GOOD NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT, DON’T LET THE *** BITE The same week that the Department of Health published a consumer guide to fighting bed bugs, the Journal of Economic Entomology released a chilling case study that records where the nasty creatures travel, says BrickUnderground.com. In a report on a massive bed bug infestation in a Indianapolis 15-story low-income apartment building, nearly half of the units were infested within 41 months of the original problem, which likely started with a single resident who moved into a 12th floor apartment. Half of infested residents were completely unaware that they had bed bugs, luckily for them. Visual inspections alone failed to detect nearly half of the infestations. The most reliable detection method was the placement of dish-like bed bug traps, aka “interceptors," under furniture legs. Infested apartments tended to be right next door to each other (53 percent) or across the hall (45 percent). Bed bugs frequently strolled out of the front door of one apartment and into another on the same hallway. Bugs also found their ways through the building when infested furniture was discarded without wrapping it in plastic and by wheelchairs used in common areas. Pleasant dreams! NEIGHBORS HEAR THUMPING, MOANING, SCREAMING AT NIGHT Murder, it is not. A presumably whimsical and unscientific loud neighbor-sex survey by BrickUnderground.com discovered that two-thirds of apartment dwellers overheard a neighbor having sex and more than half wished they hadn't. But almost none complained. Hmmm. Of 407 people apartment dwellers surveyed, 68 percent reported hearing a neighbor having sex - thumping (60 percent), moaning (56 percent), screaming (28 percent) and “other” (23 percent). Other? Even though more than half of the respondents owned up to a negative reaction, 89 percent said they had never complained to their neighbor, the management or a staff member. Most people reported overhearing their neighbors’ moments of passion in the evening (29 percent) or the middle of the night (46 percent). While most respondents (88 percent) said they’d never been on the receiving end of . . . a loud-sex complaint, about a quarter acknowledged that they try to keep quiet. A third said it depended on their blood alcohol content. The “it” is unexplained. You read this to the end, just like the previous item, right? PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE CREATES UNIT AGANST FINANCIAL CRIMES The Manhattan district attorney's office says it is launching a new initiative to combat financial crimes, according to the Real Deal. The new Major Economic Crimes Bureau will be created by consolidating the Frauds Bureau and the Investigation Division Central. It will target mortgage fraud, among other financial crimes. On another front, a citywide alert system on loan scams also has been unveiled. The city’s Department of Consumer Affairs has partnered with NeighborWorks America on a program to educate distressed homeowners about predatory lending. BROKER IS ACCUSED OF DISCRIMINATING AGAINST BLACKS A real estate broker barred black people from two large "racially segregated enclaves" in the Bronx, telling them that residents of Silver Beach Gardens and Edgewater Park are "kind of prejudiced" and the co-ops are "Archie Bunker territory," the Fair Housing Justice Center claims in Federal Court, according to Courthouse News. The New York City-based nonprofit contends that the co-ops, “in conjunction with a real estate broker who has worked on their behalf for nearly half a century, together ensure that their communities stay white by effectively barring people of color through a policy that is 'strictly enforced' only for minorities, while it is effectively waived for white applicants." Although the co-ops “purport to 'require' three references” from existing residents, the complaint said that the stricture is “not truly applied to whites, who are told that a seller or the sellers' friends - whom the applicants do not otherwise know - can provide the 'references.’” The complaint said broker Amelia Lewis told two African-American testers that "there's no way you're going to get in there." Unlike white testers, the complaint continues, the black ones were not given the opportunity to view available properties and were steered away from the communities because “there are very few people of ‘any kind of ... ethnic color' living at the co-ops." CHURCH TURNS PRUNING HOOKS INTO VERBAL SPEARS With West-Park Presbyterian church facing an overwhelming repair bill for its iconic red sandstone building at 86th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, the Observer reports that the congregation wants to persuade the City Council of taking the highly unusual action of overturning a designation by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Enlisting the help of New York's broader Presbyterian community, the church leadership has requested that pastors and their members lobby the Council to reverse the new designation by what it refers to as the LPC. "If you and your fellow City Council members approve the LPC's action, every church, synagogue, mosque, temple and religious institution across the city will not be safe from the actions of marauding preservationists," a suggested letter from the church’s supporters reads. "The LPC's recommendation