Take a peek at the latest "shoebox" apt

Property Porn Of The Week: A Super-Designed 200-Sq. Ft. Shoebox Apartment

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see photosCourtesy of Citi Habitats

Click for full photo gallery: Inside A Super-Designed 200-Square Foot Apartment

As of 2009, the median home size for the typical urban household in the Northeast was 1,500 square feet, according to the National Association of Home Builders. And in New York City even that much space can be hard to come by. Take the $345,000 apartment for sale at 344 West 12th Street. The West Village studio apartment is barely200 square feet in size.

You might expect to find a cramped, cluttered dorm room of a home encompassing such humble dimensions, and if we were talking about my former digs (I actually inhabited a 225-sq. ft. studio for two years), you would be correct. But the difference between this tiny unit and, say, my former 1970s-era shoebox unit, is that this one is designed right.

Read the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/morganbrennan/2012/01/23/property-porn-of-the-week-a-super-designed-200-sq-ft-shoebox-apartment/

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His Style, Her Style, Their Style

Nadia Bishai and Hisham Modine furnished their duplex with art she collected on her travels and tables and chairs of his design. More Photos »

By CONSTANCE ROSENBLUM

The brownstone at 127 St. James Place in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, boasted a lustrous pedigree. Its elderly owner, Adele Premice, was the daughter of Lucas Premice, a Haitian aristocrat who fled to the United States in the early 20th century. Her younger sister, the glamorous actress Josephine Premice, reigned for decades as the toast of Broadway.

Well into the 21st century, Adele was still ensconced in the building, long known as Little Haiti. Her rooms overflowed with Haitian art and were redolent of the expensive perfume she loved. But as she aged, so did the building where she had lived since the 1940s. Water poured through collapsing ceilings. Gaping holes in the floors made every step treacherous. The rear garden grew wild as a jungle.

The summer day in 2007 that Hisham Modine saw a “For Sale” on the crumbling facade, few traces of the brownstone’s glory days remained.

Mr. Modine, who had moved to New York from Egypt to study architecture at nearby Pratt Institute, was nonetheless intrigued. He had a deep fondness for Brooklyn: ever since 1990, when a taxi dropped him off in front of his Pratt dorm with $50 in his pocket, he had lived only in that borough.

Full Story Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/realestate/clinton-hill-brooklyn-habitats-his-style-her-style-their-style.html?_r=2

See Slideshow Here: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/19/realestate/20120122Habi.html?ref=realestate#2

With Manhattan running out of buildable space, developers turn to Brooklyn

Residential developers increasingly turn to Brooklyn, but face different renters

January 18, 2012 10:30AM

From left: renderings of Three Northside Piers, 388 Bridge Street and 88 Willoughby Street

As space for residential development dwindles in Manhattan, developers are turning to Brooklyn, the Wall Street Journal reported, but they must be careful if they want to appeal to the different sensibilities of Brooklyn renters.
Citing a report by Nancy Packes, a consultant to some of the city’s largest developers, the Journal said 14,000 new residential units are being planned for Brooklyn in the coming years, compared to just 5,000 in Manhattan. Read full story here:
 http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/01/18/residential-developers-increasingly-turn-to-brooklyn-but-face-different-renters/

New Landmarked Historic District in the East Village

East Village gets second historic designation

January 17, 2012 06:25PM

From left: 315 East 10th Street and Ben Shaoul

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a block-long historic district on East 10th Street at an emergency public hearing and vote today. The creation of the historic district follows developer Benjamin Shaoul’s Magnum Real Estate Group’s application in December to add a rooftop addition to a townhouse at 315 East 10th Street, which Magnum purchased late last year. The newly designated area extends from avenues A to B along the south side of 10th Street.
“We moved as quickly as we could, and today was the earliest possible day we could hold the hearing and vote based on the amount of research needed to complete the report and justify the designation,” said Elisabeth de Bourbon, director of communications for the LPC. But because the permit was grandfathered in, Shaoul will be allowed to proceed with the plans at 315 East 10th Street.
Read full story here: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/01/17/east-village-gets-second-historic-designation/

Much More Than Just ‘Maintenance’

Much More Than Just "Maintenance'

By JIM RENDON

Published: January 12, 2012

 

In New York, the cost of a co-op or condo can seem an impossible hurdle. But alongside the asking price is another figure that can induce sticker shock: the monthly maintenance fee — or, as it’s called in condos, the common charge.

The fee can range from a few hundred dollars a month, for a small condo, to many thousands for an exclusive co-op. And as millions of owners have discovered, it almost never goes down and rarely stays flat. Often, the increases happen yearly.
Potential buyers should be concerned about the fee, not only because it is real money paid out of pocket every month, but because it has a direct impact on property value.

“The market rewards low maintenance and punishes high maintenance,” said Roberta Axelrod, the director of residential sales and rentals for the real estate firm Time Equities, who sits on 10 co-op boards. Apartments with low monthly charges tend to sell for more, and those with higher fees for less. That is not to say that buildings are doing away with amenities. In fact, new condo projects tend to be full of perks like exercise rooms, screening rooms, children’s play areas and even indoor pools. Yet all of these things add expense.

Read the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/realestate/getting-started-much-more-than-just-maintenance.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=realestate

For apartment landlords, 2011 was grand indeed

The Manhattan residential rental market ended 2011 with a bang.

Rents in the fourth quarter were up solidly from year-earlier levels, according to market reports released Thursday. The median Manhattan monthly rent of $3,145 for all sizes of apartments was the highest median since the fourth quarter of 2006, when median rents reached $3,265, according to the quarterly report by Prudential Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Inc. Meanwhile, median net effective rent jumped 9.5% to $3,121 from the fourth quarter of 2010, as landlords dialed back on concessions like a month of free rent.
Separately, brokerage Citi Habitats reported that the average Manhattan rent rose 6.2% to $3,322 a month last year.


Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120112/REAL_ESTATE/120119961#ixzz1jHUabGqr

Brooklyn and outer-borough sales outperform Manhattan

Outer borough housing markets hold up better than Manhattan’s: REBNY


January 11, 2012 10:00AM

Houses near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway

In an unusual twist, home prices in the outer boroughs held up better than those in Manhattan in an overall dreadful fourth quarter, according to the latest figures from the Real Estate Board of New York cited by the Wall Street Journal.

While the median price in Manhattan tumbled 8.5 from the prior year quarter to $750,000, prices actually inched up by 2.9 percent in the Bronx to $350,00 and 1.4 percent in Brooklyn to $473,000. And while the median prices in Queens and Staten Island fell 4.8 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively, that’s still less than the declines in Manhattan. Citywide, the price drop measured 2.3 percent.
Read full story here: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2012/01/11/outer-borough-housing-markets-outperform-manhattans/

Best of New York Real Estate 2011

The Real Deal staff’s picks for top real estate stories of 2011

We look back at Occupy Wall Street, Europe’s debt crisis, major deals and booming brokerages

December 30, 2011 04:13PM
By Leigh Kamping-Carder

New York real estate faced a whirlwind year in 2011, and numerous contenders surfaced when The Real Deal sat down to pick our favorite stories of the year.
There was the limping recovery of the residential sales market, coupled with several standout deals and the runaway revival of the rental market. Developers snapped up distressed properties, such as One Madison Park, while other stalled projects like the Azure cond-op tower came back to life.
Read the full story here: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2011/12/30/the-real-deal-staff-s-picks-for-top-real-estate-stories-of-2011/ 

Top Real Estate Trends 2011 Wrap Up

MANHATTAN — The financial markets are unstable, unemployment remains high and credit is tight, but that hasn't seemed to hurt Manhattan's real estate market much in 2011.
DNAinfo asked real estate experts and brokers how the markets fared this year, what trends they saw, and their predictions for 2012. Here's what they said:
1. Foreign buyers help prop up the condo market
Buyers from China, Russia and South America have turned to Manhattan real estate as their own economies and residential markets have been in flux — and they've been plunking down all cash for amenity-laden condos.
"The foreigners are leading the way," Jacky Teplitzky, a managing director and team leader of the Jacky Teplitzky team at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said after returning from a recent work-related trip to Brazil.
"From South America, No. 1 is Brazil, and the reason is their economy is extremely strong," she said. "They haven't been hit by the credit crisis. The exchange rate is extremely favorable. The local real estate is really expensive."
Teplitzky said Brazilians she's worked with tended to follow their friends to the East Side between 57th and 79th streets.
Jonathan Miller, an expert real estate appraiser, wrote in Prudential Douglas Elliman’s third quarter report for 2011 that foreign buyers were likely to be the reason that the number of condo sales hit a four-year high (while co-ops, which are notoriously difficult for foreign buyers to purchase, remained unchanged).
"In any country, if their economy is up and down and precarious and unbalanced, they still see the U.S. as a safe place to invest," said Doug Heddings, of the residential boutique firm, the Heddings Property Group.
Heddings saw an "explosion of foreign buyers," especially from China and Russia in 2011. Chinese families, for example, were attacted to properties featuring the latest techology and amenities for their children so they could attend college here, even if they're years away, he said.


Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20111230/upper-east-side/top-five-manhattan-real-estate-trends-of-2011#ixzz1iybiWYVB