PRICES FALL, SALES SURGE FROM SECOND TO THIRD QUARTERS The median price of a re-sale apartment in Manhattan fell to $750,000 in the third quarter from $815,000 during the same quarter of 2008, an 8 percent drop, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. But the price was 3.4 percent above the $725,000 median in the previous quarter. The number of sales jumped from the second quarter, and inventory declined. Both the listing discount and number of days on the market continued to rise. You can see the full report in PDF by clicking here and then on the 3rd quarter report. Other reports painted a darker picture. According to PropertyShark.com, the market-wide median price fell 18 percent from a year ago, going from $971,000 to $799,000, while dipping 6 percent from the quarter earlier. The number of closings, while down 22 percent from a year ago, surged more than 68 percent from the second quarter. Co-op re-sales saw an 85 percent spike in closings citywide from the second quarter, reports StreetEasy.com in a PDF you can retrieve here after clicking on the 3rd quarter market report on the right. Studios saw the biggest reduction in the third quarter: a 30 percent decline to a median sales price of $364,000. Two-bedrooms took a 22 percent hit, falling to $1.125 million, according to the PropertyShark report. Check what the Wall Street Journal has to say as well and see a chart on the reports on the Service You Can Trust blog, which additionally considers the implications. “Unemployment remains elevated, employment in the financial services sector continues to decline and unusually restrictive mortgage underwriting remains in place,” appraiser Jonathan Miller wrote. “Therefore, this surge in the number of sales does not appear to indicate a housing market ‘bottom,’ but rather provides some evidence that the housing market has ‘turned the corner.’” AN OIL DELIVERY PROVOKES A HEATED REACTION A Queens homeowner is steaming mad at a fuel company that pumped 100 gallons of oil into his home, reports CBS 2-TV. Ferrantino Fuel Corporation delivered the oil to his home – pumped through an outside pump - flooding the newly renovated basement of the John Byas family. The flood occurred because Byas hasn’t had an oil tank in the 20 years he lived in the house. "I work hard and it's a lot of money wasted," Byas said. Aside from damage to both house and possessions, the family became ill from fumes so intense that firefighters say they can't spend more than 20 minutes on the scene. "The fumes take an effect on you, a taste in the back of your mouth, loss of appetite, and feel a little run-down, but you gotta keep moving," Byas said. Ferrantino Fuel has admitted the mistake, telling CBS 2 that it apologized for the incident and is doing everything possible to clean up the mess. The Department of Environmental Conservation is investigating the case, and the oil company doubtless has burned up the wires to an attorney. THE LIMIT IS THE SKY According to a deed filed in city records, a penthouse at 15 Central Park West has sold for $37 million, reports the Observer. The $45 million listing for the penthouse came off the market half a year ago with no sign that it was going to be sold; the asking price once was $80 million. The 5,276-sf condo has 14-foot ceilings and four bedrooms, plus an additional 1,222-sf suite on the building's ground floor. The seller is a limited liability corporation, Prominence, which contracted for the apartment for $21.5 million in 2005. That corporation has been tied to Amit Ben-Haim, a London-based investor who made his fortune with the sale of a medical-device company based in Israel. The buyers are listed as the corporations Novgorod and Novgorod Two. YOU CAN LINE UP FOR FREE SNEAK PEEKS INTO PRIVATE PLACES openhousenewyo SUMMER’S END CAUSES FALL IN VACANCY RATE New York’s vacancy rate fell to 2.9 percent in the third quarter from 3 percent in the second as the end of summer brought an influx of tenants signing leases, according to research firm Reis Inc. in a Bloomberg story. See the national picture in the “U.S. Market” below. Effective rents dropped 0.9 percent from the prior quarter and were down 6.8 percent from a year earlier. “With New York being relatively more dependent on the still-embattled financial services sector, it may take a few more quarters before we see rents bottoming out” there, Reis said in a statement. “We are on track for 2009 to register as the worst year in rent drops on record, far exceeding the historic 3.8 percent decline recorded in 2002.” New Haven replaced New York as the city with the lowest vacancy rate, at 2.5 percent, partly owing to the start of the academic year, said Reis. The Big Apple’s drop was second only to that of San Jose, which fell by 8 percent. MILLER SAMUEL INAUGURATES ITS OWN RENTAL REPORT The average rent per square foot was $47.84 in the third quarter, down 9.4 percent from $52.80 in the prior year quarter, the appraisal firm found. There was, however, an increase of 8.3 percent from the prior quarter result of $44.16, suggesting “some easing” in the rate of decline. Average and median rental prices posted declined; the average rent was $3,759, down 1 percent in the prior year quarter and the median was $2,950, down 7.7 percent. There were 2,549 rentals in the third quarter, 58.9 percent below the same period a year ago, but up 8.7 percent from the prior quarter. There were 6,527 listings available at the end of the third quarter, 5.4 percent above the same period last year but 10.5 percent below the prior quarter. To read the entire report in PDF, visit the Prudential Douglas Elliman site and click the first report in the second row. A FIFTH AVENUE APARTMENT COULD BE A BARGAIN If you missed news about the upcoming auction of a two-bedroom apartment near the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue, you’ll find all the information you need in the Service You Can Trust blog. WITH TOO MUCH TIME ON YOUR HANDS, TRY THIS Cheryl Mendelson, a Harvard-educated lawyer and professor of ethics and morality at Barnard College, spent four – count ‘em, four - years writing a 416-page book called “Laundry: The Home Comforts Book of Caring for Clothes and Linen,” says the New York Times. It was inspired by her growing up in the 1950s on a farm outside Mather, Pa., a small Appalachian mining town where clothes were handmade and washing by hand was part of a culture that she says has been lost. “I see people in my building elevator carrying baskets, and everything is kind of gray and drab,” she told the newspaper, because they don’t know how to wash clothes. So what is the best way to do laundry? First, clothes need to be separated. Keeping like-colored clothing together maintains its brightness, Mendelson said. She recommends separating clothes into five – count ‘em, five - categories: whites; lights and almost-whites (yellows and whites with prints); brights (reds, oranges and light blues); darks (purples and blues); and blacks and browns. That’s just for starters; her advice goes on and on. STUNNINGLY, ARCHITECTS SAY HOMEOWNERS ARE SCALING DOWN Homeowners are adding energy-efficient options and low maintenance products while showing a lessened interest in special features such as home theaters, guest wings and three-car garages, reports the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Business conditions at residential architecture firms are stabilizing with the entry-level housing market showing a movement towards recovery, the organization says in its findings from a trends survey. “There has been a decrease in popularity for certain energy-efficient products or systems, but overall they continue to be in demand from homeowners,” said AIA Chief Economist, Kermit Baker. “And reflecting the current economic conditions, we have also seen a significant drop in the investment in theaters, guest or kid wings, mud rooms and other specialty features.” LAWSUITS ABOUT CHINESE DRYWALL ARE MOUNTING Hundreds of lawsuits are piling up in state and federal courts, and a consolidated class action is moving forward in Louisiana before Judge Eldon E. Fallon of Federal District Court, who will begin in January hearing cases on allegedly contaminated drywall imported from China, reports the New York Times. Three hundred cases have been filed in Louisiana alone, many with similar complaints from homeowners - a noxious smell, recurrent headaches and difficulty breathing. In Florida, the health department has received more than 500 complaints with such symptoms. In addition, these suits say, metal objects in homes corrode quickly, causing kitchen appliances, air-conditioners, televisions and plumbing to fail. “There could be 60,000 to 100,000 homes that are worthless and have to be ripped completely down and rebuilt,” said Arnold Levin, a Philadelphia lawyer and co-chairman of the plaintiffs’ steering committee. FOR AT LEAST $40, AN ENTREPRENEUR DELIVERS FROM COSTCO Michael Eberstadt has no inventory, almost no overhead and a limited selection. Everything he delivers - as sort of a one-man FreshDirect - is from Costco, says the New York Times. Customers order from his Web site, Bigboxdeliveries.com, and a Costco warehouse store in Yonkers packs the orders into boxes. Eberstadt picks up the order in his van and brings it to the customer’s building (assuming there is a doorman) on the Upper West Side or Upper East Side. The customer and Eberstadt split the savings from shopping at a Costco. To make it worth his time, his share has to be a minimum of $40. The owner of Rack and Soul restaurant, which has a truck, Eberstadt got the idea for the service in part because he is one of the Yonkers Costco’s top customers, making regular trips and becoming good friends with the various managers. “I thought, why not bring stuff for a friend and why not get paid it?” he related. “There are certain things you need in bulk. That is what I am hoping to provide: cases of Gatorade, Tide.” The most popular item by far? The box of 200 large white garbage bags made by Kirkland, Costco’s generic brand. “If you buy them 20 at a time from Glad, you just crushed,” Eberstadt averred. RATES DROP YET AGAIN The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.87 percent for the week, down from last week’s 4.94 percent and last year’s 5.94 percent, reports Freddie Mac. The last time it was lower was the week ending May 21, 2009, when it reached 4.82 percent. The 15-year FRM was 4.33 percent in comparison with 4.36 percent last week and 5.63 percent last year, falling to the lowest level since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 1991. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.35, down from 4.42 percent the prior week and 5.90 percent a year ago. That rate also has not been lower since Freddie Mac started tracking it in 2005. The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM was 4.53 percent this week, up from last week’s 4.49 percent and last year’s 5.15 percent. MORTGAGE DELINQUENCIES, FORECLOSURES ROSE IN 2ND QUARTER Actions to keep Americans in their homes grew by almost 22 percent during the second quarter of 2009, according to a report released today by the offices of the Comptroller of the Currency and of Thrift Supervision. But the report showed that difficult economic conditions resulted in higher rates of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures in process, having increased respectively to 8.5 percent and 2.9 percent of all serviced mortgages. At the same time, home retention actions prompted by the government grew by nearly 75 percent. The number of payment plans increased by 73.9 percent for the second quarter of 2009, while loan modifications declined by 25.2 percent. The percentage of modifications that reduced borrowers’ monthly principal and interest payments continued to increase to more than 78 percent of all new modifications, up from about 54 percent in the previous quarter. Also, the percentage of modifications that reduced principal more than tripled to 10 percent, from 3.1 percent in the first quarter. THE MORTGAGE CRISIS MAY BE JUST BEGINNING Approximately 10 percent of all mortgages in this country are scheduled to adjust in the next few years, with the numbers peaking in mid to late 2011, according to First American CoreLogic, reports the Washington Post. Those loans are worth about $1 trillion, and nearly 20 percent of the borrowers who have them are already seriously behind on their monthly payments. "I sus WITH RATES LOW, LOAN APPLICATIONS SOAR The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) mortgage loan application volume went up 16.4 percent for the week ending Oct. 2 from one week earlier. Refinancing activity rose 18.2 percent to reach the highest level since mid-May. The percentage of purchase applications increased 13.2 percent from one week earlier, climbing to the highest level since January but coming in 2.2 percent lower than the same period one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity edged up to 66.3 percent of total applications from 65.3 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage share slipped to 6.1 percent from 6.2 percent. FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF THE WAGES OF SIN Twelve mortgage brokers, loan officers and attorneys were arrested Thursday on an accusation of using fictitious identities and documents to obtain upwards of $9 million in residential mortgages on dozens of New York City and Long Island properties, most of which are now in default. According to the Read Deal, the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud. The charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison plus a substantial fine. The announcement culminated a long-term investigation by six federal and state law enforcement agencies. TREASURY SAYS LOAN MODIFICATIONS ARE ACCELERATING The federal government says it has met its goal of beginning trial loan modifications for 500,000 financially troubled homeowners in a sign the foreclosure-prevention plan is gaining traction, according to the Wall Street Journal. The loan numbers were released as several senior House lawmakers expressed support for extending an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. Talk of extending the credit shows how lawmakers believe the fragile housing market remains dependent on federal support. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the number of people participating in the modification effort is, for the first time, increasing at a rate faster than that of new families facing the risk of foreclosure. But the number of families at risk is still "unacceptably large," he said. MOST BUILDERS SAY THE CREDIT CRUNCH HURTS THEM Nearly two-thirds of single-family home builders are reporting a severe lack of credit for housing production, according to a new survey by the hardly disinterested National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Sixty-three percent of builders said that the availability of credit for single-family construction loans worsened in the second quarter of 2009. Two-thirds of respondents reported putting single-family construction projects on hold until the financing climate gets better, never mind the housing market. TIMESHARE SALES ARE SUFFERING Sales may drop 30 percent this year from 2008, Howard Nusbaum, president and chief executive officer of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), told Bloomberg News. The market “will be a challenge for at least the next 18 months,” Patrick Scholes, senior equity research analyst at FBR Capital Markets added. U.S. timeshare sales dropped 8.5 percent last year to $9.7 billion from a peak of $10.6 billion in 2007, excluding the luxury fractional business and private residence clubs, according to an Ernst & Young study prepared for ARDA. The decline was the industry’s first since 1975 and is being driven by tighter credit, a higher personal savings rate and the loss of 6.9 million jobs since the recession started in December 2007. I’LL SHOW YOU MINE, IF YOU SHOW ME YOURS D.C. area residents are turning to home swaps as an affordable way to get away for the week or weekend, says the Washington Post. Although most of the Web sites that post home-exchange listings do not track how many matches are made, President Ed Kushins of HomeExchange.com said the site is now seeing more members who used to exchange their homes once a year doing more frequent, more local exchanges. Greg Kearley, for one, an architect in the District, started swapping his Adams Morgan condo last summer to save money on vacations. He has swapped his way into a four-bedroom house on a sprawling property in the Tetons and a 1,200-sf loft in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. He vacated his home over Labor Day weekend (borrowing the home of friends who were away for the weekend) so a mother and daughter could swap into his two-bedroom condo. In return, he'll get dibs on using their home in Lake Tahoe for three days. "With the economy sort of in the tank, it just was a great way to travel with not having to pay for a place to stay, which is typically the most expensive part of the trip," said Kearley, a longtime traveler. UNDER THE TUSCAN CLOUDS SITS THE HOUSING MARKET After nearly a full decade of real estate boom, the luxury market in Tuscany is sliding down, according to the International Herald Tribune in the Real Deal. Overall prices have fallen 10-20 percent over the past two years, say brokers who work in the region, though the dip is still lower than in France or Spain. In the Chianti countryside, prices for some rural properties have fallen to as low as half of what they were five years ago. It is the first major decline since the euro doubled the cost of property roughly ten years ago. OWNED BY A GRANDSON OF SLAVES, THIS HOUSE IS IN JEOPARDY William A. Martin, grandson of a woman once kept as a slave in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard, went to sea as a boy and he was a ship’s master by 1878, the only African-American whaling captain from the island as well as one of the few anywhere in the United States, according to the New York Times. On the island of Chappaquiddick, at the east end of Martha’s Vineyard, his house stands empty. Owners Tom Doyle and his wife Amy Goldberg have put the house on the market. The question is, will its next owner rise to the restoration challenge or, as may be more likely, take one contractor’s approach and use the lot for a new house? The snug two-story frame structure with weathered gray shingles and white trim sits on brick footings. Inside, though paint is peeling and plaster has fallen away from lathing in places, there are plenty of period touches such paneling, six-over-nine windows and random-width, hand-hewn floorboards, now painted dark green. Read all about it on the Times Web site. THOSE ROCKETS BETTER SOAR Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander has just closed on a $25 million penthouse at the new Superior Ink condo building in the West Village, says the New York Post. Alexander is getting 6,321 square feet of raw space plus four terraces. That’s right, raw space. Now get this: It’s already on the market again for . . . $39.5 million. The building also includes seven townhouse residences, with roof terraces and four to six bedrooms each, priced at $12.95 million and up. Recent home hunters there include Alex Rodriguez and Kate Hudson, who were unhappy that the penthouse was not an option, and no one is saying whether they’ll be back. Superior Ink already has a prominent list of buyers in contract, including Hilary Swank, Marc Jacobs and NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson. FOR HIM, BASKETBALL WAS A VERY, VERY GOOD SPORT Michael Jordan’s “people” have submitted applications for a 37,942-sf building, with 26,000 square feet under air conditioning at the Bears Club, a posh golf community in Jupiter, Fla., according to the Palm Beach Post. The basketball great’s hovel will have 11 bedrooms and a yet-to-be-determined number of baths. Jordan is paying $7,627,669 to build the two-story home, which will feature an elevator, a grand stairway, 10-foot ceilings and a giant fireplace. He bought two adjacent lots at the Bears Club last year for a total $4.8 million. HER DECISION IS THAT THE HOUSING MARKET JUSTIFIES NO SALE Sonia Sotomayor lives now in the nation's capital, but she isn't pulling up stakes in Greenwich Village just yet, says the New York Daily News. In her view, the housing market is too soft to put her apartment on the block. "Right now I - like many other Americans, it would not be wise for me to sell my home in New York because the market is so low," Sotomayor told C-SPAN in a recent interview. Sotomayor owes approximately $380,000 on her Greenwhich Village apartment, which, she told the U.S. Senate during her confirmation hearing, was worth $1 million. HE MAY WELL BE BAREFOOT AT THE RITZ Neil Simo THE ONE MR. DUNNE’S WEEKEND PLACE IS FOR SALE Dominick Dunne, who died in August after a protracted battle with cancer, had a weekend place in Lyme, Conn. that is now up for sale, according to CityFile. The three-bedroom home, which was once featured in Architectural Digest, is listed for $2.1 million. It was Dunne, of course, who wrote “The Two Mrs. Grenvilles.” PRETTY HOUSE FINALLY FINDS A BUYER Richard Gere and his wife, actress Carey Lowell, have sold their Hamptons house for $5.9 million, approximately a third lower than their original asking price in February, says the Wall Street Journal. On 1.2 acres in Water Mill, the traditional house of 5,500 square feet has seven bedrooms and seven baths. The property, called Too Many Maples, contains several large . . . maple trees, as well as a heated pool, a guest house and an artist's studio. The couple, who own another home close to the Hamptons, in North Haven, purchased the Water Mill home in February 2001 for $2.75 million and renovated it. They put it on the market for $8.8 million, cutting the price to $7.2 million in June. INDICES OF SINGLE-FAMILY HOME PRICES KEEP RISING Data through July released by the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices show that the annual rate of decline of the 10-City and 20-City Composites improved from the prior month. Although remaining negative, the statistics tell of approximately six months of improved readings, which omit apartments, beginning in early 2009. The 10-City and 20-City Composites declined 12.8 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively, in July compared with the same month last year. In the New York City region, prices increased 0.8 percent in July but were 10.3 percent lower than last July. “The rate of annual decline in home price values continues to decelerate and we now seem to be witnessing some sustained monthly increases across many of the markets,” commented S&P executive David M. Blitzer. “[B]ut we do need to be cautious in coming months to assess whether the housing market will weather the expiration of the Federal First-Time Buyer’s Tax Credit in November, anticipated higher unemployment rates and a possible increase in foreclosures.” As of July 2009, average home prices across the United States are at similar levels to where they were in the autumn of 2003. From the peak in the second quarter of 2006, the 10-City Composite is down 33.5 percent and the 20-City Composite, 32.6 percent. For more on the report, including several charts, visit the Service You Can Trust blog. NUMBER OF SIGNED CONTRACTS INCREASES The Pending Home Sales Index rose 6.4 percent in August from July, 12.4 percent higher than August 2008, says the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The Pending Home Sales Index reached the highest level since March 2007. Observed NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun: “No doubt many first-time buyers are rushing to beat the deadline for the $8,000 tax credit, which expires at the end of next month. Perhaps the real question is how many transactions are being delayed in the pipeline and how many are being cancelled?” Gary Thayer, macro strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis told Bloomberg News before the NAR released its news: “We are in a