solely benefits a handful of neighborhood preservation groups who are not members of West-Park's congregation.” RACCOONS IN CENTRAL PARK EXPOSE 2 INDIVIDUALS TO RABIES The city’s Health Department says one person walking around the northern edge of Central Park was bitten by an aggressive and possibly rabid raccoon, according to WestsideIndependent.com. Another person attempted to help a sick raccoon on the West side of the park in the 70’s likely was exposed after putting fingers in the raccoon’s mouth to give it water. And a dog was exposed after tussling with such a masked animal. Since the beginning of the year, 39 raccoons have been found with rabies in Manhattan, 37 of them in and around Central Park and two in Morningside Park. Saying there could be hundreds of the critters in the park, where they have no natural predators, the department began vaccinating raccoons in Central, Morningside, and Riverside parks this week and plans to continue doing so for up to two more months. Keep your distance, immediately wash any wounds if bitten and call 311, the department says. THERE’S HOPE IF SOMEONE WAKES YOU FOR THE WRONG REASON You no longer need to be shackled to your partner’s annoying sleeping preferences (see NEIGHBORS HEAR. . . above) if you buy one of the pricy beds displayed and tested at the winter Las Vegas Market furniture show, reports the New York Times in an amusing piece. If he or she wants the bed warmer than you like it, you can make your side cooler. If he or she wants the mattress softer, you can order it half-and-half, like a pizza, firm on one side for you, softer for him or her. Your beloved keeps you up all night with tortured breathing? A new bed might be the answer. Indeed, with unit sales were down 6.6 percent in 2009 compared with the previous year, the options might prove to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel of insomnia. In a panel discussion with top executives from Serta, Simmons and Sealy, chaired by David Perry, the bedding editor at Furniture/Today, an industry magazine, no one predicted a dramatic recovery in the coming year. Furniture/Today’s own forecast for 2010 is that mattress sales will increase by 2.5 percent. IF YOU LOVE YOUR CAT, HATE ITS BOX, THERE ARE OPTIONS There are several ways to hide a cat box under a sink, says the Washington Post. Search "cat box" on the Ikea Hacker blog to see how a few people adapted stock sink cabinets to accommodate litter boxes. Basically, the owners installed a cat door on the side or front.Inside one sink cabinet, mounted drawer slides support a false bottom. ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY PAINTS HAVE PLUSES, MINUSES Testing 10 brands of “green” paints, which are very low in, or free of, volatile organic compounds, or V.O.C.s, a New York Times writer found that Farrow & Ball Estate Emulsion ($80 a gallon) went on easily and smelled of wet cement but would be best for low-traffic areas. Yolo Colorhouse Interior No-Voc ($44.95) proved to be one of the easiest paints to clean, though it had a slightly sour odor that dissipated quickly and a chalky finish. Safecoat Zero Voc Flat ($49.95) was thicker than most, went on smoothly, had a pleasant smell and cleaned up well. Benjamin Moore Natura ($49.99) can be tinted 3,000 shades, went on smoothly and was relatively easy to clean. Mythic interior flat latex ($49.99 a gallon), which comes in dynamic colors, has a nicely flat finish, smells mildly of ammonia smell and was easy to clean. Stark Paint Velvet Emulsion, at 212-752-9000, ($76.70) is a creamy paint that went on smoothly and smelled of mild ammonia. DOES THE COST OF MOVING OUTWEIGH THAT OF RENOVATING In its latest report on the cost of renovation versus the value returned, Remodeling magazine found a continuing downward trend. Last year’s overall cost-value ratio was 67.3 percent, down 2.7 points from 2008, while the 2010 ratio is 63.8 percent, a 3.5-point difference, the magazine said. CONTRACTORS SAY THE OUTLOOK FOR REMODELING IS GRIM Market conditions for residential remodeling tumbled during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to the latest National Association of Home Builders' (NAHB) Remodeling Market Index (RMI). The current market conditions index fell to 36.4 on a scale of 100 from 39.8 in the third quarter. The index of future indicators dropped to 31.4 from 38.7. Any number below 50 indicates that more remodelers say market conditions are getting worse than report improving conditions. The RMI has been running below 50 since the final quarter of 2005. "Like new home construction, remodelers are feeling the effects of consumers' uncertain job future, their level of confidence and unwillingness to spend their equity or savings,” remarked NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “Competition from new home construction workers entering the remodeling market and unemployed contractors has stretched an already thin customer base." IF GRIMY GROUT GOES AGAINST YOUR GRAIN, READ THIS Try scrubbing the floors with an alkaline cleaner such as Simple Green, Spic and Span or Mr. Clean, the Washington Post counsels readers. Dishwasher and clothes detergents also are alkaline. Wipe up the residue, or, even better, whisk it away with a Shop-Vac. (You have one, don’t you?) Then go over the floor with water and wipe or vacuum that up, too. If the grout still doesn't look clean, try pouring on hydrogen peroxide (the 3 percent solution sold at drug and grocery stores). Let it sit on the floor for about 15 minutes, then wipe it up. For stubborn stains, the Tile Council of North America, a trade group, recommends using a steam cleaner, which you can rent. The council posts a good explanation of cleaning and sealing grout on its Web site. As a last resort, you can scrape or grind out the top part of the grout, then experience the inexplicable joy of applying fresh grout. Or instead of pouring hydrogen peroxide on the floor, you could pour vodka into a glass. HOW DO YOU SPELL O-B-S-E-S-S-I-V-E One way to spell the word might be "The Museum of the Hearth and Kitchen." Joel Schiff is eager to establish such a museum, so eager that his one-bedroom apartment in the East Village is crammed with culinary equipment, says the Wall Street Journal. His idea is to trace the history of premodern cooking, from the stone-age until about 1950, with exhibits, re-enactments (for example, Conestoga wagon cooking) and an on-site restaurant where chefs prepare meals using bygone techniques. Much of such a museum's future collection is stuffed into Schiff's 850-sf apartment, where the space is dominated by waffle irons, skillets, bread pans, coffee roasters, chocolate pots, broilers and other antique or obscure pieces of cast-iron cookware that Schiff has accumulated living there for the past four decades. The few bits of furniture - a couch, some bookshelves - seem to function as spots to rest cast iron. “I stopped counting 10 years ago at approximately 7,000 pieces," he said. While many pieces are held in storage units, his collection at home ranges from a bread pan shaped like an ear of corn to a rare combination omelet-and-egg poacher and a cast-iron lollipop mold in the shape of Jesus on the cross. "It boggles the mind," he said of the mold. Indeed. DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE FED’S RATES RISE The Federal Reserve raised the interest rate it charges on short-term loans to banks on Thursday, the New York Times reports. It also raised the minimum bid rate for its term auction facility, to 0.50 percent from 0.25 percent. “The modifications are not expected to lead to tighter financial conditions for households and businesses and do not signal any change in the outlook for the economy or for monetary policy,” the Fed said in its statement. Afterward, President Dennis P. Lockhart of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta added that “the public and markets should not misinterpret today’s move.” Said he: “Monetary policy, as evidenced by the Fed funds rate target, remains accommodative. This stance is necessary to support a recovery that is in an early stage and, in my view, still fragile.” RATES HOVER NEAR RECORD LOWS AFTER DIPPING AGAIN The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.93 percent for the week, down from 4.97 percent the prior week and 5.04 percent at the same time last year. The 15-year FRM was 4.33 percent in comparison with last week’s 4.34 percent and last year’s 4.68 percent. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) averaged 4.12 percent, down from 4.19 percent; a year ago, it was 5.04 percent. The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM fell to 4.23 percent from 4.33 percent last week and 4.80 percent last year. REFINANCING ESCAPES MILLIONS OF HOMEOWNERS The refinancing wave that swept the nation when mortgage rates hit historic lows last year is petering out, leaving behind millions of homeowners who could not qualify for the best rates, according to the Washington Post. Half of the nation's borrowers have mortgages with rates above 6 percent even though the average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages has been about 5 percent for most of the past year, says research firm First American CoreLogic. Many borrowers who tried to refinance have found they're stuck because the value of their homes has tumbled and their equity has melted away. Others have been shut out because lenders tightened their requirements, demanding stellar credit, low debt and evidence of steady income. "We've reached the point of burnout,” Amy Crews Cutts, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac told the newspaper. "Most of the people who can refinance today have done so already." PAYMENTS ON MORE JUMBO MORTGAGES ARE SERIOUSLY LATE U.S. prime jumbo mortgages at least 60 days late backing securities reached 9.6 percent in January from 9.2 percent in December, the 32nd straight increase for “serious delinquencies,” according to Fitch Ratings, says Bloomberg News. “The trend line for delinquencies indicates the 10 percent level could be reached as early as next month,” remarked Vincent Barberio, a Fitch managing director. The rate almost tripled in 2009, Fitch said. In the estimation of the TransUnion credit agency, total mortgage loan delinquency increased for the 12th straight quarter, reaching a record national high of 6.89 percent in the last quarter and 10.24 percent more than the prior quarter’s average. "We believe that the 60-day mortgage delinquency rate will peak between 7.5 and 8 percent over the course of 2010, depending on the prevailing economic conditions associated with the housing market," said F.J. Guarrera, a TransUnion vice president. OVERALL FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY RISES 15% IN A YEAR RealtyTrac says default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were reported on 315,716 U.S. properties during January, a decrease of nearly 10 percent from the previous month but still 15 percent above the level reported in January 2009. The report also shows that one in every 409 housing units received a foreclosure filing in January. LENDERS ARE HIRING AGAIN Following three years of job losses when more than 100,000 positions were eliminated, mortgage employment expanded last year, according to new findings by Mortgage Daily.com. During 2009, net mortgage employment increased by 8,321 jobs, based on the Web site’s index. Hirings during 2009 were 30,899, outpacing 22,578 U.S. layoffs. Looking at just the fourth quarter, 2,995 U.S. layoffs were exceeded by 5,849 mortgage hirings. In New York, there was a net loss of 500 positions during the fourth quarter, the worst performance of any state. By company, Bank of America's 2,500 fourth-quarter hirings were greater than any other U.S. lender. Wells Fargo wasn’t far behind. LOAN APPLICATIONS DROP FROM PREVIOUS WEEK Mortgage loan application volume decreased 2.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending Feb. 12 from one week earlier, reports the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). On an unadjusted basis, the change was -0.5 percent. Refinance applications slipped 1.2 percent, and purchase applications fell 4.0 percent from one week earlier, seasonally adjusted. Unadjusted, purchase loans went up 1.0 percent, but that category was 18.4 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The refinance share of mortgage activity dipped to 69.3 percent of total applications from 69.7 percent the previous week, and the adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity edged down to 4.4 percent from 4.5 percent. SPEC HOUSING CONSTRUCTION IS UNDER WAY AGAIN Home builders are ramping up speculative construction to attract last-minute home buyers who want to tap a soon-to-expire tax credit, says the Wall Street Journal. "We know that we're going to have more people out now," says Lance Wright, co-owner of CastleRock Communities in Houston. "Buying is an emotional decision. Seeing the actual product that you're moving into will certainly make it easier." Extended and expanded, the current credit - which offers first-time buyers up to $8,000 and repeat purchasers up to $6,500 - applies only to deals signed by April 30 and closed by June 30. Houses typically take between four and six months to build, so the window to start construction is closing quickly. At the end of 2009, there were 234,000 homes for sale, the lowest level since April 1971, according to the National Association of Home Builders. IRONICALLY, MORTGAGE GROUP SELLS ITS NEW HQ AT A LOSS CoStar Group, a provider of commercial real estate data, has agreed to buy for $41.3 million 10-story Washington, D.C.’s headquarters of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), reports the Wall Street Journal. The price is well below the $79 million that the trade group says it paid for the glass-walled building in 2007 and falls short of the $75 million of financing that the MBA received from a group of banks led by PNC Financial Services. John Courson, chief executive officer of the trade group, declined to tell the Journal whether the MBA would pay off the full loan amount. “We’re not going to discuss the financing,” he said. The MBA will rent elsewhere in Washington, a spokeswoman said, adding that a new space had yet to be found. "It's a little bit of irony that in the middle of the mortgage crisis brought on by the bad lending practices of many members of the Mortgage Bankers Association that they got caught up in the same problem," Dean Baker, co-director of the liberal research group Center for Economic and Policy Research, told The Washington Post. IS CANADA FACING A HOUSING BUBBLE Canada's housing recovery has been so rapid that some there are worrying about a bubble. A housing-price index for Canada's six biggest cities posted its seventh straight monthly gain, showing that home prices in November are now back to their pre-recession peak. The index of major cities rose 90 percent between 2000 and mid-2008 but fell only 9 percent during the slump. Another broader measure has the average home price in 2009 hitting a record. Average home prices have risen 23 percent from their trough in January 2009, and home-sales volume is up 70 percent over the same period. Home building has picked up too, with housing starts in December jumping to their highest level since October 2008. Some observers foresee trouble. "It's a mania. It's going to end badly," says Garth Turner, a former cabinet member who just published a book predicting that prices of real estate and other assets will fall. DEADLINE TO OBTAIN HOMEBUYER TAX CREDIT IS APRIL 30 Taxpayers can still act to claim a credit of up to $8,000 for buying a home, the New York Times reminds readers in a detailed and helpful piece. That credit is available to what the law calls “first-time home buyers,” defines them having not owned a primary residence in the three years before the purchase. In addition, for the period of Nov. 7, 2009, through April 30 of this year, the law provides what is called a longtime resident