New York City Real Estate Blog

Ferry Building on Ellis Island restoration cost $6.4 million

“Ellis Island's ferry building, from which millions of new Americans departed to start lives across the nation, will once again be open to the public more than a half-century after it was shuttered.

The 5,500-square-foot, art deco building is set to open Monday and will be the first of 30 shuttered buildings on the southern, New Jersey, side of the island to reopen after extensive restoration.

"This was one of the happiest places on the island," said Elizabeth Jeffery, director of program development and administration for Save Ellis Island, a nonprofit that, with the National Parks Service, helped spearhead the $6.4 million restoration of the ferry building. ”

NEW LIFE FOR FERRY BLDG. ON ELLIS IS.(NYpost)

Immigrants’ Final Stop on Ellis Island to Reopen(NYTimes)

Save Ellis Island: Ellis Island Ferry Building Exhibit

Newark’s tide of violence might be ebbing?

“Mayor Cory A. Booker looked at the police statistics in front of him and let out a relieved sigh. Three months into 2007, overall crime here in New Jersey’s largest city had dropped some 40 percent from the previous year. Shootings were down 42 percent, rapes 27 percent.

After years on the rise, it seemed as if Newark’s tide of violence might be ebbing.

Sitting in a City Hall conference room at his weekly public safety briefing three weeks ago, Mr. Booker turned to his police director, Garry F. McCarthy, and beamed. “These numbers are phenomenal,” Mr. Booker said. “Let’s hope they hold.”

Then he joked to the half-dozen aides gathered: “If any of you guys get shot over the next few weeks, please just make sure you don’t die.”

Crime Drops in Newark, but Murders Keep on Rising(NYT)

Low crime, reasonable commute, and good schools—who says you can't find a nice house in a suburb without paying a fortune?

“Buying your first house? Fleeing the city for a life within your means?

Here's a novel idea: Move to a suburb where you won't break the bank or get your car broken into. A community with reasonable home prices and decent schools. A suburb close to your city job, with a lively downtown of its own.

For hedge-fund managers, plastic surgeons, corporate lawyers, and other people who earn millions a year, choosing a suburb is not about affordability but convenience and, frankly, prestige. These folks don't balk at high prices or look for fixer-uppers. They can pay for prime real estate on the most exclusive streets in the fanciest towns with the best schools. If they want to live in Greenwich or Brookline or Lake Forest or Malibu, they can. Unfortunately, most people aren't so lucky.

Although they vary in price and quality, all of our affordable suburbs are located within an hour's drive of a major U.S. city, and many have a vibrant downtown scene, with fine restaurants, sophisticated shopping, and seasonal festivals.

"There are so many resources in a metro area," says Bert Sperling, founder and president of Sperling's Best Places and co-author of Best Places to Raise your Family: The Top 100 Affordable Communities in the U.S. He looks for places that suit the typical professional American family, making $50,000 or $60,000 a year. "People don't want to live in the middle of nowhere," he says.

Hudson Valley Haven

Take West Nyack, N.Y., this year's best affordable New York City suburb. About a 30-minute drive from Manhattan, West Nyack is one of five villages and hamlets that make up an area on the western bank of the Hudson River known as "The Nyacks." The neighborhood, which has a median home price of $605,700 (vs. New York City's $963,700), is perhaps known best as the location of Palisades Center, the largest shopping mall in the New York metropolitan area. ”

The 25 Best Affordable Suburbs in the U.S.(BusinessWeek)

MIDTOWN DUPLEX-$1,995,000

MANHATTAN: 230 East 50th Street (between Second and Third Avenues), #5-6C

A three-bedroom, two-and-half-bath co-op with central air-conditioning and two fireplaces in a doorman building. Matthew Mackay (212) 444-7895, David Menendez (212) 941-2553, the Corcoran Group; www.corcoran.com.

MAINTENANCE: $3,218 a month

PROS: The living room has a dazzling wall of windows and a double-height ceiling. The two large bedrooms, one on each floor, face south and overlook brownstone gardens. The first-floor bedroom has a large wet bar with two wine refrigerators. The apartment has elevator access on both floors.

CONS: The third bedroom is a converted maid's room and very small. The kitchen could use updating.

On the Market(NYT)

Borrowers are taking much longer to get the right deal

“AS homeowners across the country have dealt with the declining values of their houses and their ballooning mortgage payments, most New Yorkers seem to believe that the market here doesn’t play by the same rules.

But in recent weeks, a growing number of New Yorkers, often with six-figure salaries and reasonably good credit, have begun to find that mortgages are harder to get as lenders try to stem losses from loans to the weakest, or subprime, borrowers.

 

While mortgage brokers insist that most buyers in New York can still close deals, they also warn that people with any red flags on their mortgage applications will face delays and will pay higher fees. Potential problems include low credit scores or high credit-card balances or listing a suspiciously high salary for a given job.

“You’re going to pay the piper for any little mistake,” said Melissa Cohn, the president of Manhattan Mortgage Inc. She said her brokers — who last year arranged more than $3 billion in mortgages, mainly in New York City — were spending twice as much time on each application as they did a month ago because of new lending requirements, and she expects the situation only to get worse. ”

Columbia University’s proposal for a $7 billion expansion

“Columbia University’s proposal for a $7 billion expansion of its campus on 17 acres in West Harlem has touched off fears that another wave of gentrification will wash over this low-scale neighborhood of tenements, brownstones, housing projects, warehouses and small businesses.

Rising rents are already forcing out some longtime residents. Local politicians and community groups fear that Columbia’s project will draw other developers to the surrounding area and displace even more people.