recovery. There were a lot of people who were on the fence. Prices are firming up and people are getting back into the market.” UNEMPLOYMENT REDUCES APARTMENT RENTALS Apartment vacancies hit their highest point since 1986, surging in cities from Raleigh, N.C., to Tacoma, Wash., as rising unemployment continued to chip away at demand during the traditionally strong summer months, reports the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. vacancy rate reached 7.8 percent, a 23-year high, according to Reis Inc., a New York real-estate research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets. The rate is expected to climb farther in the fall and winter, when rental demand is weaker, pushing vacancies to the highest levels since Reis began its count in 1980. During the third quarter, vacancies increased in 42 markets, improved in 26 markets and remained unchanged in 11 markets. Omaha, Neb., saw the largest rise in vacancies, with the rate rising 1.1 percentage points to 7.4 percent. Other big rises were seen in Memphis, Tenn., Indianapolis, Raleigh and Tacoma. Reis projects that the vacancy rate will peak at well above 8 percent in mid-2010. Check out a chart produced by Reis plus much more info on the changes in the Service You Can Trust blog. IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, LUXURY HOMES GO BEGGING Dozens of mega-mansions across Southern California that were conceived during the real estate bubble, when builders waged an ill-timed arms race to ever-increasing extravagance, are going unsold, according to the Wall Street Journal. They lie vacant in droves along the coasts and hillsides of Southern California, from Manhattan Beach to Irvine. Their owners could afford to keep them on the market for months, sometimes years, hoping to find buyers who would pay their asking prices. That holding pattern has kept the most expensive segment of the home market from posting the kind of sharp price drops seen just about everywhere else. A search of homes for sale built since 2007 and priced above $3 million shows 39 such properties in Newport Beach and Newport Coast, 27 in Laguna Beach, 19 in Manhattan Beach, 18 in Irvine and 11 on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Unsurprisingly, rents also fell as much as 8 percent, the amount of decline that was registered in San Jose. HOUSING HOPES FADE AS CONSUMER CONFIDENCE SLIPS The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, which had improved in August, dipped in September. The Index now stands at 53.1 (1985=100), down from 54.5 in August. Commented the Board’s Lynn Franco: "The Present Situation Index decreased as consumers viewed both current business conditions and the labor market less favorably than last month. While not as pessimistic as earlier this year, consumers remain quite apprehensive about the short-term outlook and their incomes." The share of Americans expecting to purchase a home within six months fell to 2.3 percent from 3 percent in August. A SURVEY PRODUCES HAUNTING RESULTS A survey by Rent.com has found that 11 percent of renters believe they have lived in a home inhabited by ghosts, and other respondents would be willing to do so to save money. More than two thirds of renters say they would be willing to crash with Casper for the right price. More than half would do so for free rent, and a quarter would do it for half off the rent. Approximately 30 percent said they’d bunk with the boogeyman for free utilities, while 23 percent would do it for a free flat-screen TV with cable. However, 31 percent said not even a $1 million would persuade them of such a move. The survey’s methodology was not disclosed, but there’s no mystery as to what the Web site’s motive was in making the effort, is there? DON’T GO WEST FOR SMALLEST MONTHLY HOUSING EXPENSE More than half of the 20 most expensive cities for housing are in the Golden State, according to a report by the U.S. Census Bureau, observes Forbes magazine. San Jose is the costliest: After you've shelled out for your monthly mortgage payments (or gross rent, if you're a renter), not to mention utilities, taxes and insurance, you'll be $1,828 poorer. High monthly costs in places such as San Francisco ($1,660) and Washington, D.C., ($1,706) don't necessarily make owning and renting terribly expensive for area residents because of higher income. Demand drives up price in the areas with the most amenities and cultural caché. When the housing supply is restricted, home-dwellers pay even more – for example, in coastal cities such as Seattle and San Francisco, where jobs and access to entertainment attract families but the waters that bookend them put a firm limit on urban sprawl. "There's only so much land in Manhattan," says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "You'll pay a premium to live on the coast." You’ll expend $1,363 