The Opportunist’s Guide to Real Estate

For almost as long as Patinella and Evageliou could remember, apartment prices in New York had only moved in one direction: upward and out of their reach. “Long ago, it had crossed past the point at which any of it was connected to reality, as far as I was concerned,” Evageliou said one recent Saturday morning, as he and his wife reflected on the sudden, nerve-racking, and tantalizing possibility of turnabout. Over the course of the last year, amid terrifying economic indicators, the couple has been scouring sale listings and tromping through open houses all over the city. As real-estate disasters mount around them, casting shadows across a thicket of glass towers full of empty million-dollar condos, Patinella and Evageliou—like many New Yorkers—see a redemptive glimmer of justice, and just maybe a buying opportunity.

It’s easy to imagine why. Home values are dropping everywhere, not just in quintessential bubble markets like Las Vegas and Phoenix, but in sociologically similar locales like San Francisco, where prices have fallen by a third over the last year, according to the Case-Shiller index. In New York, the plunge hasn’t happened yet; instead, the market has ground to a halt. Many sellers have dropped their asking prices to levels not seen for a few years, but the reductions can’t keep up with the savings expectations of would-be buyers.

Caisse takes possession of New York office tower

Canada's largest pension manager has added a 40-storey New York office building to its real estate holdings, seizing the property following a foreclosure process.

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, through mortgage subsidiary Otera Capital, plans to hold on to the recently renovated building in the heart of the Rockefeller Plaza district until the real estate market improves.

New York developer Harry Macklowe defaulted in January on a $130-million (U.S.) mezzanine loan held by Otera, one of Canada's five main commercial mortgage lenders. Mezzanine subordinate loans are secured by shares of the company that owns the building.

Mr. Macklowe bought 1330 Avenue of the Americas, or Sixth Avenue, for $498-million in December, 2006. He had a $240-million senior mortgage from Deutsche Bank AG and the mezzanine loan.

Helmsley Estate: $136M To Charity, $1M To Dogs

Helmsley's estate announced its first round of charitable grants on Tuesday. The largest, $40 million, goes to New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The majority goes to New York City hospitals and other health care systems across the country.

Helmsley's estate distributed $1 million to 10 animal rights groups, including $100,000 to the ASPCA.

Animal rights groups rejoiced last year at reports that Helmsley who died in 2007 at age 87 wanted her multibillion-dollar fortune to go exclusively to dog-related charities. A court ruled in February that the trustees had sole authority to decide which charities could benefit from her estate.

Madonna buys $40m New York townhouse

The singer will pay $40m (£27m) for the 26-room mansion on East 81st Street – about $5m less than the original asking price – according to the New York Post. Madonna is "trying to recreate London in New York City", according to a source close to the singer, and she was attracted to the home's Georgian aesthetic.

The double-wide mansion has 13 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms and nine fireplaces, not to mention a lift, a wine cellar and 3,000 sq ft (279 sq metres) of garden. But there's at least one problem, according to the Post – people inside the house can feel the rumbling subway train underneath.

Madonna plans extensive renovations, including security upgrades, before moving in.

The Brooklyn real-estate bust continues

Brooklyn is for sale — but nobody is buying.

The collapsing economy is being blamed for a 35-percent drop in the number of properties sold in the borough’s once-booming housing market in the first quarter of this year compared to the last part of 2008.

Worse, the first quarter of 2009 is off 57 percent compared to the first quarter of 2008.

The bad news — contained in a new report from the real-estate consulting firm Miller Samuel, which conducted the study for the Prudential Douglas Elliman real-estate firm — follows a trend that started last year, when the economy imploded, mostly because of a housing market bust.

Manhattan Real Estate Plummets - Bloomberg

Manhattan has become a buyers’ property market

In the fourth quarter of 2008, for example, resale median prices in Manhattan fell 9.5% for condominiums and 5.2% for co-ops compared with the third quarter of 2008, according to real estate website StreetEasy.com.

