end of June, five years in, is at just 30,393. SO-CALLED 'WHITE FLIGHT' OF HALF A CENTURY HAS REVERSED The proportion of New York City residents who are white and non-Hispanic rose slightly last year, reversing more than a half-century of so-called white flight from the city, according to census figures, reports the New York Times. The share of non-Hispanic whites in the city had been shrinking since at least 1940. As the overall population grew, their ranks declined by 361,000 in the 1990s alone. Since 2000, though, their number has increased by more than 100,000. Half of that increase was recorded from 2006 to 2007. "The fact that it is not going down is the news," said Joseph J. Salvo, director of the population division at the Department of City Planning. "The increase is small, but the relative stability of the number and percent is meaningful." Meanwhile, the influx of Hispanic people, who have fueled New York City's recent population explosion, has leveled off since 2006 as the pace of immigration has generally slowed nationwide. According to the Census Bureau's estimates, the share of Hispanic people in the city in 2007 dipped, if barely, for the first time in decades - a decline that was more pronounced in Manhattan and Brooklyn than in nearly any other county in the country. Hispanic people account for 27 percent of the population. Asians, who account for nearly 12 percent of New Yorkers, had been the fastest-growing group in the city but were outpaced last year by non-Hispanic whites, who inched up past 35 percent of the population. The proportion of blacks dipped to 23.5 percent. SLEEP TIGHT, DON'T LET THE BEDBUGS BITE Attorneys for landlords and tenants said bedbug disputes are filling the docket in New York City courts, reports the Sun, which subsequently ceased publishing. According to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, there were 8,830 bedbug complaints in fiscal year 2008, which ended June 30, up from 1,839 in 2005. This year, the department issued 2,757 bedbug violations, up from 366 in 2005. A turning point in landlord responsibility was a 2004 case in which Judge Cyril Bedford sided with a tenant who refused to pay rent for six months because of a persistent bed bug problem. "Although bedbug are classified as vermin, they are unlike the more common situation of vermin such as mice and roaches, which, although offensive, do not have the effect on one's life as bedbugs do, feeding upon one's blood in hoards nightly turning what is supposed to be bed rest or sleep into a hellish experience," Judge Bedford wrote. Recently, a Chicago judge awarded $362,000 to a brother and sister who were bitten by bed bugs while staying at a motel. One attorney, Steven Wagner, said a client of his moved out of his newly rented $7,000-a-month apartment on W. 92nd Street within 60 days, having learned shortly after moving in that apartments on adjacent floors were infested with bedbugs and the client's son was bitten in the middle of the night. "My client feels as if they had been defrauded into even signing this lease," Wagner said. "I don't know how bad the bed bug epidemic is, but I can tell you it is non-discriminatory. There are going to be people who are spending a lot of money and can litigate these issues." And scratching too! SELLERS ARE TRYING HARDER Plenty of owners who are trying to unload their homes are nervous, and they're only getting more so, the New York Post reports, adding that sellers and brokers are taking drastic measures. For example, Frank Spinelli, who is attempting to sell his three-bedroom, two-bath $1.6 million Chelsea loft, found a potential buyer who needed a bigger apartment but was having trouble finding financing. The would-be buyer was simultaneously selling his own place, and things got more complicated when a deal on that fell through. "So I said [to the buyer], 'Look, if your deal fell through, and you don't have the cash, I'd be more than happy to hold the paper.' He thought it was a really good idea," Spinelli says. Although some sellers have, like Spinelli, offered to lend the buyer $1 million or throw in a luxury car and driver, others have tried new upgrades. Daniel Roubeni designed his three-bedroom, two-bath Chelsea duplex with imported wallpaper from the UK, 15-foot-long curtains, Italian hand-blown glass chandeliers, a custom-built outdoor sauna, a built-in music system and five (count 'em!) plasma-screen TVs - all of which are included in the $2.9 million asking price. "Developers give you something standard," says Roubeni. "I wanted something very eclectic." Many brokers, though, point out that all the incentives in the world won't matter if a property isn't priced right. There's no reason to dress up your apartment if you want more money than it's worth. THE END OF RUNAWAY DEVELOPMENT IS LOOMING After seven years of nonstop construction, skyrocketing rents and sales prices, and a seemingly endless appetite for luxury housing that transformed gritty and glamorous neighborhoods alike, the credit crisis and the turmoil on Wall