Weekly Roundup: Inventory stress, historic low rates, family matters, new kitchen trend. More!

State gives into developers’ concerns about requiring offering plans to be digitized

There is nothing like a closing

Long Island City is starting to turn the corner

Renters indirectly stuck with lion’s share of property taxes

Industry casts skeptical eye on real estate brokers serving on their building’s board

Real Deal tackles rent vs. buy by Manhattan neighborhoods

New kind of report slices and dices rents by neighborhood and building type

Although half of 2007’s peak, residential construction mushrooms

Inventory shortage is causing unseasonable stress

Some of the priciest apartments

Out and About: You gotta love the neighborhood

In early May, Riverside Park is this side of paradise.

A while back, I quoted Paul Purcell, who is a founder of Charles Rutenberg Realty, as mentioning what he termed an old saw:

You’ve got to like your home, but you’ve got to love your neighborhood.

Smart and obvious, though not to me until then.

The concept came back to me last month when watching a friend of mine, Teri Karush Rogers of BrickUnderground.com, on WNBC-TV, where she was talking about mistakes that buyers make.  She confessed that she twice had made one such mistake, and you’ve guessed what it is: She loved two places to which she moved but hated the neighborhoods.

As for me, I’ve lived in seven different Manhattan neighborhoods.  In order, they have been Morningside Heights, Washington Heights (in a section that has taken on airs as “Hudson Heights”), close to the East Village (18th and First Avenue), central West Village, Gramercy/Flatiron and now the Upper West Side near the 96th Street express stop on Broadway.

I can’t say

The Big Apple: Many brokers express optimism

Renting out your apartment entails pitfalls that can be avoided by knowing them.

Once you rent out your apartment, you create a “landlord-tenant” relationship with your renter.

That relationship is governed by a set of very specific (and technical) laws enacted by New York State and New York City, notes blogger and real estate lawyer Ron Gitter, who is a friend of mine.

Those laws tend to favor your tenant, but the “Landlord-Tenant Part” of the Civil Court of New York City does offer a judicial forum, albeit not necessarily a speedy one, for resolving issues that can’t be settled by mutual agreement between the parties.

Condo owners need to consider an array of business related issues before they enter into a lease.

Firm’s analysis has New York City surging ahead of most others in many categories a decade and a half from now

Cities are regaining their previous glory, according to MicKinsey Global Insight, with New York poised to lead the pack.