MANAGING AGENT ALLEGEDLY HAD HIS HANDS IN THE TILL A former managing agent for a collection of five Queens apartment buildings has been charged with embezzling nearly $950,000 in tenant-paid maintenance fees, according to the Queens district attorney's office, reports the Real Deal. The defendant, Michael Richter, and his company, Charter Management Realty, allegedly siphoned off the cash over a six-year period, concealing his scheme behind a lockbox bank account. "The defendant allegedly carried out his scheme like a Ponzi scam - commingling all of the funds into one account and hiding the thefts by paying the expenses of one client with the monies of other clients," said Queens Dist. Atty. Richard Brown. Richter was charged with larceny and falsifying business records. If convicted, he could spend as many as 15 years behind bars. MAY-TO-MAY PRICES MOSTLY FLAT IN THE REGION The Greater New York metro area's home prices stayed relatively flat year-over-year in May, according to real estate tracking firm CoreLogic, says the Real Deal. Including New York City, White Plains and Wayne, N.J., the region had average home prices dropping just 0.1 percent in comparison with the same month a year earlier. In the U.S., home prices went up 2.9 percent year-over-year, the fourth consecutive month of annual growth. Chief Economist Mark Fleming said the homebuyer tax credit explains the changes. "Given that the labor market and income growth remain tepid, we expect prices to moderate and possibly decline the rest of the year," he added. STEADY FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY REPORTED IN THE CITY Foreclosure activity in New York City was 3 percent higher in the first half of the year than it was during the first six months of 2009. Still, it was 24 percent below the prior six months, according to RealtyTrac.com, reports the Real Deal. "It's been a little bit of a roller coaster ride," said spokesperson Daren Blomquist. "Even though you see a big decrease from the previous six months, in most of the boroughs there's either a slight increase or maybe a big increase from a year ago, so that tells me we're not truly trending downward. Basically, things are staying steady." Q2 PRICES AND SALES RISE IN BROOKLYN AND QUEENS The median sales price of a Brooklyn property was $463,000 in the second quarter, 5 percent above the second quarter last year, according to the Miller Samuel appraisal firm. The price was somewhat below the $466,000 median in the first quarter, but it represented the first year-over-year increase since the third quarter of 2007 and showed diminishing quarterly declines over the past year. "This suggests that price levels have stabilized," commented CEO Jonathan Miller. Helped by the federal homebuyer tax credit, sales jumped 16.2 percent. In Queens, sales leaped 86.6 percent in the second quarter above the same quarter of 2009, while the median price dropped 7.5 percent to $335,000. In northwest Queens, which includes Long Island City, the median was $455,692, down 5.3 percent from the second quarter of 2009. UNEMPLOYMENT DIPS FOR SIXTH CONSECUTIVE MONTH The city's unemployment rate ticked down again in June, the sixth straight monthly decline, to 9.5 percent, the State Labor Department reports, according to the New York Times. The city added 8,300 jobs in the private sector last month, but it was only about 70 percent of the average gain over the last 10 Junes, said James Brown, principal economist. The strongest gains came in two of the most economically sensitive sectors: construction, and leisure and hospitality. There were approximately 5,000 more residents with jobs and 6,000 fewer residents without jobs than there had been in June 2009. A RENTAL UNIT MAY BE THE MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE CITY A $140,000 per month rental listing has hit the market at 100 E. 50th St., according to Streeteasy.com, likely ranking as the most expensive rental unit available in Manhattan, says the Real Deal. The six-bedroom, six-and-a-half-bath unit in the Waldorf Towers at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel is dubbed the "Cole Porter Apartment" in honor of its famed former resident. The composer lived in the unit 1934-1964. Fully furnished, the approximately 6,000-sf unit includes a marble entry gallery, wine refrigerator and over-sized bathtubs. It's available for a short- or long-term rental. But the apartment isn't Manhattan's only six-digit rental, according to Streeteasy.com. The second-most expensive one, a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath top-floor unit, also in the Waldorf Towers, is listed for $130,000 monthly, while a $120,000 per month unit is on the market at 230 W. 56th St. Eloise, take note. REBNY REPORTS 9% PRICE GAIN IN MANHATTAN OVER YEAR EARLIER
