54 Bond StreetFrom the February issue: “It’s like being in the desert,” luxury broker Donna Olshan recently said
of the inventory in the high-end Downtown Manhattan market.
“There’s nothing to buy,” reiterated agent Alison Rogers of DG Neary
Realty, when the fourth-quarter Manhattan market reports were released.

The very beginning of the New Year is always a cyclical low point
for residential inventory in New York, as sellers pull their listings
from the market in the hopes of re-launching their efforts with vigor in
time for the spring buying season.
But this year’s January inventory trough was actually 5.8 percent
above its year-ago level, according to the real-time listings tracker on
UrbanDigs.com. And at press time, inventory had already risen by 6.5
percent in the three weeks since then. [more]

It may seem like run-of-the-mill common sense, but background checks are an increasingly-crucial step for landlords and property managers, according to R.Q. Investigations, a full-service private investigation company. More landlords and owners have begun delving into potential renters’ and buyers’ backgrounds before accepting offers, according to R.Q., to keep from getting hosed. “During a bad economy, real estate investors and real estate professionals are being a lot more cautious when it comes to approving a rental agreement,” R.Q. said in a statement. “An individual with judgments, liens or bankruptcy is more likely to default on a home loan or rental agreement.” TRD

Conventional wisdom tells us that seemingly too-good-to-be-true Craigslist apartments are often just that. But Time Out New York decided to put this theory to the test, visiting the real-life counterparts of some photo-less, dubiously advertised units. The result was surprisingly positive, with just one of the four units examined deemed to be a complete aberration from its promised credentials. The sub-standard apartment in question, a $1,850-per-month one-bedroom with a “bathroom the size of an airplane lavatory” and a “window in the closet; ideal for growing cannabis” was called out for being worse than promised in its ad.