The Big Apple: Rents up, condo owners sinking

Luxury markets pulls up Q2 average price, though volume declines

Overall sales volume of condominiums and cooperative apartments in Manhattan has been off about 11 percent so far in the second quarter compared with same period last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the city’s data.

A year ago, the market was bouncing back strongly from the after-effects of the financial crisis.

Prices have remained flat. Data on closings show that median prices in the second quarter were 1.2 percent below prices during the year-earlier period, while average prices rose by 1.5 percent.

The average price for a Manhattan apartment was about $1.39 million in the latest period. The figures are based on closings filed with the city as of 15 days before the end of each quarter.

Russians are invading

The Big Apple: A 30-room co-op could be yours

High Line is proving to be an increasingly strong magnet for developers

With the next section of the elevated Chelsea park known as the High Line poised to open next month, New York developers are gearing up numerous projects along the route in hopes of capitalizing on rising interest in the area.

The High Line has helped transform an area that remains a long walk from public transportation, offers less retail than other downtown neighborhoods, and until recently was associated with crime and industrial blight.

The second section, which is slated to open sometime in June and will run from 20th Street to 30th Street, is a less-developed area but has already attracted new construction.

Even with $60 million for adjoining apartments, not just anyone can assume board approval in famed building

Two adjoining duplex apartments at a legendary Park Avenue address are about to be put on the market for $60 million.

The grand apartments on the 12th and 13th floors of

City collects $3 million from Queens auction

The estate auction of ultimately 19 properties in various Queens neighborhoods attracted $2.969 million in winning bids last week.

Withdrawn from the sale was a two-story detached frame house in East Elmhurst, and six of the properties failed to achieve their minimum bids.

The highest bid went for the Elmhurst house shown here; It sold for $500,000, well above the upset price of $319,000.  In all, nine properties were hammered down at prices higher than the minimum set by Queens Public Administrator Lois M. Rosenblatt.

Below are the all the results of the auction, which was held March 15.

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

25 condos in Long Island City tower set for auction

Unit in East River Tower (via Sheldon Good & Co.)

An auction (with undisclosed) reserve prices of 25 units in Long Island City’s poorly situated East River Tower is scheduled to take place in Manhattan on Feb. 13.

Originally priced from $385,000 to $870,000, the one- and two-bedroom condos have balconies, washer/dryers, high ceiling, oak floors, granite countertops in the kitchen with glass-tile backsplashes and, of course, stainless-steel appliances, and marble-tiled baths with whirlpool tubs.

At 11-24 31st Ave., the doorman building itself offers a fitness room, parking garage and 15-year tax abatement.

Minimum bids of 60-67 percent less than the original prices of 15 of the units range from

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

Sealed-bid auction set for two luxury penthouses

43 West

Two duplex penthouses with terraces and views of the Hudson River from an eight-unit building are to be auctioned via sealed bids that are due Dec. 8. The reserve prices were not disclosed.

In the a former 1920 rental building now called West 43, at 552 W. 43rd St., between 10th and 11th avenues, the condos are being marketed as a closeout auction

The Big Apple: Whither our housing market. More!

MAYBE YOU CAN SEE NEW JERSEY FROM A CONDO FACING AUCTION AND MAYBE EVEN RUSSIA

If you head to Edgewater, N.J. Nov. 17, you can start the bidding with $50,000 on a one-bedroom condo in Battery Park City.

Unit 333 at 21 South End Ave. is the only real estate in New York City among numerous other properties in New York State, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to be auctioned by the Williams & Williams company.

The Regatta

Seventeen units in the Regatta are now on the market, including one with a signed contract, at prices ranging from $385,000 for another third-floor unit described as a junior one-bedroom to $2.7 million for a two-bedroom apartment on the sixth floor.

WHITHER THE HOUSING MARKET? IT DEPENDS, SAY VARIOUS PROGNOSTICATORS

When it comes to the housing market, predictions are perilous business, notes the New York Times. A market that looked as if it was verging on a renaissance

The Big Apple: Village townhouse is auctioned. More!

GREENWICH VILLAGE TOWNHOUSE IS SOLD IN MINUTES

It took only three minutes, from 6:19 p.m. to 6:21 p.m., for the successful bidder to spend $6.634 million at a court-ordered auction yesterday of a Greenwich Village townhouse that had been listed at $9.95 million not long ago.

“I’m very happy with the price I paid,” said the affable bidder, 51,

Interest high in forced auction of Village townhouse

 

As the inspection wound down, Misha Haghani (center) advised a broker on her participation in the auction.

 

At the third of four inspections scheduled of a mixed-use townhouse in Greenwich Village yesterday, an estimated 25-30 parties roamed the premises of the five-story Romanesque building.  Virtually all of the the prospective buyers gave me the impression of having serious interest.

A recent court order effectively required a rush auction of the 25-foot-wide property at 3 E. 10th St. as a result of a feud between two brothers.

Constructed in 1900, the 8,825-sf mansion–which has a rear garden and a basement that now includes offices in addition to mechanical systems–features