The Big Apple: Luxury sales skew market. More!

LUXURY SALES COLOR THE HOUSING MARKET, WHICH IS MOVING ‘SIDEWAYS’ AND PROMPTING CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC FORECASTS

Sales activity in the second half–as measured by number of sales, median sale prices, average number of days on market and the number of Manhattan apartments on the market–settled comfortably into historic 10-year ranges, according to two separate market reports in Crain’s New York.

(via Prudential Douglas Elliman)

Despite a busy market for trophy properties, the pace of sales and median prices of Manhattan apartments slipped during the fourth quarter, the Wall Street Journal observed.

The number of sales fell by

Weekly Roundup: Housing market remains ‘depressed’

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.

ACTOR LISTS LISTS CUTS CUTS THE PRICE OF HIS NEW MEXICO RANCH

HE LOSES 1 MILLION PIECES OF PAPER THAT BEAR HIS NAME

IN NEW FIFTH-AVENUE DIGS, LET’S HOPE THIS BUYER HOLDS THE CHEES-Y

ATHLETE BUYS A 4,000-SF LOFT IN CHELSEA–AND THAT’S NO BULL

DEVELOPER WITH A Z CLOSES ON WASSERSTEIN’S 5TH AVE. CONDO AT $3 MILLION OVER ASK AFTER SELLING 15 CPW SPREAD TO TECH WIZ

U.S. PRICES FALL FROM SEPTEMBER TO OCTOBER, THIRD CONSECUTIVE MONTHLY DROP

CASE-SHILLER’S REPORT CONTAINS THE USUAL WEAKNESSES, AMONG THEM

Out and About: New law clarifies buyer representation

Note: After this post, Out and About will be published on Mondays or Tuesdays instead of the current Friday schedule.  Next one: Jan. 14.

 A new statutory requirement for real estate agents and associate brokers (licensees I customarily refer to merely as “brokers”) went into effect on Jan. 1, providing critically important additional protection to consumers and causing confusion, as well as consternation,  among the ranks of the untutored.

Enacted last year, the amendment to real property law modifies the agency disclosure form to allow advanced consent to dual agency and now adds a requirement for use of agency disclosure forms in real estate transactions for condominiums and cooperatives.  (You can download a PDF of the form.) The form lets you know who is representing whom, and it applies to both sales and rentals.

Fundamental to the form is an understanding of the difference