credit of up to $6,500. It is for people who buy a primary residence that costs no more than $800,000, provided that they have owned a home and used it as their primary residence for at least five consecutive years of the eight previous years. HARVARD WANTS YOU. . . TO BUY ITS REAL ESTATE Harvard University's $26 billion endowment is looking to unload a chunk of its $5 billion real-estate portfolio as it seeks better investment opportunities and reduced exposure to the troubled property market, says the Wall Street Journal. The university's endowment is willing to sell any part of its $5 billion of real-estate assets and accompanying future capital commitments, according to people familiar with the matter. That figure represents $2 billion in property holdings and an additional $3 billion in future commitments to those assets. A report in September from the company that manages the endowment, which is the nation’s largest, says that Harvard's real-estate portfolio suffered a loss of more that 50 percent. Go Crimson! HE WAVES GREEN FLAG TO SALE OF HIS CHELSEA LOFT Jimmie Johnson, who made history last year when he won his fourth consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, has just sold his 3,200-sf loft in Chelsea for $4 million at a loss after closing costs, reports the New York Times. Johnson paid $3.975 million for the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath condo in 2007. He put it on the market last March for $4.395 million, eventually cutting the price to $4.25 million. Apparently the loss is chump change: He recently closed on another three-bedroom three-and-a-half bath condo, this one for $8.33 million, at Superior Ink, a new complex with a 61-unit building and seven town houses at West 12th and West streets. He and his wife Chandra, a former model who is expecting their first child, make their primary home in Charlotte, N.C. THE MATERIAL GIRL JUST CAN’T STOP The singer formerly known as Madge recently picked up Kelly Klein's 30-acre horse farm in Bridgehampton, and the New York Post says she's found a rental property in East Hampton to use as a home base while she's there. (Klein's farm doesn't come with a house, even though it cost around $10 million.) Her new retreat is a six-bedroom English stucco estate on Lily Pond Lane called "Coxwould." It has manicured gardens, wisteria-clad arbors, a pool, guest house and private access to the ocean. Neighbors include Mort Zuckerman, Martha Stewart and Jerry della Femina. DIRECTOR DISCOVERS THAT ALL HANGOVERS AREN’T SO BAD Todd Phillips had purchased financier Ryan Kavanaugh’s Malibu beach home for $9 million, says the Wall Street Journal. The director of last year's hit comedy "The Hangover," "Old School" and "Starsky & Hutch" will be able to unwind in a 3,000-sf home with three bedrooms, a deck and frontage on a private beach. ONE FASHIONABLE ITALIAN ESTATE IS NOW ON THE MARKET Giancarlo Giammetti, the longtime companion of Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, is asking the equivalent of $24.7 million for his 27-acre Tuscan estate, according to the Wall Street Journal. The 11-bedroom villa, in the hill town of Cetona about 110 miles north of Rome, was the vacation home for the couple for nearly 25 years. They oversaw the restoration of the five-story, 18th-century dwelling, which has a gym, sauna and pool house. The gated property also has a 200-seat amphitheater and grottos with stalactites and stalagmites. Olive groves and orchards dot the hilly wooded estate. There are wine cellars that, if restored, could hold 13,000 bottles. Giammetti is selling because the couple is spending most of their time in New York, London and Gstaad, Switzerland. SOME BUYERS MAY VIEW HIS PROPERTY AS STIGMATIZED Celebrity turntablist Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein died from an accidental drug overdose in his One Kenmare Square apartment last August, notes Curbed.com. Now the 1,147-sf condo in an André Balazs-development on the Soho/Nolita border is on the market for 1.795 million - $200,000 less than Goldstein paid in 2007. The apartment's only owner before Goldstein was killed in a motorcycle crash. TRANSPLANT OF A TALL, LANKY GUY SEEMS WELL ROOTED Conan O'Brien's duplex penthouse on Central Park West is quietly being shopped around with a $35 million price tag, according to the New York Post. The south-facing co-op in the twin-towered Majestic at West 72nd Street comes with three terraces and dramatic park views. The apartment is a combination of an 18th-floor penthouse that O'Brien bought in 2007 for about $10 million and the combined-unit residence that he and his wife Liza already owned on the 17th floor. HERE’S WHERE TO FIND A ‘COP’ WHEN YOU NEED HIM Benjamin Bratt and his former wife Talisa Soto recently purchased a $2.5 million loft at 43 W. 13th St., city records show, says the Observer. They purchased the three-bedroom apartment from Chipotle's chief marketing officer, Michael Crumpacker, for the listing price of $2.5 million three weeks after it went on the market last fall. The place has oversize windows, 13-foot ceilings and a sweeping, mainly open floorplan. SENATE HOPEFUL ALSO IS A SALE HOPEFUL The co-op occupied by Harold Ford and his wife Emily, who purchased their co-op in 1960 with the help of her mother, went on the market last summer and recently had its asking