Street are bringing New York's real estate boom to an end, declares the New York Times. Developers are complaining that lenders are now refusing to finance projects that were all but certain months or even weeks ago. Landlords bewail their inability to refinance skyscrapers with blue-chip tenants. And corporations are afraid to relocate within Manhattan for fear of making the wrong move if rents fall or a flagging economy forces layoffs. "Lenders are now taking a very hard look at each particular project to assess its viability in the context of a softening of demand," said Scott A. Singer, executive vice president of Singer & Bassuk, a real estate finance and brokerage firm. "There's no question that there'll be a significant slowdown in new construction starts, immediately." Some developers who are currently erecting condominiums are trying to convert to rentals, while others are looking to sell the projects. After imposing double-digit rent increases in recent years, landlords say rents are falling somewhat, which could hurt highly leveraged projects, but also slow gentrification in what real estate brokers like to call "emerging neighborhoods" such as Harlem, the Lower East Side and Fort Greene. SOME NEW RESIDENTS OF THE PLAZA ARE HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS German businessman Juergen Friedrich's $55 million "Astor Suite" listing was yanked off the market after only one day, says the New York Post. And at least six units have disappeared without a buyer in the past two months, ranging from a $1.95 million studio to a two-bedroom place that was reduced to $11.7 million before vanishing seven weeks ago. That leaves 26 apartments with "for sale" signs, according to StreetEasy. One two-bedroom apartment, unit 1313, went on the market in April at $9.95 million and was just reduced by a million bucks. 20 PERCENT OF THOSE IN FOUR STATES SPEAK SPANISH AT HOME At least one-in-five residents of Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas spoke Spanish at home in 2007, according to new data by the U.S. Census Bureau. Nationwide, an estimated 35 million, or about 12.3 percent, did so. Si, es verdad. The estimates for the foreign-born population reached an all-time high of 38.1 million in 2007, representing 12.6 percent of the U.S. population. About 12 million people, or 31 percent of all foreign-born, were born in Mexico. The highest percentages of foreign-born were in California (27.4 percent), New York (21.8), New Jersey (19.9), Nevada (19.4) and Florida (18.9). Some 19.7 percent of the population age 5 and over spoke a language other than English at home in 2007. That figure was 17.9 percent in 2000 and 13.8 percent in 1990. English is the only language spoken in 80.3 percent of households. Another finding was that homeowners with mortgages in California and New Jersey had the highest median monthly housing costs in the nation ($2,314 and $2,278, respectively). Homeowners in West Virginia and Arkansas had the lowest ($881 and $920). SALES OF PREVIOUSLY OWNED HOMES SLIDE IN AUGUST Existing-home sales were down 2.2 percent in August following a healthy gain in July as tight mortgage credit curtailed activity, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Volume lagged one year earlier by 10.7 percent. Commented Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist: "August sales reflect higher interest rates before the government takeover of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and the sudden drop in mortgage interest rates over the past couple weeks is improving housing affordability." The national median for all housing types plunged 9.5 percent from August 2007 to $203,100. "The median home price reflects more transactions related to subprime loans," Yun said. "Fewer than 10 percent of home owners have subprime loans, but these mortgages are accounting for a disproportionately high share of sales in the current market. On the other hand, areas that have had sharp price cuts are seeing a turnaround in sales, which are rising very fast now in parts of California, Florida and Nevada." Total housing inventory at the end of August fell 7.0 percent, a 10.4-month supply in contrast to the 10.9-month supply in July. Roughly a six-month supply is considered a market in balance. As for single-family home sales alone, the slippage was 1.4 percent from July and 9.6 percent from a year ago. The median existing single-family home price was $201,900, down 9.7 percent from August 2007. Existing apartment sales dropped 8.2 percent from July and 19.0 percent from the prior year. The median existing apartment price was $212,600 in August, 7.2 percent below a year ago. NEWLY BUILT HOMES POST 11.5% PLUNGE IN AUGUST SALES The Commerce Department also reported that sales fell 34.5 percent below the August 2007 rate and reached the lowest level in 17 years. "The major downshift in new-home sales in August reflected a weakening economy and job market as well as tight mortgage credit market conditions," said Chief Economist Dave Seiders of the National Association of Homebuilders. "And this occurred well before the most recent round of financial market turmoil." JULY PRICE DROP ENDS FOUR MONTHS OF SLOWING DECLINE Home prices declined in July. The Wall Street Journal says prices fell an average 0.9 percent compared with June in the 20 U.S. metropolitan areas tracked by the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index. The index covers only single-family homes, not apartments. July's price declines pushed the 20-city index down by 16 percent from the previous year. A 10-city index fell by 18 percent year THE MARKET FOR HIGH-END PROPERTIES IS SAGGING While those rare properties priced at $20 million or more are still holding up, there are signs that the crisis is exacerbating a downturn that was already plaguing properties in the $2 million to $10 million range, a market often sought by Wall Street workers, according to the Wall Street Journal. In the week after Sept. 24, there were 200 price cuts on properties listed at less than $10 million on Manhattan's Upper East Side or Upper West Side - a 17 percent jump from the week before. The impact is reaching beyond Manhattan. On Massachusetts's North Shore, where the average sale price of luxury homes is about $3 million, Lanse L. Robb says he's lost more than $15 million in listings and transactions in the last week. In San Francisco, a buyer in the market for an $8 million to $10 million property told Mark Allan Levinson last week to hold off on the search because his stock portfolio had just taken a big hit. A couple of weeks ago, a New York City buyer haggling over the purchase of a $1.9 million apartment used last week's turbulence to win an additional $100,000 discount. So far, the strongest part of the high-end market is the few "trophy" properties - penthouses and other apartments with one-of-a-kind features that rarely come up for sale. HOUSING OFFICE SEES 6 PERCENT DECLINE IN JULY HOME PRICES The decline from June was reported by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, which said the drop from a year earlier was 5.3 percent. The cumulative decline since the April 2007 peak is 5.8 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 - conforming mortgages. HE'S HOPING TO HIT THIS ONE OUT OF THE PARK Alex Rodriguez has put his apartment on the market for $14 million, according to the Observer. The most he reportedly paid for it was $7.5 million. The 4,600-square-foot spread has a dining area, library/den, dressing area, windowed chef's kitchen, and, of course, an en-suite master bathroom. THE QUEEN OF MEAN'S ESTATE SUFFERS AN AWESOME PRICE CUT The late Leona Helmsley's 40-acre estate in Greenwich, Conn. - known as Dunnellen Hall - has been slashed from $125 million to a more svelte $95 million, reports the New York Post. The massive, 14-bedroom Jacobean residence, which went on the market in February, includes a winter garden with a 52-foot indoor pool, palatial public rooms, a theater, a wine cellar and tasting room, a gym, a music room, servants' quarters and views of the Long Island Sound. The gated grounds feature a 72-foot outdoor pool with a cabana, a tennis court, two guest cottages and a koi pond with a waterfall. The estate is where the owner infamously told a servant, "Only the little people pay taxes." WARHOL'S NAME HASN'T COUNTED FOR MUCH IN A HOUSE Former Viacom Chief Executive Tom Freston has taken off the market a townhouse on Manhattan's Upper East Side that Andy Warhol once owned, says the Wall Street Journal. Freston listed the townhouse for $38.5 million in the spring and reduced the price to $35 million two weeks ago. Warhol paid $310,000 for the four-bedroom home in 1974 and lived there until his death in 1987, records show. Freston bought the place in 2000 and renovated extensively, according to the listing. SPIKE LEE'S FORMER OFFICE GOES BEGGING For more than two decades, 124 DeKalb Ave., in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, was home to Spike Lee's film company, 40 Acres and a Mule, and played host to all of the celebrities Lee worked with over the years, says the New York Post. "I read about a townhouse [in Brooklyn Heights] where Nicolas Cage and Cher made that movie 'Moonstruck' - that place sold for $4 million," says Jose Graniela, owner of the prewar building. "That was only one thing that building had going for it, in terms of celebrity. For 22 years, every actor or celebrity in Spike's circle has been here! We had Wynton Marsalis, Michael Jordan, Robert De Niro!" Lee left earlier this year (and currently has an office nearby in Fort Greene), and the demonstrably excitable Graniela has since decided to sell the 19th-century former firehouse as a two-unit residence. The top unit is a 1,500-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath loft; the bottom is a 2,000-square-foot, two-bedroom, one-bath loft. The place is outfitted with oak details and features oversized windows, a spiral staircase and a sleeping berth. The building was appraised at $5.7 million in March. "I rounded up to $6 million," Graniela