Auction: College Point houses among 20 for sale

Minimum bid: $551,000 for this College Point house with two-car garage. Snow shovel not included.

Queens Public Administrator Lois Rosenblatt has announced that an estate auction of seven co-ops and 13 houses will be held on March 15 starting at 11 a.m.

Prices range from $55,000 for an apartment in Jamaica and $551,000 for the College Point two-story detached brick houses shown at left.

The estate of Franz Vormittag, the house sits on a 5,000-sf lot and is subject to tenancy.  Taxes are $6,677 annually.

Other properties to be auctioned are listed below along with

The Big Apple: Nascent signs of recovery emerge

MANHATTAN BUCKS WORSENING STATEWIDE TREND OF RISING MORTGAGE DELINQUENCIES

The mortgage loan delinquency rate in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Queens in the final quarter of 2010 was up from year-earlier levels, according to a recent quarterly analysis. The uptick could well lead to a rise in foreclosure activity in coming months.

Manhattan was the only borough to see a decline in delinquencies, with a slight drop of 0.04 percentage points in the period.

APARTMENT MARKET SHOWS POSSIBLE SIGNS OF STRENGTH

Sales in the Manhattan co-op and condo market show signs of bouncing back after dropping sharply last month, reports the Wall Street Journal.

January sales were hurt because

Weekly Roundup: Latest stats leave future murky

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 the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

ONETIME CLUB IMPRESARIO WHO’S NOW INTO HOTELS UNLOADS 3,900-SF CONDO FOR $11 MILLION

TIGER’S TIGER BURNING. . . HOPEFULLY

RENTAL FIT FOR A PRINCESS GETS ONE (2nd item)

SHE’S GOTTA LOVE HIS TOWNHOUSE AT $27,000 A MONTH

HE TOPS LIMIT MORE THAN A YEAR EARLIER FOR THE SALE PRICE OF A MANHATTAN CO-OP

VIOLINIST SAYS HE EITHER PLAYS ONE THING OR SLEEPS IN ANOTHER, NOW IN A NEW PLACE

BECAUSE HIS ESTATE HASN’T SOLD, DANCER/ACTOR ACKNOWLEDGES THE LIKELY NEED TO TAKE STEPS (2nd item)

CASE-SHILLER REPORTS THAT

The High Road: Some brokers are . . . thieves

A broker who is a friend of mine recently recounted an anecdote that I can only hope is apocryphal.  But I believe it to be true.

He said he’s learned that some brokers are stealing names.

Those are the brokers who attend open houses, slyly snapping cellphone photos of sign-in sheets and then getting in touch with those visitors who don’t put down the name of their own broker.

Their desperate action is despicable, certainly unethical and arguably in violation of strictures against interfering with the business of another broker.

If you are a consumer,

It’s not okay for statistics to rest on anecdotes

Shoe by Manolo Blahnik: $945

A useful article that was published Tuesday makes a good point but goes way too far in quoting the value of heeding details when selling a property.

By the otherwise scrupulous Christine Haughney, the New York Times piece quotes various brokers as putting dollar amounts on chipped plaster, broken bathroom tiles and fresh paint.  I didn’t pay much attention to the column until a “civilian” friend of mine cited the numbers as gospel and I began seeing links to it on several Real Estate blogs that I monitor.

To be fair,

Out and About: Love granite? You’ll love this.

Granite, granite everywhere.

When it comes to pet peeves, I do have more than one concerning kitchens.  (Truth be told, I have a trunk full of pet peeves centered on real estate alone.)

This peeve is a small one compared with my others and relates to granite in the kitchen.  I’m fine, though no fan of, countertops made of granite, which have proliferated beyond any stonecutter’s most improbable fantasies a couple of decades ago.

My issue is granite upon granite upon granite, especially when it is the same granite.

An unacceptably priced two-bedroom condo with overshadowed balcony called my attention to the matter. 

Weekly Roundup: The Big Apple and Beyond

This holiday-weekend combined post is your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you.  You’ll find Out and About early next week and additional posts every day except President’s Day as usual.

COMMON DISPUTE ABOUT SQUARE FOOTAGE MAKES RARE COURT APPEARANCE

Four years ago, Rishi Bhandari and his fiancée put down a deposit on a condo in Downtown Brooklyn. The price was $795,000, for a two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment, reports the New York Times.

But just before they were to close,

The market, not the seller, dictates price

Eighteen offers on a single property ought to be all the proof anyone needs that the market is king when it comes to valuation.

Shown above, a Tribeca loft received the offers in a mere week, one of which already has been accepted. With two bedrooms and baths, the third-floor condo was listed at $1.375 million this month with 1,305 square feet, or 1,054 per square foot.

The asking price per square foot is

Fannie, Freddie ideas could change our world

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may seem like distant galaxies, light years from our world as we know it.

But the proposals last week by the Obama administration to phase them out could have a profound affect on all buyers and sellers as early as this year.

To be sure, a proposal is a long, long way from congressional action, and self-interested parties such as the Mortgage Bankers Association already

What would you pay for two units four floors apart?

It's hard to fault the views from many Central Park West apartments.

Two full-through condos are on the market in the same building on Central Park West in the mid 90s.

Their views of the park from oversize windows in the living room and master bedroom are bracing, though the bus and other traffic noise on the street below could prove annoying.

These four-bedroom, 2,733-sf apartments in a 1992 building are pretty impressive, and they are priced half a million dollars apart.

Their price histories are curious, especially when compared with each other.