priced reduced by $90,000, says Gawker.com. The loft at 105 Fifth Ave. in the Flatiron District has one bedroom, two baths and 11-foot ceilings. For $1.4 million, the place can be yours, especially if walls of canary yellow and Caribbean turquoise are to your taste. A BRIT DEPARTS FOR THE COLONIES English pop musician Vince Clarke, a founding member of Depeche Mode, Yaz and Erasure, is asking the equivalent of $3.1 million for his home in Surrey, England, according to the Wall Street Journal. Clarke, 49, had the circular, terraced glass-and-concrete home built around 1990 about 20 miles west of London. "I'm a fan of modern architecture," says the musician, adding that the home was a nice change from the Victorian-style architecture he'd grown used to while living in London. The three-bedroom home on 5.6 acres has a lower ground floor with an indoor pool. There are spiral glass staircases, windows that tint at a touch and a recording studio. Clarke says he's selling because he and his wife, publicist Tracy Hurley, are living in Maine with their son. WELL, THIS MUST BE A REALLY BIG HOUSE Tom Hanks has purchased the contemporary Pacific Palisades home of veteran producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, reports the Los Angeles Times. The sales price was listed at slightly more than $26 million at Blockshopper.com, a news and market data service. Property records show that the 14,513-sf house, built in 1996, has four bedrooms and five bathrooms. FORMER MAYOR BUYS CONDO ON THE BOTTOM RIGHT COAST Rudolph W. Giuliani and his wife Judith purchased for $1.4 million a condominium at the Southlake in Palm Beach, according to the Palm Beach Daily News. The apartment was owned by the Jean Daniels Cluett Trust, which bought the approximately 2,000-sf three-bedroom apartment overlooking the Midtown Marina in 2003 for $1.25 million. Cluett died in 2006; her husband, David Grenfell Cluett, died in November. In 2004, the Giulianis bought an apartment at the Palm Beach Towers for $410,000. THIS IS NOWHERE THAT SHE WANTS TO LAY HER HEAD Scarlett Johansson has listed a walled and gated Spanish villa in the Hollywood Hills for $4.95 million, says the Los Angeles Times. The recently restored and remodeled house, built in 1931, has four bedrooms and five and a half baths in about 4,300 square feet. The grounds include nearly three-quarters of an acre with gardens, terraces and a swimming pool. Rooms on the main level open to a glass-topped central atrium. The house has a period-style kitchen with original tile, a maid's quarters that could be used for a media room or a gym, and a basement. Johansson, 25, purchased the property in 2007 from director-producer Harold Becker for $7 million, public records show. HE’S COOKED UP A NEW PLACE TO LIVE Chef Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and his wife Sandra, a real estate broker, have sold their two-bedroom combined apartment at 345 E. 80th St. and are moving to a three-bedroom pad at 515 E. 72nd St., according to the New York Post. That building has amenities such as a pool, spa and racquetball/squash/basketball court. Ripert, a big supporter of Tibet who meditates daily, will be transforming one of the rooms in his new home into a meditation room filled with some of the precious Buddhas that he collects. DATA FIRM RECORDS 1st DECEMBER PRICE INCREASE IN 6 YEARS Radar Logic says prices went up between November and December for the first time since 2004 and that transaction volume in 25 metropolitan areas increased 44 percent relative to December 2008. The real estate data and analysis company also reports that sales of foreclosed homes increased as a percentage of total sales during early December, reversing the trend during the prior two months. But December’s transaction count declined 11 percent from November in the first significant month-over-month decline since January 2009. “Most signs point to a return to more normal activity in housing markets,” said CEO Michael Feder. “While we are still exposed to inventory swings and financing constraints, a continued recovery this spring looks likely.” Focusing on SoHo and TriBeCa in Manhattan, the firm’s report found that transactions in the neighborhoods were 82 percent below their May 2007 peak in December. Units below $1 million and above $3 million had extremely low activity. The full report is available. AND ANOTHER FIRM REPORTS A ONE-YEAR DECLINE Home prices, including distressed sales, declined by 3.7 percent in December 2009 compared with December 2008, according to First American CoreLogic and its LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI). The data collection and analysis firm noted “a significant improvement” over November’s year-over-year price decline of 5.3 percent. Excluding distressed sales, those prices slipped in December by 3.3 percent in contrast to November’s drop of 5.0 percent. “This improvement is taking place as the real estate market is getting further from the period of peak distress in home prices,” CoreLogic said. “On a month-over-month basis the national average of home prices declined moderately, falling by 1.0 percent in December 2009 compared to November 2009, indicating seasonal slowing in a fledging housing recovery.” Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to December 2009) was -28.2 percent; excluding distressed properties, the peak-to-current change in the HPI was -21.5 percent. NAR CITES STRONG FOURTH-QUARTER STATISTICS The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reports that sales increased from the third quarter in 48 states and the District of Columbia, with 32 states posting double-digit gains. Year-over-year sales were higher in 49 states and D.C.; all but three states had double-digit annual increases.Re-sales of single-family homes and of apartments jumped 13.9 CONSTRUCTION OF NEW HOMES IS UP, PERMITS ARE DOWN The Commerce Department says that housing starts in January were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 591,000, 2.8 percent below December and 21.1 percent higher than one year earlier. Single-family home construction rose by 1.5 percent above December, and multifamily starts posted a 9.2 percent gain. Overall permit issuance, which can be an indicator of future building activity, fell 4.9 percent entirely owing to a 23 percent decline in multifamily issuance that offset a big gain in the sector during the previous month. Single-family permits held virtually even, with a 0.4 percent gain. SIGNS APPEAR THAT THE DOWN CYCLE MIGHT BE SHIFTING According to the Fed's most recent "flow of funds" survey, reports Kenneth R. Harney in the Washington Post, homeowners' net equity grew by nearly $1 trillion from the recession's nadir in the first quarter of 2009 through the third quarter. From June 30 to Sept. 30, net equity rose by $418 billion. After three years of unprecedented shrinkage in home equity - and three years of rapid expansions in the number of underwater borrowers with negative equity - those are signs that the down cycle may be shifting. However, mortgage market analyst Laurie Goodman, senior managing director of Amherst Securities, recently warned lenders to be especially vigilant about borrowers in markets where negative-equity ratios are high because, in her view, they are prime candidates to walk away from their loans. Once underwater borrowers miss a payment on their mortgage, Goodman said, there is a 75-80 percent probability they will chuck the whole deal. Borrowers with even minimal positive equity, on the other hand, are far less likely to do the same. BUILDERS ARE FEELING A TINY LITTLE BIT BETTER Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes rose two points to 17 (on a scale of 100) in February to its highest level since November, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). "Builders are just beginning to see the anticipated effects of the home buyer tax credit on consumer demand," said Chief Economist David Crow of the builder’s group. "Meanwhile, another source of encouragement is the improving employment market, which is key to any sustainable economic or housing recovery. That said, several limiting factors are still weighing down builder expectations, including the large number of foreclosed homes on the market, the lack of available credit for new and existing projects, and inappropriately low appraisals tied to the use of distressed properties as comps." RISK OF FALLING HOUSE PRICES MAY HAVE PEAKED There are increasing signs that house price risk has stopped rising, according to an index reported by PMI, a huge mortgage insurance firm. Its U.S. Market Risk Index was little changed in the third quarter of 2009 from the second quarter, suggesting, the insurer said, that risk may have peaked. Of the 50 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the U.S., 22 had declines in risk while only 17 had increases in the third quarter. By almost all measures, house prices stabilized to a considerable degree in the second and third quarters of 2009 - and monthly data through November confirm this stabilization continued into the fourth quarter. The biggest concerns continue to be high unemployment rates and rising foreclosures. But home price stabilization and significantly better new mortgage credit quality in 2009 have roughly offset the potential rise in risk recently, said PMI, which had forecast the housing crash early on. ECONOMISTS VARY ON HOW MUCH MORTGAGE RATES WILL CLIMB The Federal Reserve is poised to turn off a major money spigot that has helped sustain the ailing real estate sector, says the San Francisco Chronicle. The extraordinary program under which the Fed has pumped $1.25 trillion into the mortgage market is slated to end March 31. Says Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody's Economy.com: "This spring and summer as those policy efforts unwind, we most likely will see mortgage rates move higher and more house-price declines." In the view of Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, rates will climb a full percentage point initially from around 5 percent today. And Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH Associates, which compiles mortgage loan data, says that rates will slowly rise to about 5.75 percent after the Fed withdraws. "Right now the Fed is acting as a sponge, absorbing about $12 billion a week of what you might consider excess supply," he contends. "When they stop, the market will have to pick up some chunk of change." Christopher Thornberg, principal at Beacon Economics in Los Angeles, adds that “when they stop printing all that money, it's going to be a shock to the system.” He expresses the expectation that rates could rise to 6-7 percent. DATA COMPANY FORECASTS