Roundup of news about the Big Apple and beyond

NEWLY COMPILED DATA LETS YOU COMPARE MAINTENANCE FEES AND MORE IN DIFFERENT NEIGHBORHOODS

CONDOMINIUM TAKES ON SENIORS AND LEARNS A LESSON

WHAT DO STEEP PARK AVENUE DISCOUNTS MEAN FOR THE LUXURY MARKET, TROPHY HOMES?

BROOKLYN WOMAN DIES, MAN STEALS HER BUILDINGS, SO MAN HEADS UP RIVER TO NEW RESIDENCE FOR A LONG, LONG TIME

UNWANTED TENANTS COLLECT $1.3 MILLION AND MORE TO LEAVE CENTRAL PARK SOUTH BUILDING

ZECKENDORF TOWERS DEMONSTRATES HOW A GREEN A ROOF CAN BE

LATE PHILANTHROPIST’S APARTMENT SELLS AT A STEEP DISCOUNT

SELLER DRAGS IN

Pricing properties was usually easier than now

A trophy apartment seeking a buyer who needs no financing.

Pick a million, any million

When it comes to pricing properties these days, brokers in Manhattan are at a loss.  In a dynamic market, they’ll tell you, no one knows the best asking price.

Now, comparable recorded sales are almost useless: Those contracts were signed months previously, and the housing market has changed.

‘The Sky’s the Limit’

I’m 75 pages into a book called The Sky’s the Limit by Steven Gaines, and it’s one you may well want to pick up.

Not only is the prose exceptionally deft, but the author melds gossip, insider information about Manhattan co-ops and tautly related urban history.  I started it with some hesitation, and now I look forward to each time I can return to the quickly turning pages.

One anecdote that I had to share with you, dear Reader, concerns the iconic Edward Lee Cave, whose small and snooty real estate brokerage was absorbed by larger brokerage earlier this year.  (The author says he won’t consider representing the seller of a co-op, and no condos at all, worth less than $5 million.)