SALES IN THE HAMPTONS HAVE REBOUNDED IMPRESSIVELY Led by the Hamptons, the real estate market on Long Island East End had a 90 percent increase in second-quarter sales over the same period last year, according to a market report by the Miller Samuel appraisal firm, says the Real Deal. The number of sales on the East End, which includes the North and South forks and Shelter Island, leaped to 582, up from only 307 in the same period last year. While still down roughly 30 percent from the peak in 2007, the average sales price was $1.36 million, up 5.9 percent from the second quarter of 2010; the median, $775,000, was 4 percent higher than last year's second quarter. In the Hamptons, the average price edged up to $1.518 million from $1.5 million in the same period last year; the median was $900,000, a jump of nearly 17 percent. There were 479 sales, up more than 100 percent from the same period in 2009. RENTS IN MANHATTAN RISE AGAIN IN HOT SUMMER SEASON Rental prices are up again in Manhattan this month - 0.72 percent in month-to-month comparisons and 3.62 percent year-over-year - according to the Real Estate Group of New York. The numbers are in step with normal seasonal fluctuations. At the same time, inventories dipped by 0.78 percent and vacancies are especially hard to come by in larger units as new renters eager to find shares arrive in Manhattan. Vacancies are down close to 9 percent in non-doorman two-bedroom units. Landlords and property owners around Manhattan have pulled nearly all incentives from prime Manhattan units. No-fee deals are "few and far between," mostly found in the Financial District, the latest report observed. Studio units, where prices declined by approximately 1 percent this month, showed a decline in inventory of 5.10 percent. One- and two-bedroom units, where prices were up 0.33 percent and 1.41 percent, respectively, showed sharp increases in inventory of 7.27 percent and 13.35 percent. "So, while it seems that renters are still willing to pay a premium for service, they are more reluctant to take a unit not perceived to be a 'deal,'" the firm's report for July said. FORECLOSURES DROP IN ALL BOROUGHS BUT THE BRONX The number of scheduled foreclosure auctions in the second quarter declined citywide, except in the Bronx, according to data released by PropertyShark.com, says the Real Deal. While the volume fell 14 percent overall compared with the first quarter, the Bronx posted a 20 percent increase. Manhattan saw the sharpest drop in such auctions, 59 percent, followed by Brooklyn (13 percent), Queens (13 percent) and Staten Island (6 percent). Year-over-year, foreclosures in the Bronx rose 9 percent, while the other four boroughs had fewer. Manhattan's decline was 46 percent, and the quantity dropped 9 percent in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. Citywide, the decrease was 24 percent. CIT'S INTERACTIVE MAP NOW OFFERS HISTORIC AERIAL PHOTOS The city now includes detailed aerial photos from 1924, 1951 and 1996 on its interactive NYCityMap, allowing you to fast-forward through history with the click of a mouse. You can see how stadiums, slums, farms and docks became parking lots, Stuyvesant Town, houses and Battery Park City, notes Curbed.com. Just head to NYCityMap and click on the camera icon to bring up the slider that lets you go back in time. FED ECONOMISTS DECLARE END OF CITY'S RECESSION New York City is gradually recovering from a deep but surprisingly short recession that ended in November, say economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to the New York Times. In their view, the recession in the city that started in May 2008 ended in November 2009, approximately 18 months. New York Fed President William C. Dudley said that economic activity in the city and state had "expanded at a relatively brisk pace since the beginning of the year" but added that "the recovery is likely to be a bit bumpy." Jason Bram, a senior economist with the institution, said that after the last two deep recessions, the city’s recovery did not begin for a year or more after the national economy began to grow again. "This one appears to have been shallower and shorter than the last ones," he declared. WIN A CONDO IN THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT HGTV will be giving away an apartment and an Acura ZDX in a sweepstakes beginning Sept. 1, Curbed.com informs readers. The 900-sf apartment is in the Financial District’s W New York Downtown condo/hotel. For a chance to win the car and the one-bedroom, one-bath unit, which Vern Yip will design and have furnished, check out the photos