CONTINUED PRICE DECLINES First American CoreLogic continues to project declining house prices into the spring months. Its LoanPerformance Home Price Index (HPI) is forecast to fall an average of 4.4 percent through April 2010 as high levels of unemployment, housing inventories and foreclosures exert more downward pressure on prices. The forecast indicates that April will be a critical month for the housing market, given the current scheduled expiration of the federal homebuyer tax credit. The forecast model shows that the future path of house prices after April will be significantly affected by whether the tax credit is allowed to expire or is once again extended. Nationally, the HPI 12-month forecast is expected to be up 3.5 percent excluding distressed sales and up 2.7 percent including distressed sales by December 2010. "The housing market, after experiencing stabilization in many, but not all, markets in the spring and summer of 2009 is going through the typical seasonal winter malaise," said Chief Economist Mark Fleming. "The big unknown for the 2010 spring selling season continues to be the future of the federal home buyer tax credit." ECONOMIST FORECASTS A HOUSING SHORTGAGE, YES, SHORTAGE Brian Wesbury, chief economist at First Trust Advisors, tells Forbes that the nation needs 1.5 million houses per year “just to keep up with population growth." With fires, tear-downs and worn-out properties, the need is for another 1.6 million or more per year, he contends. “Right now,” says Wesbury, “we’re down to about six and a half, seven months’ inventory whether you look at new homes or existing homes." Although foreclosures are coming into the market, he adds, “we’re starting one-third of the houses we need just to keep up with population growth, and that can’t last." But Thesis Fund Management portfolio manager Stephen Roseman says the likelihood of a housing shortage is slim to none. "You need to have an accurate housing turnover number and right now we have anything but that," he says. The issue may be more with demand than supply, he suggests. "So at the high end, you have artificially low demand, and at the low end you have artificially high demand," Roseman observes. Is Central Park West Worth Its Premium? The answer must be “yes” if you have your heart set on living there. What can the listing broker and the seller be thinking? Even adjusting for the extra 200 square feet than the first apartment can claim, the price differential is indefensible. Traveling farther south to a pre-war co-op in an especially fancy building with 15th-floor views of the Dakota and Central Park beyond, you’ll find another apartment, an estate sale, with 2,000 square and only two baths. It, too, needs to be gut renovated. The neighborhood is pricier, the exposures are better, and the building is considered more desirable. It is on the market for $2.495 million with maintenance of $2,634 monthly, putting the place at least in some kind of ballpark. Then go north to the low 100s, farther than many buyers want to contemplate. There, a seven-room co-op on a high floor facing Central Park and needing relative pennies for cosmetic changes is listed at $2.375 million. The monthly maintenance is $2,551. It changed hands four years ago when listed for $1.995 million. What that means is that, given today’s market, this 2,000-sf pre-war apartment might be worth just a bit more than the price then. The lesson is that a buyer may well find a Central Park West apartment worth a premium - maybe it’s 10-15 percent more than a comparable one elsewhere if it looks over the park, which isn’t too likely to have a high-rise erected. Yet it would be extravagant to grant the mere wishes of sellers whose grasp on reality is questionable. It makes far more sense to wait for their dreams to become a nightmare of endless days on the market and only then to make those sellers an offer. Below are other properties listed by various brokers and seen recently:
Some of Manhattan's Latest Listings Please click here to view a sampling of properties newly listed by various brokers. 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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Activity of bank-owned property dropped 5 percent from the previous month but grew 31 percent over one year earlier. Default notices were down 12 percent from the previous month and up 4 percent over the year. Scheduled foreclosure auctions were off 11 percent from the previous month, up 15 percent from January 2009. Commented CEO James J. Saccacio: “If history repeats itself we will see a surge in the numbers over the next few months as lenders foreclose on delinquent loans where neither the existing loan modification programs or the new short sale and deed-in-lieu of foreclosure alternatives works.” The reports shows that the number of New York City residents at risk last month of losing their homes surged 35 percent compared with the prior year, the New York Daily News noted. In all, 1,825 homes in the five boroughs received some form of foreclosure notice, down 9.3 percent from December. "We are still in a crisis," said Michael Hickey, executive director of the Center for New York City Neighborhoods, which coordinates free housing counseling and legal services for New Yorkers. "We expect this to continue for the next three to four months before it plateaus."
