Weekly Roundup: Lawbreakers in public, bottom in sight, actor in defeat, rates in short ascent

Note: I’m taking a short break, so this post is slightly abbreviated, there will be no Weekly Roundup next week and other posts will appear with less frequency until March 26.  

Prices, sales volume up at new developments in Manhattan, Brooklyn

In divorce action, wife accuses buyer of $88 million condo of hiding assets

Co-ops, condos below $3 million sell faster than 10-year average

State publishes online for first time names of real estate licenses who admit law violations

Sale prices of luxury homes wilt from 2010 to 2011

More apartment buildings sell in January but for less money than in December

13 apartment buildings have banned tobacco smoke

Link between bonuses and

Buyers’ cash flow can be improved easily

 

Buyers can stretch their purchasing power with a simple change they often overlook. (Flickr photo by tom@hk)

When contemplating the purchase of real estate, particularly in high-priced areas such as Manhattan, buyers often forget one useful way to boost their cash flow.

The omission pivots on how much of a tax benefit they can expect after filing their returns. 

Weekly Roundup: The Big Apple and Beyond

This holiday-weekend combined post is your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you.  You’ll find Out and About early next week and additional posts every day except President’s Day as usual.

COMMON DISPUTE ABOUT SQUARE FOOTAGE MAKES RARE COURT APPEARANCE

Four years ago, Rishi Bhandari and his fiancée put down a deposit on a condo in Downtown Brooklyn. The price was $795,000, for a two-bedroom two-bathroom apartment, reports the New York Times.

But just before they were to close,

The Big Apple: Will there be too FEW condos? More!

WITH NEW CONSTRUCTION AT ITS NADIR, LOOK FOR HIGHER CONDO PRICES BY 2012

As the market plods along in a slow but steady recovery, brokers and developers are saying the city will soon face a shortage of new development projects.

Last year, through November, the city issued permits for only 10 new residential buildings, for a total of 505 new units. That’s 95 percent fewer apartments, either condo or rental, than for the same period in 2008, when permits were filed for 9,448 units in 147 buildings, according to census data. (The number of units had dropped to 1,203 in 31 buildings in 2009.)

Starting in 2012, after most or all the new projects that were stalled or delayed have finally sold out, the supply of new apartments will take a decided dip, and prices for all apartments could start to rise significantly again.

“Once we work through the existing inventory and there’s nothing new coming on line,” President Kelly Mack of the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group told the New York Times, “there’s going to be a major shift in the market. Prices may start going up significantly in 2012 in anticipation of the shift in inventory.”

THAT OTHER INEVITABLE FACT OF LIFE IS GOING UP

Co-op and condo owners

Biggest impact of 80-20 rule change yet to be felt

After literally decades of campaigning by the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums, as well as others, a limitation on the amount of money that a co-op building can collect in rent from commercial (technically, patronage) operations was changed in December 2007 starting that tax year.

The impact of what was an expanded definition of “cooperative” has yet to be fully realized, though there are isolated instances of occasionally enormous benefits.

Until it was changed, the so-called 80-20 rule prevented cooperatives from enjoying a tax deduction for their expenditures on property taxes and mortgage interest if their income from retail stores, garages and such exceeded their operating budgets by 20 percent.

As a result, many commercial tenants were paying a pittance in rent, including nothing in the case of a few nonprofits such as, say, thrift shops.

With a new, more comprehensive definition of “cooperative” in the revised IRS rule, buildings now can permit the budgetary contribution of commercial rent to go over 20 percent. 

Batten down City Hall: Property assessment is out

Photo by wallyg on Flickr.com

New York City has announced that the total property tax assessment roll for the fiscal year beginning July 1 will rise tentatively to $796.6 billion, an increase of 0.12 percent.

For apartments, the assessment is going up 5.09 percent.  For single-family homes, the increase is 3.97 percent.

Co-op owners, hang onto your hats and wallets

You’re in for a rough ride.

If you have already received notice of a January maintenance increase, maybe you’re thinking of moving.

Don’t bother: Thanks largely to property taxes, most residents of co-ops and condos in New York City face a punishing boost in their monthly housing costs as early as next month.

If you own an apartment, look at the column labeled "Class 2."

Do the rates depress you?  It gets worse if you go farther back in time: