Weekly Roundup: Q4 sales tumble in the Big Apple, U.S. sales slide, rates match record low

Sales down in Q4, prices about even

Can any other condo top this?

Board turndowns become all the rage

Yes! You can suffocate the bug(gers), but at a cost

The Financial District is up and Murray Hill is down

Inflexible dog policy can bite co-ops back

While NYC residential lending is loosening in some corners, the industry is moving slowly in its recovery

Four renovation surprises that can cost a bundle

Region’s foreclosure rates leap in October

Taxes on property sales dropped to $982 million in 2010 from $3.3 billion in 2007

The Times answers questions about co-op sponsors, smoking and the sale of common areas

Weight-loss guru trims price of southern California home for kin

Bunny is hopping off her private Cape Cod island

Former NFL chief

Weekly Roundup: Rates up in seasonal market

Important housekeeping announcement:  There will be reduced frequency in August until after Labor Day, but you can look forward until then to Out and About, some typically critical posts taken on The High Road, perspectives on sellers and buyers, and other information meant to be both illuminating and, occasionally, even entertaining.  This regular Friday feature will return on September 9, when it will be combined with The Big Apple.

Pending home sales rise for second consecutive month

Sales of new homes continue to move sideways in June

By Case-Shiller’s gauge, May home prices increase normally with seasonality

Economists reflect on the numbers

The Fed see little change in U.S. housing market

Following Treasury yields, rates climb 0.8 points and exceed a year earlier

Self-employed

Weekly Roundup: Price indices are down, or up

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About, which I postponed to bloviate on pressing news, early next week.

Scraping up cash, convict’s brother puts his Long Island mansion on the market

He directs that his Los Angeles home be sold for $10.9 million

Case-Shiller has single-family house prices dropping to mid-2002 levels, a new  low since then

A Wall Street Journal writer puts the numbers in perspective

Monthly index of home prices increases 0.7 percent in April

30-year mortgage dips to new low of

Case can’t predict, and Times gets NYC wrong

Karl Case, whose name is practically immortalized as co-creator of the Case-Shiller Index, said in September that he thought the housing market may be near a bottom.

In a paper he presented at the Brookings Institution, the Wellesley emeritus professor of economics observed that nine of 20 metro areas had shown price improvement and the relationship between incomes and house prices was nearing a level that occurred at the end of previous housing downturns.

In the New York Times that same month, he wrote that “housing has perhaps never been a better bargain.”

That was September, you might note, so why take issue with him? One reason would be

Weekly Roundup: Latest stats leave future murky

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

ONETIME CLUB IMPRESARIO WHO’S NOW INTO HOTELS UNLOADS 3,900-SF CONDO FOR $11 MILLION

TIGER’S TIGER BURNING. . . HOPEFULLY

RENTAL FIT FOR A PRINCESS GETS ONE (2nd item)

SHE’S GOTTA LOVE HIS TOWNHOUSE AT $27,000 A MONTH

HE TOPS LIMIT MORE THAN A YEAR EARLIER FOR THE SALE PRICE OF A MANHATTAN CO-OP

VIOLINIST SAYS HE EITHER PLAYS ONE THING OR SLEEPS IN ANOTHER, NOW IN A NEW PLACE

BECAUSE HIS ESTATE HASN’T SOLD, DANCER/ACTOR ACKNOWLEDGES THE LIKELY NEED TO TAKE STEPS (2nd item)

CASE-SHILLER REPORTS THAT

The Big Apple: Will there really be a condo shortage?

IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT IN YOUR APARTMENT, YOU CAN DO MORE THAN WHINE ABOUT IT

Even when you turn off your radiators, your apartment is a miserable sweatbox.

Meantime, some of your neighbors are complaining that they’re not getting enough heat, so cranking down the basement boiler fueling your inferno isn’t the answer. But BrickUnderground.com helpfully supplies answers to the seasonal curse of overheated co-ops and condos.

HUGE DEVELOPMENT ON COLUMBUS AVENUE ENJOYS RESOUNDING SUCCESS

Columbus Square boasts 500,000 square feet of retail space, including a Whole Foods, Modell’s and a TJ Maxx, 710 rental apartments with elevated landscaped gardens, two private schools and a $650 million price tag.

That’s a lot of units to fill at premium prices, but demand has been strong so far. The first two buildings, where one-bedrooms start

Weekly Roundup: Luxury homes sell on 2 coasts. More!

Here’s your chance to catch up with news included to inform, enlighten and perhaps even entertain you. To read about The Big Apple, check out the other of today’s posts and look for Out and About early next week.

HIS HOPES ARE NOW IN A MUCH LOWER RANGE

AT ITS ASKING PRICE, CO-OP WILL NEED TO BE AS POPULAR AS LATE WOMAN’S RESTAURANT

WIDOW OF LATE MEDIA BILLIONAIRE FACES FORECLOSURE OF 23,500-SF MANSION

CHOREOGRAPHER STEPS UP TO 1,826-SF DUPLEX

SERIAL KILLER’S LONG ISLAND HOME MAY SOON BE SOLD

CASE-SHILLER’S LATEST NUMBERS SUGGEST THAT THE GLASS IS HALF FULL–OR NOT

BIG SPENDERS OPEN WALLETS IN

Prices are up and down here, depending on ‘here’

Metropolitan Area	NSA	SA	NSA	SA
Atlanta	-0.8%	-0.7%	-0.3%	0.1%
Boston	-0.3%	-0.1%	-0.6%	0.0%
Charlotte	-0.4%	-0.4%	-0.2%	-0.5%
Chicago	-0.4%	0.4%	-0.4%	1.0%
Cleveland	-0.3%	-1.1%	-0.0%	0.6%
Dallas	-1.1%	-1.1%	-1.1%	-0.7%
Denver	-0.1%	-0.1%	-1.4%	-0.9%
Detroit	-0.5%	0.5%	-1.6%	0.1%
Las Vegas	-0.1%	-0.5%	-0.8%	-1.5%
Los Angeles	-0.4%	-0.9%	-0.3%	-0.4%
Miami	-0.3%	-0.3%	-0.7%	0.2%
Minneapolis	-0.3%	-0.7%	10.7%	-1.8%
New York	-0.2%	0.0%	1.2%	0.9%
Phoenix	-1.3%	-2.2%	-0.6%	-1.5%
Portland	-0.9%	-0.8%	-0.3%	-0.9%
San Diego	-0.6%	-0.6%	0.7%	-0.2%
San Francisco	-0.3%	-0.8%	0.5%	-0.7%
Seattle	-0.8%	-1.0%	-0.1%	0.2%
Tampa	-0.5%	-0.4%	-0.2%	-1.4%
Washington	0.3%	0.0%	1.0%	0.5%
Composite 10	-0.1%	-0.2%	0.8%	0.0%
Composite 20	-0.2%	-0.3%	0.6%	-0.2%

Source: Standard & Poor’s and Fiserv
Data through August 2010

If you’re wondering about about Manhattan prices, pay absolutely no attention to the Case-Shiller indices.  The erroneously defined “city” statistics are shown above.

As I never tire of repeating, the numbers do not reflect what really is happening in cities (though the trends are of some interest).

Not only does Case-Shiller ignore sales of co-ops and condos,

The Big Apple: Q3 reports suggest stabilization

PRICES ARE UP AND SALES ACTIVITY IS DOWN IN THIRD QUARTER

After two years of unpredictable sales trends, the Manhattan real estate market seems to have settled into a more typical and seasonal pattern, with prices rising slightly and sales volume dipping in the recent summer months, according to third-quarter market reports, says the New York Times.

Prices increased for the fifth straight quarter, with the average sales price hovering around $1.43 million and the median price around $910,000, according to data provided by the city’s four largest brokerage firms. But prices are still well below the market’s height a couple of years ago, when the average was higher than $1.7 million and the median was close to $1 million.

Inventory has declined, reports the Real Deal, and the Wall Street Journal says Manhattan is a star in the apartment market.

But my post (below) on Wednesday questions whether September has evolved into a healthier market.

FIVE NEW YORK NEIGHBORHOODS ARE AMONG NATION’S MOST COSTLY

The West Village’s 10014

Karl Case (of -Shiller) argues for homeownership

Karl E. Case, professor emeritus at Wellesley

Being a real estate broker, I hardly can let pass without comment an op-ed piece in the Times last week.

It was written by Karl E. Case, one of the two economists behind the S&P Case-Shiller Indices. Although I regularly object to putting any stock in those numbers for residents of Manhattan (because the statistics embrace whole regions and include only single-family homes), I don’t have reason to believe that Case has any particular axe to grind.

In his column, Case makes this remarkable statement: