Well, I’ll comment on my experience over the last few weeks with one-bedrooms. People are out, buyers are buying. Lenders are lending, and coops, on the whole, are approving. While I have seen two board turndowns in the last 4 months, both had their reasons. 1st turndown- coop board decided that they didn’t want a
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I had the pleasure of visiting Cobble Hill Towers, built in 1879- built originally to house the workers at the port of Brooklyn, this is a gorgeous red and iron facade. Really a striking set of buildings that goes along Hicks, which is along the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Of course, back in 1879, you’ll notice
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The mortgage rates are again at super duper lows. This is surely driving refinances. As the market inventory sags, it appears that low rates will be the second big driver of price increases. Yet with no real indication of rate increases beyond normal fluctuations, and various indications that the pain in Europe will cross the
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Over the last year or so, the top end of the market has outperformed the rest of the lower segments. This seems to be continuing to a degree, but the rest of the market is catching up, performing admirably as well. If Marie Antoinette said “Let Them Eat Cake”- and we take that attitude as
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My month was spent looking at New Developments both in New York and Israel. More specifically, Tel Aviv in Israel and on the West Side in Chelsea and Clinton. I know that I’m a New York City broker, but my week in Tel Aviv was eye opening, in terms of views these towers offer, the
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Very few units have hit the Spring market. 422 west 20th is one of them. Nearly everything was in contract by the time the word spread; the west chelsea adherents snapped up the units quite quickly. My feeling on the building was that it attracts a narrower band of buyer than is typically meant to
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Whether I’m speaking to a $3mm buyer, or a $500k buyer, some of the conversation is the same- mortgage rates are simply too low to pass up. Even someone who can afford to pay cash is taking advantage of rates. At a 40-50% effective tax bracket, along with the tax deduction of mortgage interest, turns
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The question that many people will ask each other is “How’s business?” Certainly anyone I speak to will want to know, “How’s the market?” If I often deflect the question about a couple of thoughts or paragraphs, it’s just to be able to listen to others. Where the real estate market falls into the general
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From an Email from the Real Estate Board of New York: Private sector employment in New York City rose by 65,200, or 2.0 percent, to 3,251,200 for the 12-month period ending February 2012. Job growth occurred in professional and business services (+30,300), leisure and hospitality (+15,300), trade, transportation and utilities (+11,900), financial activities (+8,000). Job
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I’m getting differing views on where mortages will be over the new few months. The Fed laid out that the rates they determine will not change until 2014. But mortgage brokers are telling me that they expect a spike in rates from historic lows. What will it be? C-SPAN, the most boring channel on the
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