starting Aug. 12. The package is said to be worth $1.5 million. RATES SLIP TO RECORD LOWS ONCE AGAIN The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 4.56 percent for the week, down from last week's 4.57 percent and 5.2 percent last year at the same time. The 15-year FRM was a record 4.03 percent in comparison with 4.06 percent last week and 4.68 percent last year. The five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) slipped to 3.79 percent from 3.85 percent the previous week and 4.74 percent one year earlier. The one-year Treasury-indexed ARM averaged 3.70 percent; it was 3.74 percent the week before and 4.77 percent last year. "The decline in mortgages rates over the past few weeks echoes the recent signs of weakening confidence in the strength of the economy, particularly the housing and consumer sectors," commented Chief Economist Frank Nothaft. LENDERS MAY NOT CHANGE APPRAISALS STARTING SEPT. 1 Effective Sept. 1, Fannie Mae is prohibiting lenders who sell it loans from changing appraisers' numbers, notes Kenneth R. Harney in the Washington Post. In guidance issued June 30, Fannie Mae said lenders must contact appraisers to "resolve" any disagreements about the valuation. If that's not possible, they should order a second appraisal - not just chop the value supporting the real estate contract. The vice chairman of the National Association of Realtors' Appraisal Committee, Frank Gregoire of St. Petersburg, Fla., says large numbers of legitimate home sales have been "sabotaged by lenders and underwriters arbitrarily reducing the value estimate" provided by the appraiser. WITH BABY ON WAY, SOME BORROWERS ARE REFUSED LOANS Mortgage lenders are taking a harder look at prospective borrowers whose income has temporarily fallen while they are on leave, including new parents at home taking care of a baby, notes the Wall Street Journal. Even if a parent plans on returning to work within weeks, some lenders are balking at approving the loans. Both Fannie and Freddie have always required that borrowers have enough income to pay for the loan on closing day - and the lender must document that the income is likely to continue for at least three years. But some lenders are interpreting the guidelines strictly for, say, a new mother receiving short-term disability insurance for a couple of months. Since the disability payments will not continue for three years, these lenders will not count it as qualifying income, brokers said, and will require the new mother to reapply for the mortgage once she returns to work. The same logic may apply to an injured employee receiving worker's compensation. After the piece appeared, HUD said that it would investigate the lending practices of certain lenders to see if any prospective borrowers had been illegally denied a mortgage for those reasons. FORECLOSURES IN FIRST HALF ARE 8% HIGHER THAN IN 2009 Default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions were 5 percent lower in the first six months of the year than in the preceding half year but 8 percent higher than in the same period of 2009, reports RealtyTrac.com. The report also shows that 1.28 percent of all U.S. housing units (one in 78) received at least one foreclosure filing in the first half of the year. In June, there was a nearly 3 percent decline from the previous month and 7 percent from June 2009. Default and auction notices were down on a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis in the second quarter, but bank repossessions (REOs) increased 5 percent from the previous quarter and 38 percent from Q2 2009, reaching a new quarterly high for the report. NEW FINANCIAL REGS OFFER A RANGE OF CONSUMER PROTECTIONS The financial-regulatory overhaul promises some big changes concerning how Americans go about getting a mortgage, the Wall Street Journal explains. The legislation offers more protections for consumers against risky or complex mortgages, but bankers say that with fewer choices and more safeguards, loans could be slightly more expensive. The upshot, says Howard Glaser, an industry consultant and Clinton administration housing official, is that consumers will have "safer" loans but fewer of borrowers will qualify. LOW RATES PUSH UP LOAN APPLICATIONS For the week ending July 16, mortgage loan application volume increased 7.