Weekly Roundup: Inventory shrinks, rates steady, renters outspend owners, landlords thrilled

Upper West Side zip code is second only to Las Vegas in federal tax liens–again

Scientifically suspect survey by biased group finds 74 percent of brokers expecting Q4 to be better than Q3

Schools snap up at land at a heady pace

Luxury rental building at Broadway and 77th Street to contain 181 units

Construction industry loses jobs in September as the real estate sector gains

You can make an appraiser’s life–and yours–easier by preparing for inspection

Auction set for condo in which Credit Suisse broker endured house arrest overlooking Madison Square Park

Did you miss purchasing one of the 10 Manhattan’s properties with lowest price per square foot?

Pricier Hamptons homes enjoy rebound in sales, in part thanks to foreign buyers

Biggest income inequality occurs in Morningside Heights-Hamilton Heights, lowest is in Bellerose-Rosedale in Queens

Scant respite seen for renters in latest report

Purchasing a new condo can have its drawbacks

It took a while, but

Where’s that bottom everyone is talking about?

Buyers seem not only to be looking again, but they are starting to make offers.  And the offers are less likely to be insulting than they were just a couple of months ago.  Much of the activity appears to be centered on properties listed below $1 million, though buyers at higher levels clearly are less gun-shy than they were in the recent past.

If you doubt the foregoing information, have a look at Sunday’s New York Times, which leads the Real Estate section with a long piece that has the following headline:

Bidding Wars Resume

Regular readers of this blog and my e-newsletter won’t be surprised by the news: I have been warning that such wars would reappear once there occurred a perception that the bottom was here or approaching.  (However, my timing was a bit off; I didn’t expect that change until sometime next year. In any case, I doubt the trend is widespread yet.)

Ask buyers about their renewed interest, and the answers are almost the same: