The New York City Real Estate market remains ultra-competitive due to low inventory and low interest rates

Prices are up, inventory is low and the market is ultra-competitive

By HEATHER SENISON April 17, 2014

Limited inventory is the theme in the sales market this spring, particularly for those who can’t afford to spend $3 million and up, experts said.
If you’re looking to buy new property for under $2 million, Manhattan won’t have it.
“It’s definitely competitive,” Gary Malin, president of real estate group Citi Habitats, said of the spring sales market. “There’s lots of bidding wars going on, lots of best-and-final [offers] going on.”
In other words, few apartment hunters are getting their first choice these days.
Inventory in Manhattan in the first quarter of 2014 declined by 17% from the first quarter of 2013, according to a Citi Habitats sales market report; apartments priced between $2 million and $5 million made up 16% of total sales in the first quarter of this year, up 2% from the year before.

Read the full story here:  http://www.amny.com/real-estate#/real-estate/prices-are-up-inventory-is-low-and-the-market-is-ultra-competitive-1.7741541

NYC residential sales rise 6% in 3Q | Crain's New York Business

Buck Ennis[+] Enlarge

Citywide, the number of home sales in the third quarter were up 6% from year earlier levels.

 

Updated: October 11, 2012 2:26 p.m.

Home sales and prices rose across the city in the third quarter, according to a new report. In Brooklyn and Queens the average sales price hit its highest point since late 2007, at $619,000 and $411,000, respectively.
According to the quarterly residential sales report from the Real Estate Board of New York, the average price paid for a home in the city rose 1% over the last year, to $786,000.
Citywide, the number of home sales in the third quarter were up 6% from year earlier levels. Manhattan led the five-borough pack with a 7% jump in home sales volumes, while Brooklyn and the Bronx each saw a 5% rise.
Steven Spinola, REBNY's president, said the improvements signaled a housing recovering for the city.

Read more: http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20121011/REAL_ESTATE/121019977#ixzz2919nttlr
 

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/ 

Real Estate Board of NY sets up fund for Marion Hedges

If you'd like to help the broker who was injured when two kids threw a shopping cart from a mall overhead parking lot striking her in the head, as she walked by with her son, please see below:

As many of you may know from media coverage, REBNY member Marion Hedges of Prudential Douglas Elliman was critically injured by a falling shopping cart at Costco on October 30^th.

A fund has been set up at the Brick Presbyterian Church to help provide Marion with crucial assistance in her rehabilitation and recovery. We thought we would pass along the following message on how to donate to the fund from Laila Al-Askari, the Church's Director of Administration and Finance.

 The Brick Church will accept checks for the benefit/care of Marion Hedges. Checks should be made payable to: The Brick Church Please write in the Memo Line: Marion Hedges
Mail checks to :
Laila Marie Al-Askari
Director of Administration and Finance The Brick Presbyterian Church
62 East 92nd Street
New York, NY 10128
Phone: 212 289-4400 x257Fax: 212 996-7078
lal-askari@brickchurch.org

Occupy Wall Street supporters target REBNY over parks access

Occupy Wall Street supporters target REBNY over parks access
The real estate association took some heat on Twitter, Facebook
October 21, 2011 12:15AM

By Miranda Neubauer

Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement have now begun targeting the Real Estate Board of New York on social media and then in turn by phone, following news reports that REBNY seeks to submit a proposal to the city limiting the public access hours of privately owned public parks.

As has been widely reported, protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement have for several weeks been camped out in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, which is owned by Brookfield Properties but is open to the public around the clock. Brookfield has expressed some misgivings about the presence of the protesters, and last week the commercial property owner, manager and developer called off a planned clean-up operation of the park scheduled for sanitary purposes at the last moment, even as the protesters began taking the clean-up into their own hands and vowed to resist any attempt at their removal.

In response to an opinion article in today's New York Times by Jerold Kayden, a professor of urban planning at Harvard University, on the legal gray area of such privately owned public spaces, and the news reports of REBNY's plans, a Twitter user called @OccupyMyCat this morning posted, "Announcement! It's time to Occupy REBNY, the Real Estate Board of New York!" In a related post, the Twitter feed @OccupyWallStNYC posted "Some #OccupyAdvice 2 concerned citizens: Make sure #RealEstateBoard doesnt [sic] close parks on 'reasonable' use pretext," and encouraged its followers to call REBNY's main number to "tell them not 2 pressure city 2 close parks." That post was shared on Twitter at least 64 times.
Read Full Story Here: http://therealdeal.com/newyork/articles/occupy-wall-street-supporters-target-rebny-and-president-steven-spinola-over-parks-access-on-twitter-and-facebook