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier, the Mortgage Bankers Association reports. On an unadjusted basis, the rise was 9.5 percent compared with the previous week, which included Independence Day. Refinance activity went up 8.6 percent to the highest level since the week ending May 15, 2009 and has climbed nearly 30 percent in four weeks without reaching last spring's peak. FORECLOSED PROPERTIES SELL FOR MUCH LESS THAN THOUGHT A foreclosure reduces the value of a home by 27 percent on average, according to an MIT study that examined 1.8 million home sales in Massachusetts from 1987 to 2009, says TheTruthAboutMortgage.com. The researchers weren't surprised to find that foreclosures were selling for a discount but were shocked by the amount. Other types of "forced sales" lowered home prices by much less: When a house was sold after the death of the owner, the price dropped only 5-7 percent, and when a homeowner declared bankruptcy, the price fell just 3 percent on average. The authors speculate that the tendency of foreclosed properties to into disrepair explains the disparity. MONEY MAGAZINE NAMES YET ANOTHER 100 CITIES AS TOPS Eden Prairie, Minnesota is highest in Money magazine's ranking of small cities. The publication says they boast plenty of jobs, great schools, safe streets, low crime, lots to do "and more." See Money's top 100 including detailed city profiles, homes for sale and job openings. A NEW, SOPHISTICATED TAKE ON RENT VS. BUY IS SUGGESTED While answering the big questions "Can we afford this?" and "Is the house in a good location?" may be relatively straightforward, other considerations are much more difficult to assess, observes Charles Hugh Smith in DailyFinance.com. The writer explores what he terms mobility vs. roots, security and community, homeowners as tax donkeys, and the effect of suburban isolation. COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY IS PICKING UP
MILLIONAIRE HEADS EAST FROM NYC TO BAG A RICH BEAU A stunning self-made millionaire says she's spending a record-breaking $500,000 for a two-week summer rental in the Hamptons in hopes of landing not a flounder but the love of her life, according to the New York Post. "The dating pool is much better here than in Florida!" Cheryl Mercuris, a 40-something divorcée from Tampa, told the newspaper in explaining her decision to rent a Bridgehampton estate for a staggering $1,488 an hour. The blond beauty, the Post's words, rented Sandcastle, a spectacular mansion that is now on the market for $49.5 million. She's sharing it with her 6-year-old son, her young nephew and her parents. Sandcastle is not on the ocean, but it does have 14 bedrooms, 19 baths, two-lane bowling alley, squash court, professional spa, rock-climbing wall and 12 scenic acres for roaming around. They'll just have to make do. LATE DIVA'S APARTMENT HITS THE MARKET The three-bedroom Central Park West apartment of the Beverly Sills, who died in Manhattan in 2007 at age 78, is being sold by her daughter, Meredith Holden Greenough, at an asking price of $6.995 million, says the New York Times. She and the Sills lived in the co-op in the Beresford, at 211 Central Park West, for some 40 years. With views of Central Park, the unit has herringbone floors, high ceilings and an intricate, decorative fireplace. There also are pictures of the diva in full costume and on the covers of magazines. The Grammy she won in 1976 sits by a floral arrangement in the entryway, and an award Sills received from the Kennedy Center is on display in the dining room. THERE WAS NO RUSH TO PURCHASE THIS CONDO A year after railing about the high tax burden on wealthy New Yorkers, Rush Limbaugh has sold his appallingly over-decorated Fifth Avenue penthouse to an undisclosed buyer, according to the Wall Street journal. The 10-room condominium, which features a 30-foot-wide living room with fireplace plus four terraces overlooking Central Park at East 86th Street, went into contract for $11.5 million, a broker said. Limbaugh paid just under $5 million for the apartment, as well as a maid's room and a storage locker, in 1994. Where the maid had to sleep was undisclosed. He put the full-floor apartment on the market in February with an asking price of $13.95 million and ultimately reduced it to $12.95 million. IN MANHATTAN, YOU CAN FIND ONE WHEN YOU NEED ONE "Ugly Betty" star Becki Newton and her husband, Broadway and television actor Chris Diamantopoulos, who has lately worked on "24" and "The Starter Wife," have been expecting. . . to sell their one-bedroom apartment at 175 W. 93rd St. for nearly two months, reports New York magazine. They're also, according to People magazine, expecting a baby and work on the West Coast. And they've found a buyer! (Not of the baby.) HE'S GAMBLING ON THE HIGH LIFE Steve Wynn, the casino developer and chairman of Wynn Resorts, has purchased one of the largest penthouses at the Plaza Hotel after a previous owner walked out on a contract to buy the apartment, brokers told the Wall Street Journal. The exact purchase price was not known, but the sale closed for