This quarter, they declined even more, both compared with the prior year's first quarter and sequentially, said Sofia Kim, the website's head of research.

From the market peak between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the first quarter of 2008, listing prices, typically higher than the selling price in a buyers' market, plunged between 10 and 20%.

"I still don't think the market has bottomed out" said Kim, who expects prices to decline at least another 10%. In the first quarter of 2009, the number of Manhattan homes on the market hit 15,460, a 41% increase compared with the first quarter of 2008,

Housing Slump Begins To Hit Manhattan & The Hamptons

# While sales have picked up a bit in some suffering housing markets in the West, creating a glimmer of hope that home prices nationwide may be approaching a bottom, the Manhattan real estate market has just begun a steep slide. It parallels the decline in New York’s financial services industry, and housing analysts say it may continue long after other markets heal.
# Apartment prices have once more become the talk of the town in Manhattan, but this time the talk is of uncertainty and falling numbers. While brokers say they are seeing more activity lately, especially from first-time buyers taking advantage of lower interest rates, housing analysts are predicting a prolonged slump in prices and sales that could last as long as four or five years.
# In this year’s first quarter, sales of co-ops and condominiums in Manhattan plunged nearly 60 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Average co-op prices fell as much as 24 percent in the same period, according to various market reports released last week.
# Condo prices have held up so far, but only because buyers who went into contract long before the downturn were closing on newly completed condominium buildings. But now few new contracts are being signed on unfinished condominiums, and some buyers have been renegotiating contracts or are trying to back out of them. Co-ops and condos make up 98 percent of the residential properties for sale in Manhattan.

As Some U.S. Markets Level Off, Housing Slump Hits Manhattan

Apartment prices have once more become the talk of the town in Manhattan, but this time the talk is of uncertainty and falling numbers. While brokers say they are seeing more activity lately, especially from first-time buyers taking advantage of lower interest rates, housing analysts are predicting a prolonged slump in prices and sales that could last as long as four or five years.

In this year’s first quarter, sales of co-ops and condominiums in Manhattan plunged nearly 60 percent from the first quarter of 2008. Average co-op prices fell as much as 24 percent in the same period, according to various market reports released last week.

Condo prices have held up so far, but only because buyers who went into contract long before the downturn were closing on newly completed condominium buildings. But now few new contracts are being signed on unfinished condominiums, and some buyers have been renegotiating contracts or are trying to back out of them. Co-ops and condos make up 98 percent of the residential properties for sale in Manhattan.

Prudential Douglas Elliman Manhattan Real Estate Market Overview For Q1 2009

The number of sales declined 47.6% to 1,195 units from 2,282 units in the prior year quarter and down the same amount from the prior quarter. The market share for the number of re-sales has been declining over the past year as compared to new development sales. Re-sales accounted for 57.2% of sales this quarter, down from 69.5% in the prior year quarter. As a result of the lower number of sales, inventory levels have increased, but not as rapidly as other periods of lower activity.

There has been limited participation by "casual sellers," owners who place their properties for sale only to test the market, have opted to wait until conditions have improved. Listing inventory reached 10,445 units at the end of the quarter, up 34.3% from 7,778 units in the prior year quarter and up 15% from 9,081 units in the prior quarter. Inventory levels are at their highest in the decade this metric has been tracked. The prior high was set in the third quarter of 2006 when inventory reached 9,573 units.

Sliding Manhattan home prices give sellers shivers

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Consider apartment 13C at 730 Park Avenue on Manhattan's storied "Silk Stocking" district. It has seven rooms, a fireplace, excellent nearby schools -- and a price that has been cut 46 percent.

The tale of 13C illustrates a role reversal of sorts underway in Manhattan real estate.

Sellers of property have called the shots for years on the 22.7 square mile island that is the financial capital of the United States. But now buyers are having their day, according to the first-quarter reports due from major real estate brokerages on Thursday.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, for example, resale median prices in Manhattan fell 9.5 percent for condominiums and 5.2 percent for co-ops compared with the third quarter of 2008, according to real estate website StreetEasy.com.