monthly to lodge in the Big Apple, $1,660 to bed down by the Golden Gate, and $1,368 to make Seattle your home. For much more, find the big Forbes package here. WHAT WILL BE THE HOT, HIP CITIES FOR YOUNG GRADS? Whether you prefer hip, casual Austin over the cosmopolitan allure of New York City is partly a matter of personal taste, notes the Wall Street Journal, which anyway asked six demographers, economists, geographers and authors on urban issues for their thoughts. Big cities dominate the panelists' forecasts. Where trendy smaller cities might have captivated youth in the past, today's recession-scarred young people are more pragmatic, placing "greater emphasis on where high-quality, high-paying jobs are created," says Ross DeVol, director of regional economics for the nonprofit Milken Institute. Northeastern and West Coast cities are ascendant, eclipsing former Sunbelt favorites such as Atlanta. The top five cities were Washington, D.C., tied in first place with Seattle, followed by New York City in third, Portland, Ore., and then Austin. For more, you can read the story at length. MORTGAGE ANALYSTS SAY HOUSING ‘OVERHANG’ MAY HURT The largest problem facing the mortgage market is the “shadow inventory” or “housing overhang” of 7 million units, according to Amherst Securities Group. “We are concerned that, in light of this overhang, the housing market stabilization is temporary, based on seasonal factors, and prices c HOW GOOD AN INVESTMENT WILL HOUSING BE Economists say there is little reason that Americans should continue to see a home purchase as a path to wealth, reports the Chicago Tribune. "We can no longer assume that housing will be as good an investment for the future as it has been," says former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, now a professor at the University of California- Berkeley. "We can expect a gradual rise [in home values], but not the bonanza we've become accustomed to between the end of World War II and 2006, and especially the last 20 years." Thomas Lawler, a housing consultant and former Fannie Mae official, agrees. "You talk about pent-up demand,” he says. “You had all these people coming out of the Great Depression and others coming back from World War II at the same time, then that was followed by the baby boom. There were all kinds of demographic conditions conducive to more positive increases in real home prices. Those fundamental things started to shift a while ago." Not only is the population aging, but also the workers who are replacing today's retirees are by some measures earning and saving less and taking on greater debt than their parents and predecessors. Still, Reich isn't forecasting a catastrophe: "People in the middle class, although stressed, will still want homes, and home ownership will still be part of the American dream. House prices will continue to rise, just more slowly than they did in the past 70 years." What's in a Broker? There are brokers and, as everyone knows, there are brokers. The lazy ones and the arrogant ones can be particularly hard to take. Consider this one – call him Simon – who has several listings in the same historic building on the Upper West Side. First, the e-mail and telephone call to schedule an appointment. The only telephone number provided is to an office, where the voicemail greeting offers no cell phone number. A message left there receives no response. Then the email, which evidently goes to a handheld device. There is no response for more than 90 minutes. Granted, some folks may think that’s within the realm of acceptability. But Simon’s response ignores a request to reply either to an alternate email address (to a BlackBerry) and a phone number added to the message; as a result, his reply goes unseen for two hours. His response: He can show the condo, listed at $1.195 million and described below, only before 11 a.m. the next day. To comply, the eager prospective buyers agree to 10:45 a.m., but they must check out of their hotel early and cool their heels for an hour until the start times of the open houses that they plan to visit later. There is no subsequent response from Simon, even though confirmation was sought, until the next day - an hour and a half before the appointment. That answer from him came only after another email and phone call to Simon that morning. In his call, he professes unawareness about any of the previous communications (including his own) and says he couldn’t show the apartment until after 11 a.m. Yet he somehow counters with 10:45 after noon is proposed. What he really meant is impossible to discern. So, the buyers check out of their hotel early and show up on time, their tiny and extraordinarily well-behaved Maltese dog in tow. The broker, who is wearing blue jeans and a decidedly unfashionably rumpled casual shirt, tells them he is running late and that he