approximately $1 million below the $24 million asking price. The 5,600-sf apartment had gone into contract in 2007, when the Plaza was in the midst of a huge renovation and condominium conversion. At the time, the apartment was listed for $31 million. But the buyer, identified in court only as a limited-liability company, backed out in late 2008. The nine-room apartment is entered on the Plaza's 20th floor. A circular staircase and private elevator lead to a rooftop extension, with a terrace facing Central Park. RESTAURATEUR STAKES $1.5 MILLION ON VILLAGE APARTMENT Charlie Palmer, four-time Michelin star winner and the restaurateur behind the Upper East Side's Aureole, has purchased a $1.5 million apartment in the desirable Devonshire House, at 28 E. 10th St., reports the Observer. YOU WOULD BE ILL-ADVISED TO HOLD UP THIS SELLER Robert Benton, who wrote the screenplay for "Bonnie and Clyde" and was the writer and director of "Kramer v. Kramer," has put on the market his 5,000-sf home built on a point jutting into Georgica Pond in the Hamptons, says the Wall Street Journal. Price: $29.9 million. In the hamlet of Wainscott in the town of East Hampton, the property has 724 feet of frontage on the large coastal lagoon and bird sanctuary. It has a view across a sandbar to the ocean about three-quarters of a mile away, four bedrooms, a 40-foot-wide great room, heated swimming pool, landscaped lawns, bluestone terraces and a three-car garage. THIS LISTING SOUNDS LIKE A TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT Boxing promoter Don King has taken off the market his nearly three-acre oceanfront estate in Manalapan, Fla., says the Wall Street Journal. Its two homes were listed in early 2009 for $13.75 million each. King bought the nine-bedroom main house of nearly 18,000 square feet for $7.8 million in 1999. The same year, he paid $6.5 million for the roughly 9,000-sf guest house, which has five bedrooms and an ice-cream parlor. There's a replica of the Statue of Liberty in the backyard. Approximately 10 miles south of West Palm Beach, the gated estate includes two pools, goldfish pond and a retractable staircase that leads to the beach. Each house has 150 feet of ocean frontage but no boxing ring. "It's too much room for me and my wife," says King, 78. He explains that he took the houses off the market because he kept receiving low-ball offers. Saying that he's still willing to consider offers, he allows, "Then I could get into more humble digs." HOME PRICES CONTINUE TO GAIN OVER 2009 U.S. home prices, including distressed sales, increased by 2.9 percent compared with the same month last year, according to CoreLogic in its monthly index, says Realtor magazine. May was the fourth straight month prices showed a year-over-year increase. "Home price appreciation stabilized as homebuyer tax credit-driven sales peaked in late spring," remarked Chief Economist Mark Fleming. "But given that the labor market and income growth remain tepid, we expect prices to moderate and possibly decline the rest of the year." BUT A QUARTER OF HOMES ON THE MARKET HAVE HAD PRICE CUTS Twenty-four percent of listings currently on the market as of July 1 have experienced at least one price reduction, a 9 percent increase from the previous month, reports Trulia.com. The total dollar amount slashed from home prices was $27.3 billion and the average discount continued to hold at 10 percent off the original listing price. In Minneapolis, 40 percent of the listings had at least one price cut, making the city the third straight month in the top spot and the only city that has reached 40 percent mark since Trulia started tracking home price reductions in April 2009. Price reduction levels for homes listed for at least $2 million continued to have discounts averaging 14 percent. New York City was 48th on Trulia's list and D.C. was 33rd with 17 percent and 25 percent, respectively, of listings with price cuts. SALES OF PREVIOUSLY OWNED HOMES FALL, BOOSTING SUPPLY
RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION PLUNGES BELOW EXPECTATIONS Privately-owned housing starts in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000, 5.0 percent below May and 5.8 percent below June of 2009, the Commerce Department reports. Single-family housing starts were 0.7 percent lower than the previous month. But new building permits in June rose 2.1 percent above May while slipping 2.3 percent below a year earlier. Nearly the entire 5 percent decline in housing production was on the multifamily side, dropping 21.5 percent, while single-family starts edged down just 0.7 percent. SOME ANALYSTS EXPRESS NEW WORRIES ABOUT HOUSING PRICES Financial analyst Meredith Whitney recently joined the ranks of those who foresee a serious decline in housing prices in the second half of 2010, reports DailyFinance.com. Her reason: Banks are starting to unload higher-priced homes in their bulging "shadow inventory," and with sales dropping sharply now that the federal tax credit for homebuyers has expired, there's a massive mismatch between supply (rising) and demand (falling). Adds Mike Larson of Weiss Research, "Demand has fallen off a cliff in the wake of the tax credit expiration, with pending sales falling by the biggest margin ever to the lowest level ever." JAMES GRANT SAYS PRICES 'COULD' YET FALL The author of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, an authority on macroeconomics and interest rates, told a radio interviewer recently that houses were either fairly cheap or more affordable, "depending on which index you look at." Responding to a question, James Grant said that the U.S. "could" see home prices decline. Said he: "It might just be that houses will get cheaper still." In his view, the government's efforts to keep folks in homes they cannot afford have done little than "postpone the day or reckoning." At the same time, Grant said it was possible to view a house as an income-producing asset: the yield if the owner rented out the dwelling. By that measure, the average yield has been 5 percent, though now it is 3.1 percent based on an average price for housing that is 27 percent lower than the peak "several" years ago during the boom. Grant said further that housing now has "overshot" pricing on the downside, becoming cheaper than the average. BUILDERS CONTINUE TO BE DEPRESSED Builder confidence in the market for newly built, single-family homes declined for a second consecutive month in July to its lowest level since April of 2009, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). The HMI fell two points in July from the previous month, to 14 (on a scale of 100!). "This month's lower HMI reflects a number of underlying market conditions that builders are seeing, including hesitant home buyers, tight consumer credit, and continuing competition from foreclosed and distressed properties that are priced below the cost of construction," said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. "The pause in sales following expiration of the home buyer tax credits is turning out to be longer than anticipated due to the sluggish pace of improvement in the rest of the economy. That said, we do believe that favorable factors such as low mortgage rates, affordable prices, and demographic trends will help revive consumer demand for new homes this year, and that new-home sales will improve by 10 percent in 2010 from 2009." Hope springs. . . Pick a million, any million When it comes to pricing properties these days, brokers in Manhattan are at a loss. In a dynamic market, they'll tell you, no one knows the best asking price. Now, comparable recorded sales are almost useless: Those contracts were signed months previously, and the housing market has changed. Even contracts signed last week may not well reflect the ups and downs of the stock and bond markets, vagaries of the global economy, fluctuations in consumer confidence, ever-changing demographics and desires of the buying public, sales by distressed parties, purchases by buyers who are determined to be in a particular building, or psychological effects of disasters such as the oil spill. Moreover, no two properties are precisely comparable - even in the same line one floor higher or lower in an apartment building – making pricing more of an art than a science. That said, pricing has seemed especially quixotic of late, reflecting seasonality and the uncertainties above. Examples abound of apparently similar properties being offered for wildly disparate amounts of money, with some bouncing more than once between higher and lower prices. Imponderable, unknowable and unpredictable information particularly compounds the problem of correctly pricing super-luxury apartments, for which the eye of the buyer may be the best gauge of all in judging their worth. For one thing, such trophy units represent a tiny portion of the market. And that small portion will be attracted to a minuscule number of the trophy units, if any. Consider a listed co-op that occupies a high full floor on a Park Avenue in mid-Manhattan and costs $9,000 a month in maintenance. Is it worth the $10 million asking price? More? Less? Although the sumptuous Old World décor is not for everyone, the 11-room apartment, which comes with a small studio unit on another floor, makes an uncommonly strong impression. You'll find a huge Aubusson rug in a living room measuring 24.6 feet by 33 feet, wood-burning fireplaces (three), crystal chandeliers, five and a half marble baths, a balcony with architectural balustrades, expansive kitchen that is mostly up to date, faux painting and fake doors, heavy drapes, and horizontal surfaces overloaded with costly objéts. That the owners have homes in several countries as far-flung as South Africa tells you something about the opulence of the place, which any buyer is likely to make over completely anyway. More often than not, trophy properties end up selling disproportionately below the asking prices than do those listed below $10 million. Discounts tend to range well into the double digits for apartments and townhouses offered for, say, $25 million or more - for example:
It is next to impossible to know which trophy property will appeal to a buyer with deep pockets at what price. At a given time, there may be only a couple of buyers who have the means and the aspirations of owning such a property. Pricing, then, is something like guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar: Sellers and their brokers might get lucky, but chances are good that they'll have to guess again and again while practicing their patience. Other properties listed by various brokers and seen recently:
UWS Co-ops under $500,000 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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The average price of a home in Manhattan was up 9 percent, to $1,374,000, between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010, says the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY). When compared with the first quarter of 2010, the average citywide was up 3 percent. The average sales price increased quarterly by 1 percent in just Manhattan. For apartments alone, the average was $867,000 citywide, 15 percent more than one year earlier. In Manhattan, the average price of an apartment rose 10 percent over the prior year's second quarter, to $1,326,000, REBNY reported. The average condo price in SoHo in the second quarter this year was $2,746,000, the highest average for any neighborhood in the city, though 2 percent below the previous quarter. The total number of sales in SoHo reached 34, 6 percent above the first quarter and nearly 50 percent greater than the second quarter of last year. The average sales price of a coop on the Upper East Side was $1,476,000, an increase of 6 percent over the previous last quarter and 10 percent higher than last year. The number of sales of coops on the Upper East Side, which traditionally leads all neighborhoods in sales volume, fell 4 percent to 459 from the first quarter while nearly doubling from the same quarter last year. 
The District of Columbia and Manhattan posted big gains in building this year, say two experts. During the first half of this year, 230 properties sold in Manhattan, up 87 percent from the same period last year, according to Crain's. The second quarter offered the sixth consecutive quarterly increase in the number of buildings sold, reports Massey Knakal Realty Services. Dollar volume in the first half reached $5.2 billion in sales, up 170 percent from last year's figure. "Clearly, things are getting better and trending up," said Massey Knakal Chairman Robert Knakal. "But we still have a way to go." Also, Mike Kirby, chairman of Green Street Advisors, a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) research firm, told Time magazine that Manhattan and Washington, D.C., in particular, have had very robust increases in value. But it's been weaker elsewhere, probably because Manhattan took a bigger hit and had further to bounce back, Kirby said. He said his firm has observed some activity in San Francisco and Boston as well, but not to the extent of the other two cities.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) says completed resales of single-family, townhomes, condos and co-ops dropped 5.1 percent in June from May. But volume was 9.8 percent higher than one year earlier. Said Chief Economist Lawrence Yun: "June home sales still reflect a tax credit impact with some sales not closed due to delays, which will show up in the next two months." Total housing inventory at the end of the month rose 2.5 percent, raising supply to 8.9 months from May's 8.3 months. (Approximately six months' supply is considered normal.) "The supply of homes on the market is higher than we'd like to see," Yun said. "But home prices are still holding their ground because prices had already overcorrected in many local markets." The median existing-home price for all types was $183,700, 1.0 percent higher than a year ago. Distressed homes were at 32 percent of sales last month, compared with 31 percent in May; and in June 2009.