According to a new study by the Manhattan borough president’s office, more than 200 lots scattered across the west side of Harlem are prime candidates for redevelopment. Under current zoning rules, a developer can build towers or dormitories that are far larger than the four- and six-story buildings commonly found in the area.

So Scott M. Stringer, the borough president, has proposed the creation of a special zoning district that would preserve the scale and character of the neighborhood, while encouraging the development of lower-cost housing and space for local businesses and retailers. The new zoning would also prevent the construction of oversized dormitories and other institutions that could overwhelm the neighborhood.”

Zoning Changes Proposed to Preserve West Harlem’s Character(NYT)

East Hampton-Area: South Fork

Price $3,400,000; Beds 4 Baths 5.5 Style Modern Water view none / mainland Pool yes Air cond. Central Air

 Sensational, high end residence boasts 4600 sq ft with 4+ bedroom suites, 5.5 Duravit baths, walls of glass, living room, den, media room w/ Sub Zero & wet bar, custom kitchen with Viking, Subzero and wine cooler, 4 fireplaces, climate controlled 2 car garage, 40 foot heated gunite pool with wall of water, outdoor fireplace.

East Hampton, East Hampton

Hamptons- " playground for Wall Street"

“With summer just around the corner, many New Yorkers' thoughts are turning to the Hamptons, and local real estate agents are thriving.

"The market is incredible. It's the best couple months we've had, probably since 2003," a vice president of the East End offices for the Corcoran Group, Rick Hoffman, said. He says high-end properties are selling fast, but rentals are doing even better.

"The last 30 days for the rental market was incredible," Mr. Hoffman said. "We will have a record rental this year."

Seasonal rentals, which run between Memorial Day and Labor Day, can range from $20,000 outside of the village to upward of $900,000 for three months of oceanfront property. Local agents say it's the most expensive properties that are hard to come by, but that news has hardly been discouraging. According to Mr. Hoffman, about 80% of Corcoran's active rentals are off the market — that's 10% more than a year ago at this time — and bargain shoppers are nowhere to be found.

"People use to accept the sort of big old ‘mildew manors,'" Mr. Hoffman, who has been working in the Hamptons for more than a decade, said.”

Hamptons Rental Market Soars(NUSun)

`Correlation Crisis'

“U.S. homebuilders may trigger a ``correlation crisis'' similar to the credit sell off in 2005 when Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. lost their investment-grade credit ratings, according to Bank of America Corp.

The ratings cuts to the automakers triggered losses for banks and hedge funds holding the riskiest parts of collateralized debt obligations, securities that package bonds, loans and credit-default swaps and use the income to pay investors.

An increase in the perceived risk of default by homebuilders such as Dallas-based Centex Corp. and Lennar Corp. in Miami could cause similar losses this year, Bank of America analysts Glen Taksler and Jeffrey Rosenberg wrote in a report today. Construction company profits have plunged since the five- year U.S. housing boom ended a year ago. Rising inventories of unsold homes and reluctance by potential buyers wary of falling prices has stifled sales.

``We see increasing risk signals that remind us of the run- up to the 2005 correlation meltdown,'' the analysts wrote in the report titled ``The Correlation Crisis of 2007?''

Bank of America Says U.S. Homebuilders May Trigger `Correlation Crisis'(Bloomberg)

“The recent wave of defaults in the subprime mortgage sector that sent shocks through Wall Street has caught the attention of Congress.

More than 2 million people with subprime loans are facing foreclosure this year and nearly 20 percent of subprime mortgages issued between 2005 and 2006 are projected to fail, according to a December 2006 study by the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonpartisan research and policy organization.

Foreclosures in the subprime mortgage market are expected to cost American households as much as $164 billion in lost equity from 1998 through 2006, the center reported.

Meanwhile, at least four subprime lenders have filed for bankruptcy since late December and many others closed last year.

Observers of the credit industry place the blame on predatory lenders and borrowers ignorant of the loans' terms and conditions.”

Looking for ways out of the subprime mortgage crisis(CNN)

 

Consumer spending last quarter proved resilient to declines in housing

“Consumers spent more in February while construction spending rose by the largest amount in 11 months, the government said Friday, in reports that should dispel some of the concerns about the health of the economy.

The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending, bolstered by strong income gains, was up 0.6 percent last month, the best showing since December. Personal income also rose by 0.6 percent. Both figures were double what analysts had expected.

In a separate report, the department said that construction spending rose by 0.3 percent last month, the best showing since a 1 percent jump in March 2006. Until the February increase, construction had either fallen or had been flat since the big rise last March.”

Consumer, Construction Spending Rise(NYPost)

“Meanwhile, inflation remains too high for the comfort of some Fed officials. From a year ago, policy makers' preferred price gauge climbed 2.4 percent, compared with 2.3 percent the prior month. The last time the year-over-year rise exceeded 2.4 percent was in April 1995.

Fed policy makers, including Bernanke, have said they'd be comfortable with inflation in a 1 percent to 2 percent range. The central bank on March 21 kept the benchmark overnight lending rate at 5.25 percent for a sixth straight meeting.

Forecasts

Economists had forecast a 0.3 percent rise in spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy, according to the median of 74 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Estimates ranged from no gain to a 0.5 percent rise.

Disposable income, or the money left over after taxes, rose 0.5 percent after rising 0.8 percent the previous month. Adjusted for inflation, disposable income rose 0.1 percent after a 0.6 percent increase. ”

Consumer Spending, Incomes in U.S. Rise, Reducing Chance of Fed Rate Cut(Bloomberg)

More of the same:

Consumer Spending, Incomes Gain; Savings Still Negative(FoxNews)

Economy Grows Only 2.5%, Hobbled by Housing Slump(NYSun)