will take buyers to the apartment in order of their arrival, no matter what their appointment. It is by then after 11. How that slovenly broker became successful is a mystery except, apparently, to his most ardent admirer - him. The 1,000-sf corner apartment in question has two split bedrooms, two baths, washer/dryer, central air conditioning, modern open kitchen and oversized windows. In a 1925 doorman building in the low 70s west of Broadway, the condo also has rooms of only moderate size and open exposures to the west and south from the 12th floor. At $1.195 million with common charges of $983 and real estate tax of $652 monthly, the unit is no bargain. In six weeks on the market, still no contract, maybe because there are seven other active listings in the building, five of them somehow with the same broker, whose record includes two expired listings as well. Other properties listed by various brokers and seen recently:
Some of Manhattan's Latest Listings Please click here to view a sampling of newly listed properties. To see more of them or to obtain more information, please don't hesitate to be in touch. Click Here to Sign Up For Your Free Issue of Realty Digest!
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rk (OHNY) will provide free access to sites that showcase New York City's rich architectural, design, engineering and cultural heritage on Oct. 10-11. This year’s diverse selection ranges from the historic to the cutting edge. More than 175,000 people are expected to participate in the event, which includes hands-on programs. Among the participating sites are tours of the Apollo Theater; the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel - the world's oldest subway tunnel; a contemporary gut renovation of a historic 1899 carriage house in Red Hook; the award winning Slot House in Fort Greene; and perennial favorites sites such as Alice Austen House, Angels and Accordions at the Green-Wood Cemetery, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Ellis Island's South Side and Ferry Building, the Grand Lodge of Masons, High Bridge Water Tower, Murray's Cheese, Radio City Music Hall, and Seven World Trade Center. 
pect that at least a third of these [adjustable loans] won't be around by the time they are scheduled to reset" for one reason or another, said Sam Khater, senior economist at First American CoreLogic. Adds Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance: "We have a long way to go before prime borrowers see a big jump in payments. We're looking at 2011 and 2012. None of us know what's going to happen then, but we're assuming rates will rise." A group of borrowers closely tracked by analysts are those with Alt-A loans, which were popular among people who were self-employed or whose income fluctuated. Alt-A loans came to be known as "liar loans" because so many lenders and borrowers did not provide accurate income data. Now, with unemployment rising, it's unclear whether many of those borrowers can afford their current mortgages, let alone higher payments should their rates jump.
n and his fifth wife, Elaine, have paid $1,225,000 for a two-bedroom apartment in their building, the Ritz Tower on Park Avenue, says the Observer. The seller is one Gloria Hirtz, who is listed in records as a retiree. Simon has had an apartment in the Ritz Tower since at least the 1970s. Will he get lost in the building? In 1999, he reportedly bought a bonus co-op in the building so he could have an office but then "changed his mind and decided that he prefers to work in Los Angeles," the Daily News said a year later. In 2005, he and his wife spent $1.1 million on another unit. The Ritz Tower, "built in 1925 as the city's most elegant apartment hotel," its Web site contends, clearly not shy about blowing its own horn. Offering housekeeping, valet and laundry services, the hotel has room service options that include grilled double lamb chops, steak au poivre with cognac, and peach melba. Fans of Broadway should spot allusions to three of Simon’s plays.
an deteriorate further,” the firm’s analysts wrote. “We believe a more permanent stabilization must await some resolution of the shadow inventory.” Nationwide, this “problem” represents a volume considerably larger than one year of existing home sales (5.2 million units). The 300,000 new units transitioning into the non-performing “bucket” have a low chance of eventual recovery, the report continued. “And to the extent that there is more home price depreciation (causing higher volume of defaults), the problem could escalate,” the analysts said. Acknowledging that they have ignored the fact that housing affordability has been restored and many first-time home buyers are taking advantage of the tax credit, they expressed the opinion that the housing overhang is the “single largest issue” inhibiting a housing recovery. 
