The Big Apple: Don’t try to remember September

BONUS FEVER AND DISCOUNTS HAVE THE CITY’S HOUSING MARKET IN THEIR GRIP

Since the economy melted down, bonuses have been up, down and spinning all around. Anticipation has had brokerages and developers panting one minute and totally depressed the next.

While the bonuses have had brokers and developers abuzz, another obsession has been rippling through the real estate world over the last week: discounts.

THOSE SPIFFY NEW DEVELOPMENTS LOOK GREAT, BUT BUYERS NEED TO GIVE THEM MORE THAN A ONCE-OVER

Every freshly minted building has problems that can range from buckling floors to cooling systems that sound like a Fresh Direct truck parked outside your window to leaky roofs that can cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, observes Brick Underground.

If you are in the market to buy and this is news to you or you and your neighbors are just starting to compare punch lists, you may want to get educated on the things that can go wrong in new or converted condominiums. Defects tend to fall into seven categories,

Weekly Roundup: Rates at 5 month-high, 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.

TIRED OF LETTING PAPARAZZI FEED THEIR SOCIAL NETWORKS, ACTOR STRIKES A BARGAIN PRICE FOR A NEW PENTHOUSE

IMAGINE WHAT IT WAS LIKE LIVING IN AN APARTMENT BUILDING WITH

Out and About: It’ll cost ya plenty to see forever

Central Park on Dec. 20, 2009. (Flickr photo by Michael McDonough)

For some buyers, nothing is more important than a view.  Although that’s not my priority, I get it.

But what is a view worth?  I make the calculation below.

Consider a pathetically dated apartment close to the top of an exceedingly tall high-rise that harks back to its beginnings in 1971.  In the Lincoln Square area, this one-bedroom, one-and-half-bath condo has been listed since May 2009.  Because it is a rarely used pied-à-terre, the condition is superb–but the style is so out of fashion.

Although some consumers might be enamored of obsolesence, others may well find fault with the laminate countertops in the kitchen, standard-height popcorn ceilings and bifold doors.

Still, those views over the expanse of Central Park north to the George Washington Bridge, east beyond LaGuardia and south to the vaunted Manhattan skyline are hard to come by!  They are spectacular, and they’ll cost you.

This 947-sf apartment went on the market for