Weekly Roundup: Basement apartments, seller’s market, plunging foreclosures, son of Lincoln’s house, trophy baths, Goldman Sach’s optimism

Manhattan luxury market unseasonably busy

Naturally occurring retirement communities populate Upper West Side

Condominium board gets TRO against Houston couple to prevent short-term stays

San Remo apartment offered for $29,750 in monthly rent went for $900 a month in 1940

Would changing rules for illegal basement apartments boost supply of affordable rentals? asks the Real Deal and Crain’s

Longtime home of Gershwin family goes on the market

Volume of property taxes kept increasing every year from 2005 to 2012

Residents of abutting buildings at war with developer of planned Fifth Avenue

Neighborhood group faults mayor’s plan for affordable housing

Fiercely competitive land prices forcing developers to build high-end condos

Sex symbol who has money troubles lists Malibu home for $7.75 million

6,800-sf TriBeCa penthouse wins undisputed approval of Brooklyn Nets star

New Jersey home was born to sell

Hip-hop star and reality spouse flip-flop Bel Air house handsomely

January numbers show 9.1 year-over-year sales growth, steady price gains so it’s a seller’s market

Supply of resale housing

As Manhattan sales drop, prices don’t move much

Hymnal Leaf, Vienna 1742. From Psalterio Antiphonale Romanum De Tempore & Sanctis (flickr photo by WikiMechanics)

When the quarterly results of Manhattan’s housing market are released, you can count on a chorus of brokerage executives to sing from the same hymnal.

Yesterday’s Q4 reports were no exception, and I suppose you can’t really blame presumed experts for painting the statistics in the most vivid colors.

So consistently upbeat is their analysis that I take their comments as more prayerful than perceptive. That’s why I referred to “hymnal” in the first paragraph.

Unlike highly educated — though frequently inaccurate — economists, they seem to base their appraisals of the past and predictions of the future merely on

The Big Apple: Q3 surge confirmed and more

THEIR COUNTRIES CHANGE, BUT NOT FOREIGNERS’ INTEREST IN HOMES HERE

Foreigners are once again buying in Manhattan, energizing the still-fragile market. In recent months, according to brokers and developers, the money has been just as likely to come from

Don’t miss my most comprehensive e-newsletter

Today’s issue of my free-biweekly e-newsletter covers everything from the latest predictions for the housing market to the property that Cher just unloaded.

You’ll also find the latest statistics of sales and prices in Manhattan, the stiff sentences that mortgage fraudsters have received, and my no-holds-barred critiques of condos, co-ops and townhouses that I’ve recently visited as part of my regular “Out and About” feature.

I’ve been writing Realty Digest myself for nearly seven years, and the new issue is the lengthiest and most comprehensive one to date.  I hope you  find it to be not only useful but also enjoyable.

And if I may be pardoned for tooting my own horn – ok, blasting it some more – I’m pleased to have been quoted on other Web sites this week or so, including WestsideIndependent.com, Crain’s and several times on Curbed.com.

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Malcolm Carter
Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
Senior Vice President
Charles Rutenberg Realty
127 E. 56th Street
New York, NY 10022

M: 347-886-0248
F: 347-438-3201

Malcolm@ServiceYouCanTrust.com
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Year-end numbers give hope for cautious optimism

For the first time since the market collapsed in late 2008, sales activity and inventory in Manhattan stand at near normal levels, according to market reports compiled by Crain’s and others.

Among the highlights was a continued increase in

What about so many auctions? It’s the economy.

A collection of 14 deteriorating South Bronx apartment buildings has been snapped up by a real estate development company led by former New York Met first baseman Maurice “Mo” Vaughn in a foreclosure auction,  Amanda Fung reports in Crain’s.

The properties were owned by entities of the Ocelot Capital Group, which abandoned them, let them fall into disrepair and eventually defaulted on the mortgage.