Bidding was casual at the auction of the luxury Upper East Side condo that Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr had purchased in 2010.
A bidder who declined to give me his name won imprisoned fraudster Kenneth Starr’s condo at auction today for a $5.63 million bargain price.
He was among 17 registered bidders for the apartment in the doorman building called the Lux, at 433 E. 74th St.
The current owner is the Internal Revenue Service, to which Starr relinquished the property prior to his sentencing.
One kitchen among several like it in Tribeca on a tour of "luxe" properties.
In a word, the other half lives very well. Very, very well.
Invited with others to take a brokers’ tour of “luxe” properties in Tribeca and SoHo, I couldn’t resist having a look at them and posting photographs of some of them.
They were priced for as little as $12.95 million to — get this — $45 million, and I have to say that they pretty much measured up to my expectations for lavish, stylish and spacious places to live. They should!
I confess with more than a touch of envy that perhaps such lofts also enable their owners to lord it over those whose abodes cost them a mere few millions — “envy” being key. Continue reading
(Flickr photo by abrin523)
Beware the stampede of opinions about potential homebuyers. Those views are trampling conventional wisdom by asserting that the American Dream is dead or dying.
Last week, momentum swelled around the idea that many folks are choosing to rent a home rather than buy one. Such consumers fall into two groups: Those for whom it is their only option because of finances and those who lack enough confidence in real estate to risk a decline in the value of their property.
I don’t know that the herd of economists and analysts wiser than me is wrong, but the volume and consistency of reports about the decline of American Dream was remarkable.
(Most of the links below have appeared or will do so in my Weekly Roundup on Fridays, on the Service You Can Trust Facebook page, on Twitter or some combination.)
Just look at the drumbeat of evidence over the last couple of weeks — for example, what James Bullard, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis observed on Friday: Continue reading
Single-family home in Middle Village with minimum bid of $412,000
Three co-ops and 12 single family homes are to be offered at an estate auction conducted on March 14 by Queens Public Administrator Lois Rosenblatt.
Minimum (upset) prices, which are set by Rosenblatt at 25 percent below the appraised value, range from $79,000 for an apartment in Corona to $675,000 for a house in Long Island City.
The house was one of two properties withdrawn prior to the city’s previous auction, in December. Also returning to the auction block is a house on 63rd Avenue in Middle Village.
Below are the properties to be offered next month: Continue reading
Luxury market in Brooklyn attains four-year high
When having your child sleep in a room, it really should have windows
Even homeowners facing foreclosure take to home repairs
For celebrity stalkers, there’s nothing like a cool map
New program aims to enable state courts to speed up foreclosures
Rents bordering Second Avenue subway drop but rise one avenue away
Mom, 92, battles son, 58, to get back into condo she owns
Slice of the Upper West Side overlooking Hudson River lacks name
Long Island City undergoes third wave of gentrification
Ambivalent about selling, a legendary interior designer lists his Manhattan pied-à-terre for $22.5 million. . . unfurnished
Should you listen to your broker? (flickr photo by Rodrigo Muniz)
Frankly, it never occurred to me that buyers may be well advised to ignore their broker representative’s recommendations for a real estate attorney.
The issue arose recently at a dinner following an estraordinarily stimulating social media event called RE BarCamp, sponsored by Lucky Strikers Social Media Club (LSSMC) for real estate and allied professionals.
Matt and Susan Daimler, the brains behind Buyfolio and the founders of SeatGuru.com, told those of us nearby an anecdote in which it appeared a buyer’s attorney was not up to snuff.
Did the broker Continue reading
A friend of mine thinks I’m funny — not just in that way.
She is Teri Karush Rogers, the inspired editorial director and CEO of BrickUnderground.com. Her site provides a wealth of information for apartment dwellers, and I read it every day.
A few weeks ago, she e-mailed me with the idea that I come up with ways that buyers can perceive that sellers are desperate to unload their homes. Following is my list (published by Teri earlier this month) of 10 giveaways that owners are just dying to sell: Continue reading
Lincoln Center (Flickr photo by Stewart Morris)
He closed on the place only last May, when it was listed for $2.15 million.
There was a bidding war for the two-bedroom, two-terrace, two-bath penthouse in a Central Park block of the mid 60s, an area that is part of Lincoln Square.
Because of the so-called “war,” the current owner — who appears to be an advertising agency executive — paid $2.5 million for the co-op, which costs him $3,269 in maintenance a month.
But for undisclosed reasons relating to the seller’s inability to continue living in New York, according to the listing broker, the apartment went on the market again in early December with an asking price that boggles the mind. Continue reading
Update: Prices, sales of new condos post healthy year-over-year increases in Manhattan
Demand for ultraluxury apartments outpaces modest units
Report finds 7.2 percent rise in January rents from a year earlier in Manhattan
No ceiling in sight for rentals, the Times declares
But a City Journal editor begs — make that demands — to differ
flickr photo by kalavinka
At a recent conference for real estate professionals, a panel of buyers, sellers and renters got some concerns off their chest.
Among the qualities they said they appreciated in their agents and brokers, according to an account in Inman News of the Real Estate Connect event:
One panelist told of Continue reading
I, on Cambodia 