Out and About: Harlem on my mind

Please note:  This weekly feature will return on Jan. 7, by which time everyone should have recovered from the holidays, including me most of all.

It has been many months since I looked at property in Harlem. However, I showed several apartments to an international buyer there last month and came away impressed.

We concentrated on the area of South Harlem near Morningside Park, and I was swept away by the value, ambiance and even convenience of the area bordered by 110th Street, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (Seventh Avenue), Morningside Avenue and around 123rd Street. View Map

As my buyer and I ambled along 125th Street west from Lexington Avenue, even that thoroughfare engaged me.

I marveled again at

The Big Apple: Don’t try to remember September

BONUS FEVER AND DISCOUNTS HAVE THE CITY’S HOUSING MARKET IN THEIR GRIP

Since the economy melted down, bonuses have been up, down and spinning all around. Anticipation has had brokerages and developers panting one minute and totally depressed the next.

While the bonuses have had brokers and developers abuzz, another obsession has been rippling through the real estate world over the last week: discounts.

THOSE SPIFFY NEW DEVELOPMENTS LOOK GREAT, BUT BUYERS NEED TO GIVE THEM MORE THAN A ONCE-OVER

Every freshly minted building has problems that can range from buckling floors to cooling systems that sound like a Fresh Direct truck parked outside your window to leaky roofs that can cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, observes Brick Underground.

If you are in the market to buy and this is news to you or you and your neighbors are just starting to compare punch lists, you may want to get educated on the things that can go wrong in new or converted condominiums. Defects tend to fall into seven categories,