says. Bad idea. It's now $4.9 million. Chances are any buyers will be rounding down. D.C.'S COSTLIEST LISTING IS BIG AND HISTORIC A Washington estate, built when the capital was just a few years old, has gone on the market for $49 million, the city's most-expensive listing, according to the Wall Street Journal. On a hill in Georgetown with views of the Washington Monument, the 12,000-sf Georgian-style mansion, on 3.58 acres, is called Evermay. In 1801, businessman Samuel Davidson commissioned the brick manor house as the seat of a 13-acre estate, and its original architecture has been preserved. In 1923, diplomat Lammot Belin bought the mansion, landscaped the grounds, restored many original details and added two wings, which contain staff areas and a ballroom with Palladian windows. Belin's grandson is selling the house, which has eight bedrooms, six full baths and five half baths. There's also a gatekeeper's house and a circa-1945 three-room staff house. The grounds include terraced gardens with six fountains and parking for 100 cars. The property is priced far above the city's current record sale: a house on 1.6 acres, also in Georgetown, that sold for roughly $25 million last year. THE FORCE IS WITH HER Natalie Portman of "Star Wars" fame, has found a buyer for her West Village condo in Richard Meier's transparent tower at 165 Charles St., says the New York Post. The apartment last had an asking price of $6.55 million. Included in the convertible three-bedroom, three-bath unit are views in three directions, a 32-foot balcony and a spacious great room. Building amenities include a 24-hour concierge, a fitness center, an infinity-edge lap pool and a screening room. Portman, who recently ended her relationship with folk singer Devendra Banhart, bought the glassy 2,500-square-foot, river-fronting unit in 2005 for $5.7 million. She first listed the unit in June for $6.7 million. A month later, she lowered the figure to its current price. NEW RISK IS ADDED TO ACQUIRING A NEW HOME As the economy has worsened and the real estate market has continued to slump, a number of Americans have been using raffles and competitions in a last-ditch effort to raise money and unload a house, says the New York Times. And as mortgages have become harder to obtain, some would-be homeowners are being tempted by the chance - a small one, but with better odds than most lotteries - to own a house without dealing with a bank (though the victors must pay taxes on their winnings). Raffles seem to have become particularly popular in Maryland, where new ones have recently have been announced for homes ranging from a $550,000 four-bedroom house in Dunkirk to a six-bedroom expanded log cabin in Edgewater valued at more than $1 million. Home raffles are hardly an easy proposition. Gambling regulations in many states make holding a private raffle for a house or land illegal unless the homeowner has a nonprofit organization as a partner, and the homeowner cannot make more than the appraised value of the house. (Some states, including New York, forbid even nonprofits from raffling off a home.) POTENTIAL FOR ID THEFT CONCERNS APARTMENT BUYERS According to lawyers and managing agents for co-ops, condos and rental buildings, applicants are becoming skittish about providing sensitive information, reports the New York Times. While there is no indication that widespread theft of information has resulted from co-op and condo filings, Habitat magazine interviewed two prospective apartment purchasers who believed that carelessness by board members led to the release of sensitive information that was used by thieves to open accounts in their names. One building worker acknowledged that he found 10 years of application packages in a board member's trash. (It is not disclosed what he did with them.) Eva Talel, a Manhattan co-op and condo lawyer, said a New York State law that took effect on Jan. 1 prohibits corporations and associations (including co-ops and condos) from intentionally making available to the general public an individual's Social Security number. Penalties of up to $250,000 can be imposed for multiple violations. IF YOU LIKED MOMA'S SHOW, YOU CAN OWN IT At least two of the prefabricated houses on display at New York's Museum of Modern Art are available for purchase, says the Wall Street Journal. The buyer will have to pay for delivery. MoMA commissioned five full-size homes for "Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling," a survey of prefab housing that aims to show how computer modeling and environmental concerns have improved prefabricated design. The Philadelphia architecture firm KieranTimberlake is seeking a minimum of $1.75 million for the Cellophane House, a four-story, two-bedroom aluminum and polycarbonate home with two walls of solar panels for the 1,800-square-foot structure. Buyers would need to finish the kitchen and add plumbing, says partner James Timberlake. Also, architects Jeremy Edmiston and Douglas Gauthier have listed their 1,000-square-foot Burst house for $475,000. The raised plywood house has a 600-square-foot porch and a glass wall. The exhibition ends this month. OWNERS OF A SECOND HOME SHOULD PLAN WAY AHEAD If you are planning to sell your vacation home in the next few years, you might want to move in and IN ENGLAND AND WALES, THE HOUSING NEWS IS NOT GOOD The Land Registry reports that prices fell by 1.9 percent in August, taking the annual rate of price deflation to 4.6 percent, according to BBC News. The figures mean that the average property now costs £174,493; £8,320 less than a year ago, with £3,871 of that drop occurring last month. Prices in London fell by 3.2 percent, the first monthly fall since the Registry started publishing its figures in 2000. With prices falling sharply in August, its monthly survey is starting to catch up fast with the surveys of lenders such as the Halifax and the Nationwide, each of which has reported that prices are down by 11 percent in the past year. Said Seema Shah at Capital Economics: "With transactions less than half of their level a year ago, coupled with the fact that the outlook for the economy is steadily deteriorating, the speed of this housing market correction still has the potential to step up a gear." In June, the last month for which the Registry has complete data, sales were 56 percent the prior year's. REITS WERE THE RIGHT BET IN THE THIRD QUARTER Commercial real estate stocks posted modest gains during the third quarter, but one sector was surprisingly strong: landlords that host stores popular with bargain hunters. The Wall Street Journal reports that an index of 108 stocks tracked by the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) eked out a 5.6 percent total return for this past quarter and is up 1.8 percent so far this year. That is better than the broader stock market, which is down 9 percent for the quarter and 21 percent for the year, according to the S&P 500 index, which doesn't include dividends. Apartment REITs saw a 12.5 percent return in the quarter and a 17.4 percent increase for the year, while self-storage REITs were up 19.3 percent in the third quarter and 33.8 percent so far this year. A TOWNHOUSE IN MOSCOW GOES FOR $99 MILLION According to a Russian property agency, the most expensive property residence just became a 14,000-sf townhouse, sold to a low-profile Russian business tycoon for the equivalent of approximately $99 million. The news appears on an unlikely Web site, Ballerhouse.com, run by a company that sells toys, among other things. (Well, maybe not so unlikely when that house is viewed as more than a place to live.) A five-minute drive from Red Square, the seven-story dwelling contains five bedrooms, five full bathrooms, three half baths, a children's floor, a basement-level indoor swimming pool and a rooftop winter garden. It is one of six townhouses located within the 240,000-sf Chistie Prudy Residence complex, which also includes luxury apartment houses, underground parking, silent elevators, a central water purification system, indoor pools, gyms and, it being Moscow, private security. The unnamed buyer of the $99 million property is reportedly around 40 and not one of Russia's most well-known tycoons.
A program intended to curb residential mortgage foreclosures here has averted the sale of almost 80 percent of the properties referred to it in its first three months, says the New York Times. The effort is the first city-sponsored plan in the United States to broker negotiations between mortgage lenders and homeowners who have fallen behind in their payments. The plan, started in June by the city government and the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, requires all owner-occupied properties scheduled to be foreclosed and sold by the Sheriff's Office to have their mortgages reviewed by borrowers, lenders and the court before they can be sold. The three parties seek agreements that allow loans to be modified so borrowers can resume regular payments and remain in their homes. Of the 552 homes referred to the program that had been scheduled for sheriff's sale from April to July, 230 were permanently removed from sale and 200 had their planned sales postponed for one to five months. Foreclosure filings in the city rose 18 percent from 2006 to 2007, to 6,237, and are expected to increase to about 8,000 this year. LONG-TERM RATES BARELY BUDGE The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.10 percent this week, up from last week's 6.09 percent but below 6.37 percent last year at this time, according to Freddie Mac. The 15-year FRM was 5.78 percent this week in comparison with 5.77 percent the previous week and 6.03 percent a year ago. Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.00 percent, down from 6.02 percent last week and 6.11 percent last year. One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs were 5.12 percent; last week they 5.16 percent and last year, 5.58 percent. UNSURPRISING NEWS ON MORTGAGE ACTIVITY The Mortgage Bankers Association reported that mortgage loan application volume plummeted 23.0 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Sept. 26 from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the decrease was 28.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier. Refinancings fell 34.7 percent from the previous week, while purchase applications slumped by 10.9 percent. The refinance share of mortgage activity declined to 44.0 percent of total applications from 51.6 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share dropped to 3.3 percent from 4.0 percent. FANNIE MAE CANCELS ITS PLANNED FEE INCREASES Fannie Mae has dropped canceled previously announce fees that would have raised costs for home-mortgage borrowers, reports the Wall Street Journal. The move is the first in what may be a series of concessions to be announced by Fannie and its main rival, Freddie Mac, since their regulator seized control of the government-backed mortgage companies in early September. Stuff Happens No, the "stuff" in the headline is not about the economy. But it is about a situation that buyers do not always anticipate. It is about the risks any buyer assumes when plunking down a deposit for an apartment in a building that is still under construction. What is more alluring - and often convincing - than the glossy presentations, the handsome model kitchens and baths, and the persuasive patter in the sales of offices of buildings under development? Well, maybe admiring the sunset on a beach in Hawaii. Still, walk into such a sales office and you will be greeted unfailingly by a pleasant, always young, determinedly fashionable receptionist or sales associate. Would you like a cookie, a bottle of water, a weighty brochure an . . . apartment? Let's watch a Super Bowl-quality commercial showing the delights of the neighborhood, the imagined faces of your prospective neighbors, a panoply of the trendiest amenities and, of course, unrealized fantasies of the rooms of your dreams. Then, stroll into the area where stage-lit constructions of kitchens and baths draw your interest. Run your fingers along the shiny countertops, test the smooth-functioning drawers, wonder at the high style. Hey, sign up now and you'll have the best selection. But what are you getting into? You never know for sure. In the best of all worlds, months later - in fact, inevitably months after the supposed completion date -you'll do a walkthrough, find a few items for the punch list and be thrilled with the wisdom of your purchase. You'll be happy not only because comparable prices may have risen but because all the promises to you have been kept. It happens. In the worst of all worlds, nothing will turn out as planned. As everyone knows, especially these days, the market tomorrow is impossible to predict today. Such as life: Risk is as unavoidable as, you know, taxes and that other thing. People who gamble on futures - whether fuel oil or new condos - generally know the potential consequences. Dazzled as easily anyone can be, some folks may fail to appreciate the other risks of buying a residence sight unseen. Those are risks that the apartment will not look the way you expected. It is one thing to look at a floorplan, another to walk the room and notice that there's no good place for a television, insufficient distance to a bathroom, a kitchen that's too narrow. Then there are the finishes, which may well fall beneath your standards. The punch list notwithstanding, the early fixes miss problems that arise over time and that are handled over time - for example, tiles that tumble to the floor because of bad grouting. And what about the view and that nearby tarred roof that obscures the skyline's majesty. Consider the 1,180-sf two-bedroom model apartment in a recently completed condominium in Yorkville that is distantly east of the subway in the low 80s and full of surprises. There are granite countertops and backsplashes in the kitchen. It is the same granite, but in places the lots are different - some slabs are rosy, others brown, and not intentionally thus. Then there are the kitchen drawers, which are neither self-closing nor smooth functioning. On close inspection, other concerns surface as well. For example, the two baths which are tiled in gleaming white, but they fail to make a statement. There is insufficient closet space in the too-small master bedroom. Although other closets have been added just outside the bedroom, there is no door demarking a bedroom suite for privacy. As for other finishes, where corners meet and walls reach ceiling seem to have been hurriedly executed. Finally, the shape of the apartment is oddly longitudinal, with space wasted on a hallway (dubbed "gallery"), deliberately so to account for the 912-sf terrace that stretches along the entire unit facing north. The terrace may possibly justify the unit's defects. Perhaps. In any case, the floorplan makes the layout look nearly ideal, while the reality proves its imperfection. The good news is that the prices of this unit and others in the pet-friendly building - which has an enclosed skylit swimming pool, spa and fitness center, children's playroom, lounge with Internet access, community room and attended garage - are not especially aggressive. The seventh-floor unit is listed at $1.395 million, which would be fine except for the monthly common charge of $1,883 and real estate taxes of $1,541. A small one bedroom is offered at $720,000 with combined monthly costs of $1,171, and a four-bedroom with wraparound terrace is listed at $2.395 million and $4,178 a month. While it must be acknowledged that buyers in the building prior to its completion may not, in fact, have been disappointed, the lesson holds true that reality easily can fall short of expectations. Stuff happens, and the best advice is to enter into a transaction for property in developments only with eyes wide open bearing in mind that nostrum: caveat emptor. Upper West Side
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and more sales contracts are being canceled. "I have great concern about 2009," said Jonathan Miller, chief executive of Miller Samuel Inc., the appraisal and research company tracking the numbers for Prudential Douglas Elliman. "At some point, you're going to see prices erode." The reports, which track deals made by buyers who went to contract before the national financial crisis of recent weeks, showed that the average sales price was 8 percent higher than at this time last year, according to Miller Samuel. The increase was driven at least partly by closings in the last quarter on four Upper East Side co-ops for more than $30 million each. Brokers predict that real estate prices are unlikely to drop as much as they have in other parts of the nation because the market is filled with co-op owners who have more equity in their properties and because there is a limited supply of apartments in New York City. The full Miller Samuel report will be available on PDF during the afternoon of Oct. 3 at www.millersamuel.com/reports/ 
figure deposits. This phenomenon, common in Florida and other real estate markets decimated by the housing slump, was virtually unheard of in New York City until recently. "Inventory that's considered 100 percent sold out is now trickling back on the market," a mortgage broker at Commodore Mortgage Group, Andrea Costa, said. "Before, you had people lining up for these apartments. This is definitely new, especially for New York." A senior vice president at Preferred Empire Mortgage Company, Jeffrey Appel, estimated that the number of buyers struggling or failing to close on signed contracts leapt to 10 percent from virtually nil in the past year. "From zero to 10 percent is a big difference," he observed. "It's a growing problem." A year ago, banks routinely allowed buyers to finance up to 90 percent of their home purchases but now require a down payment of 20 percent. Since mortgage contingencies usually last only a month, buyers who signed contracts more than a year ago are discovering at closing that they must come up with large sums of cash to make up the difference.
over year, the most in the series' 21-year history. (In the early 1990s, the 10-city index's largest yearly decline was 6.2 percent.) The price of single-family homes in New York City and its suburbs in the 12-month period ending in July dropped 7.4 percent; the average asking price of a Park Slope brownstone since January was down to $2.35 million, from $2.8 million, according to the index. Sunbelt cities with a large proportion of foreclosures and subprime loans continued to post significant yearly declines. Home prices in Las Vegas were down 30 percent in July from a year ago; in Phoenix, prices dropped 29 percent and in Miami, 28 percent. In California, prices in Los Angeles tumbled by 26 percent, while prices in San Diego and San Francisco dropped about 25 percent. "The nominal price of single-family homes is now back to levels of June 2004," said Charles McMillion, chief economist at MBG Information Services in Washington. The S&P/Case-Shiller index has shown steeper price declines over the past couple of years than another widely followed index, produced by the government's Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
treat it as your principal residence as soon as possible, counsels Benny L. Kass in the Washington Post. Under current law, if you move into your second home that you have been renting out for many years and live in it for two of the five years before you sell it, you can exclude from taxation up to $250,000 of any gain you make. (If you are married and file a joint tax return, the exclusion is up to $500,000.) But for property sales after Jan. 1, you will have to allocate the percentage of time that you owned the property as compared with the time it was not used as your principal residence. You will need to crunch the numbers to determine any possible tax liability. The longer you own your house, the less impact the new law will have. Additionally, the more profit you make, the less impact there will be. Even under the old law, once your profit exceeds the statutory caps ($250,000 or $500,000), you have to pay capital gains tax. 
