Bubble Wrap

Top outer borough condos: Aspiring addresses in Brooklyn

The Real Deal covers the race for the highest priced sale in Brooklyn, with three buildings in contention. Several potential sales could reportedly bring new heights to the Brooklyn luxury market.

The addresses of the most expensive condominiums in Brooklyn — One Brooklyn Bridge Park , One Main Street and On Prospect Park (located at One Grand Army Plaza) — appear to herald their top rankings. Those three buildings, between them, account for the borough’s top 10 sales. In two cases, the developers applied for an official address change to get the aspirational number in their monikers, the equivalent of Donald Trump naming his newborn son “Barron.”

Unthinkable Happens: Manhattan Apartment Prices Fall

The Sun’s Candace Taylor reports on fresh data that sellers in Manhattan are starting to take losses on their properties, which could be the first sign of falling prices.

Real estate firms have continued to pump out market reports showing high sales activity and rising median prices, largely because they use home sales that took place several months earlier. Newly released city records — it can take several weeks or months before the records are made available — show apartment sales are falling. The data flies in the face of repeated assertions from industry insiders over the past several months that the Manhattan real estate market is impervious to the housing slowdown taking place across the country.

Madison Square's Mad Money

The New York Post reports on the dramatic transformation of the neighborhood surrounding Madison Square Park, which is about to get even more supercharged with new projects designed by Donatella Versace and Rem Koolhaas. Both buildings plan on having penthouses upwards of $50 million, breaking all Downtown records.

What bodes well for both the Koolhaas and Clock Tower buildings, aside from their starchitecture and iconic status, is that the Madison Square Park area has already bred not just one super-luxury building, but a slew of them. (And still on the horizon could be a Daniel Libeskind tower at One Madison Ave. – adjacent to the Clock Tower – being developed by Elad Properties, which did not comment on the project’s status.)

Slowing Foreclosures May Mask Bredth of Woes

The Wall Street Journal reports on the changing foreclosure landscape. Reports out later this month will most likely show a decline or leveling off of foreclosure filings, but this is most likely due to new state and municipal laws that put a temporary moratorium on foreclosures. Critics of these laws say they are just covering up the deep housing crisis.

Several other states are following, including New York which passed a bill last week that requires lenders to send a preforeclosure notice to certain borrowers at least 90 days before foreclosure proceedings may be initiated.

Second Homes Beckon as Real Estate Prices Drift Down

The Sun reports on the area’s second home market experiencing weakness, as brokers claim it is the perfect time to buy.

Areas outside New York, where wealthy city-dwellers flock on weekends — beaches in the Hamptons, vineyards on the North Fork, horse farms in northern Dutchess County — are not as resilient. For the Hamptons and North Fork of Long Island, for example, new figures released this week show the median sales price dropped 9.2% to $817,500 compared with the same period last year, while the total number of transactions declined 13% to 541, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s second-quarter report.

No, We Can’t

The Observer reports on the strong rental market buoyed by gradual layoffs, many newcomers to New York, and fewer buyers who are now renting.

Some rents in some neighborhoods did drop, on average—Chelsea non-doorman one-bedrooms dropped 9 percent from April to July—but the general trend was one of unremitting steadiness: no sharp peaks, and, more importantly, no deep valleys.

Fed to Clamp Down on Exotic and Subprime Mortgages

While both the Financial and Housing markets are still rocky, Bernanke said on Tuesday morning that the Fed would issue new lending rules next week to restrict exotic mortgages and high-cost loans for people with weak credit, as reported by The New York Times

“The financial turmoil is ongoing, and our efforts today are concentrated on helping the financial system return to more normal functioning,” Mr. Bernanke said, according to an advance text of his speech issued by the Fed. “It is not too soon, however, to begin to think about the steps we might take to reduce the incidence and severity of future crises.”

They Love (the New) Brooklyn

The NYTimes describes a new breed of Brooklyn renters looking for Manhattan-like apartments and finding it in Brooklyn. These renters have saved many developers from the over supply of new condos.

While condominium developers across the country are trying to unload thousands of apartments that they can’t sell, some builders in Brooklyn have found the real estate equivalent of a golden parachute. Having turned their new units into high-priced rentals, they have found a surprising number of eager takers.

Great Views, Priceless.

Josh Barbanel at the Times sums up the current frenzy at 15 Central Park West

Michel Madie, who runs an independent brokerage company in Manhattan, says the building is still in its infancy, having opened only last summer, which makes pricing something of a guessing game. “It is still at birth,” he said, “and it is difficult to assess where the price will settle” once the “cocoon of services” at the building is completed.

Mr. Madie is asking $21 million for a three-bedroom on the 36th floor with more than 2,700 square feet of space and park views, or about $7,600 a square foot, which would make it one of the most expensive apartments per square foot ever sold.

Nouvel Tower Gets the Nod Of City’s Landmarks Panel

Jean Nouvel’s masterpiece was recently resurrected with the approval of air right transfers according to The Sun

The landmarks commissioners yesterday unanimously approved the transfer of development rights from two landmarks on Fifth Avenue, the University Club and St. Thomas Church, to a site near Sixth Avenue formerly owned by MoMA, more than 500 feet to the west, where the new tower is scheduled to rise.

