Weekly Roundup: NYC adjusted prices, SoHo’s highs, upward trending rates, $117M record price, houseplant pointers, recovery skeptics

Housing prices below 2008 peak, sales 21.8 percent lower than 2007 peak

But 2012 median lowest since 2004 adjusted for inflation

Beachfront houses wrecked by Sandy being sold ‘as is’

Assembly, Senate pass renewal of co-op/condo tax abatement

Building in Williamsburg tops list of 10 best-selling new developments in 2012

Region’s foreclosures tick up in November

Boerum Hill beats out Dumbo as Brooklyn’s top neighborhood, while SoHo and TriBeCa priciest in Manhattan during 2012

Maintenance fees now average $1.70 per square foot, up 30 percent since 2008

Lawsuit aims to collect rents paid by tenants citywide who live in apartments made uninhabitable after Sandy

Multi-talented writer finally does good all by himself in sale of $11.25 million Hollywood home

Brooklyn Nets guard makes successful $15.8 million play for Tribeca penthouse

Barbara visits

Weekly Roundup: The Big Apple and beyond. Rates hit record low, lower Manhattan surges

Change is good: Weekly Roundup, which I will continue to post on Fridays, will now be combined with a shorter (and admittedly less work-intensive) version of  The Big Apple.  I hope you like the results.

Developers are beginning to build smaller

And condo conversions are coming back

By the sea, by the beautiful sea sees rising. . . interest

Lower Manhattan becomes one of city’s fastest-growing residential sections

Fed’s Beige Book finds continued ‘sluggish’ residential construction and sales in tri-state region

NYU launches subsidized housing information project with information on 235,000 rental units

Appraiser assesses impact on housing market of two memorable events

Region’s foreclosure rates continue to rise, exceeding the nation’s

Donna does it again. . . in

Bores are not alone in producing hot air

Everyone knows that dryers and stove hoods are blowhards.

Dryers need to get rid of moist air, and stove vents are supposed to fan away odors and heat.

But good luck if those appliances don’t work by expelling air through ducts to the exterior of your building.  The stream comes right back at ya.

Many consumers are sophisticted enough to appreciate that, no matter how constructed, dryers that pump air into the room through some sort of device meant to eliminate moisture invariably boosts humidity in an apartment or townhouse significantly.

They also may know that

Weekly Roundup: Some buyers want it all. 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 the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

Author didn’t sleep there, but Long Island mansion slated for destruction evokes his memory

Investors, not first-time buyers, have propelled the housing market since July

Sales of million-dollar homes