8 co-ops, 13 houses in Queens head to city auction

251-38 43rd Ave., Little Neck

The auction of 21 Queens co-ops and single-family homes is scheduled for Dec. 15.

Public Administrator Lois M. Rosenblatt has set upset prices ranging from $41,000 for a co-op in Jamaica to $453,000 for the single-family house in Little Neck shown at the top.  All the properties belong to the estates of owners who left no will.

Sorry for the slightly weird formatting (because of my limited knowledge of HTML), but below are the available residences headed for the auction block:

City to auction 21 Brooklyn properties, 1 downtown

Rendering of hotel at 231 Duffield St. (V3 Hotels)

Twenty-one single-family homes and co-ops are to be auctioned by the King’s County Public Administrator on Tuesday, Dec. 3 at 2 p.m.

The properties, which were owned by individuals who died without wills, have opening bids ranging from a low of $90,000 to as much as $4 million.

The $4 million property is in the heart of downtown Brooklyn, close to

Nephew provides me with info on hit-and-run victim

After reading my blog, a man who convincingly identified himself as the victim’s nephew called me with thanks for my post on the hit-and-run accident that claimed his aunt’s life on the Upper West Side yesterday. He said he preferred not have his name published.

She was Margaret Fisher,

Hit-and-run driver kills woman in my UWS block

Killer car with apparent blood stain.

UPDATE: Please click on New York Daily News link below.

A woman described as in her 60s died when she was hit crossing 93rd Street west of Columbus Avenue shortly after 4 p.m. today.

Weekly Roundup: The Big Apple, markets stats, more

Happy holiday weekend!  Please enjoy this post with the past week’s most important news about the Big Apple and beyond.  Look for “Out and About,” “The Big Apple” and “Weekly Roundup” again next Friday.

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LONG ISLAND CITY’S MAKEOVER IS CHARACTERIZED AS ‘DRAMATIC’

NEW FINANCING PLAN MAY BREATH LIFE INTO UNFINISHED FLATIRON HIGH-RISE

OCTOBER’S UPTICK IN SALES FROM SEPTEMBER’S LOW MAY

When is a living room not a living room?

Is this a kitchen, dining room or living room? The conscientious broker who listed the place on Manhattan's Upper West Side characterized it as a "great room." Photo below shows the opposite end.

If a room is not a dining space, kitchenette, bathroom, foyer or hallway, then it can be termed a living room, according to the New York City Administrative Code.  However, a bedroom can be marketed as a living room if it also does not function as any of the other rooms listed.

The minimum size of a living room is

Caution! A loopy party at closing could be trouble later

Flickr photo by TCDC Media

A friend of mine mentioned a couple of weeks ago that a shareholder has an accepted offer for a larger unit in his building.

The obese elderly seller was then in the hospital, in all likelihood terminally ill.  Until her most recent hospitalization, she required home care and, when alone, made inappropriate requests of my friend, who lives down the hall.

His account reminded me of a situation years ago, when I had a listing in Washington, D.C.  The seller also was a women, and she was about as close to bonkers as anyone else who ought to be institutionalized or at least heavily medicated.

Had I tuned into her psyche sooner,

Unfinished eyesore on Ludlow Street heads to auction

 

Under construction in 2008, the Hotel Ludlow remains somnolent across the street from 179 Ludlow Street. Foreground: former bank that became an artist studio owned by Jasper Johns, later a club. (Curbed.com photo)

The small, nearly completed building, at 179 Ludlow St. near Katz’s deli and across from another failed development intended to be the Hotel Ludlow, is an eyesore.  Oddly, the building–which has four apartments and a retail store–in the heart of the gentrified Lower East Side has largely been ignored by the mainstream press.

From everything I’ve been able to glean, however, calling it an eyesore is akin to likening a garbage skow to a trash can. The thing has done nothing but

The Big Apple: Sales, prices were up at one point

WITH FEW AFFORDABLE NEIGHBORHOODS, MANY ARTISTS ARE FLEEING NEW YORK CITY

Artists have long struggled in New York, moving into rough areas, gentrifying them and then getting forced out, Crain’s observes.

But as the city has gotten increasingly expensive, there are few such neighborhoods left to move to, forcing a growing number of artists to abandon the city.

Although there are no official numbers, a survey of 1,000 artists conducted in 2009 by the New York Foundation for the Arts found that more than 43 percent expected their annual income to drop by 26-50 percent over the next six months, and 11 percent believed they would have to leave New York within six months.

Even more troubling, cultural boosters say, is that for the first time, artists fresh out of art schools around the country are choosing to live in nascent artist communities in regional cities such as Detroit and Cleveland–which are dangling incentives to attract this group–and bypassing New York altogether.

PURCHASE MORTGAGES POSTED

Weekly Roundup: Which city is dirtiest? And more!

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out another of today’s three posts.

$6.5 MILLION SURE BEATS THE $1 MILLION THIS MUSICIAN PAID FOR THE LAND ALONE

COMEDIC TV HOST WITH APPARENTLY STRONG LEGS IS MOVING UP IN THE WORLD

HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO