Madoff belongings and real estate head to auctions

That postponed auction of apartment 11E at 1056 Fifth Avenue, along with four other Manhattan properties, now is scheduled for Nov. 19.

The 1250-sf co-op has two bedrooms and two baths, with maintenance of $2,176 month.  It is the estate of one Anne Mogol, and the minimum bid is $900,000.

That’s up from $710,000 when the auction was first announced and then postponed from the original Oct. 22 date–a clear response to the amount of interest it engendered.  (I, for one, can speak to the degree of interest from the skyrocketing number of visits to posts about the auction on this blog.)

The New York City public administrator also is putting on the block that date co-ops at 572 Grand St., 202 W. 118th St. and 1725 York Ave., plus a condo at 392 Central Park West.

Purchase of the co-ops requires board approval.

Halloween’s gone, but how about those ghosts?

The usual Halloween profusion of accounts of ghosts in the news media got me thinking.

I’ll bet if you ask whether they believe in ghosts, 99 out of 100 people would profess denial.  I know I would, even in the face of pieces like the one in the Southampton Press, which made me wonder how many of us disbelievers would wittingly purchase a haunted house.

Although the haunted Hamptons may be often discussed, the conversation lacks specifics or is whispered among trusted friends, so the article relates.  Conceded Richard Barons, executive director of the East Hampton Historical Society:

“It’s here, it’s just that nobody wants to admit it.”