State Officials Predict a Deep Recession

The NYTimes reports on government concerns about the slipping economy and implications it might have on the state budget.

Job growth in the state is expected merely to stagnate next year. The downturn appears far worse nationally than previously projected, with more than $200 billion in write-offs so far through April at major financial firms and 63,000 layoffs in the financial and insurance sectors. On Wall Street, which supplies one-fifth of the state’s tax revenue, bonuses are now expected to be down 11 percent this fiscal year, after a small decline last year and a 25 percent increase the year before.

Loan crisis hurts Brooklyn renters, too

The NY Daily News writes about a recent study detailing that renters are feeling the effects of the credit crisis and increasing foreclosure rates in New York.

Brooklyn had the most renters affected by the mortgage crisis in the city last year, a New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy study found.

More than 7,000 residents lost their apartments in foreclosed Brooklyn homes last year, compared with 3,723 in Queens, 2,483 in the Bronx, 1,111 in Manhattan and 488 on Staten Island.

Face-off along 125th Street

Crain’s reports on the upcoming rezoning battle between the Bloomberg administration and the community groups opposing changes that would bring 20 story office towers and 2,000 market rate residential units to 125th Street.

The city’s overtures have not quelled many residents’ fears that gentrification will destroy Harlem’s unique character. And they are not convinced that development will lead to jobs. Many residents insist that they need better schools and job training, not rezoning, to improve their economic status. They note that many Harlem residents are shut out of office jobs available elsewhere in the city, and they don’t see how adding positions nearby will help.

Gowanus Gentrification Slowed

Brownstoner reports on several problems Whole Foods faces for their planned Gowanus location.

In addition to needing a full new building permit from the DOB, the DEC still has to approve the grocer’s plans to build on a wetlands. Even though construction can’t actually begin on the store, in mid-March the DOB put a stop work order on the property that’s only been partially lifted for contractors to make the site safe by erecting a better fence. The DOB entry on the stop work order says that “hazardous conditions were observed during inspection” and that there was a “failure to safeguard public & property” because the construction fence was down.

Sneak peak at the upcoming market reports

Curbed has a preview of the big brokerage market reports, which will show inventory increasing at a fast clip, while prices have continued to rise over the past year.

Oh my, this is going to be an interesting week. But while the number of transactions may be down from this time last year, prices still seem to be rising. Brown Harris Stevens’ and Halstead’s chief economist reports a 14% property price increase, to a median of $850,000. The final feast before the empire collapses?

Bloomberg Proposes Neighborhood Parking Permits

Crain’s reports a new piece of the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan Now, neighborhood parking permits?

Designed to give residents preferential parking treatment in their own neighborhoods, the plan would restrict parking in certain spaces during a 90-minute period for those without permits.

Under the proposal, which could come to fruition as early as next fall, individual neighborhoods could opt in to the program through their Community Board, with additional approval from their City Council member and borough president.

City officials hope the plan will prevent commuters from driving into neighborhoods and parking for the day, while using the subway to get into Manhattan. The proposal could be particularly beneficial for neighborhoods that include Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Long Island City, and the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan.

Paulson Calls Housing Crisis Significant Risk to Economy

Wall Street Journal Online reports Treasury Secretary Endorses Standards for Mortgage Brokers, Expects More Declines in Housing Starts

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson offered a sobering view Tuesday of the pressure the housing market was having across the country, saying the decline stood “as the most significant current risk to our economy.”

Mr. Paulson even acknowledged that problems in credit, mortgage, and housing markets were much more severe than anticipated.

“The ongoing housing correction is not ending as quickly as it might have appeared late last year,” he said in a speech to Georgetown University Law Center, according to prepared remarks. “And it now looks like it will continue to adversely impact our economy, our capital markets, and many homeowners for some time yet.”

NYC not totally immune

Crain’s New York Business reports NYC braces for foreclosure surge

The number of New York City homeowners facing foreclosure is on track to reach the highest point in more than a decade.

Lenders have started foreclosure actions on 7,000 homes since January, according to the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project. By the end of the year, the number is expected to exceed 14,000, which would represent a 60% increase over 2006.

Gehry Playground at the Battery

From Gothamist, Frank Gehry Designs His First Playground for NYC

At the Battery Conservancy’s gala last night, Mayor Bloomberg and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe announced that Gehry would design his first playground in Manhattan. Benepe said, “It is fitting that the Battery, the birthplace of New York, will be home to another first Frank Gehry’s newest creation will be a truly innovative play experience for New Yorkers and visitors alike, for the young and the young-at-heart.”

City Got Stonewalled

From the New York Post, Apt. Bosses ‘Knew Collapse Was Near’

The collapse of a massive stone wall on the Henry Hudson Parkway two years ago could have been prevented if the property owner’s engineers had alerted the city to the danger and done more than try to tie the structure to a tree, a scathing city report has found.

A nearly two-year probe of the collapse at Castle Village in Washington Heights determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling.