Citi Habitats President Gary Malin and the Greenwich Village office

Residential rental brokerage Citi Habitats has reportedly shut its Greenwich Village office, following the expiration of its lease at 214 Sullivan Street, between Bleecker and West 3rd streets, sources told The Real Deal. Agents working out of the office have been moved to other surrounding offices, a person who answered the phone at the company’s headquarters said, though representatives for the firm did not respond to requests for comment. [more]

From left: Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman and Citi Habitats President Gary MalinCiti Habitats President Gary Malin and Halstead Property Development Marketing President Stephen Kliegerman whipped out their crystal balls for amNY and noted five trends to watch for in the city’s “booming” real estate market in 2012.

Low interest rates, the strong rental market and the stock market’s daily swings will attract Wall Street investment to new developments, which Malin and Kliegerman say will become more prevalent next year. As for those new buildings, developers will likely offer deals on apartments in buildings that haven’t even begun construction yet in order to kick off sales. [more]

Andrew Heiberger has recruited 265 agents
and staff since launching Town a year ago.From the December issue: When Andrew Heiberger launched the residential brokerage Town, he prophesied that it would become the city’s biggest firm, vowing to hire the industry’s “best and the brightest.”

A year later, at least part of that prediction is on its way to coming true. With five offices and some 265 agents and staff, Town is undoubtedly the fastest-growing brokerage in Manhattan. By way of comparison, Rutenberg Realty — until now the city’s most rapidly expanding firm — didn’t top 200 agents until three years after its 2006 launch. (Rutenberg, in contrast to Town, has a low-overhead business model with just one small office.)

It’s still too soon to tell, however, whether Town’s agents will become the city’s best. At press time, Town said it had 152 exclusive listings worth approximately $405 million, with an average asking price of $2.67 million for sales and $7,500 per month for rentals.

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Rents in November (credit: Citi Habitats)

The Manhattan residential rental market has defied seasonal expectations by remaining remarkably stable even as winter approaches, according to a monthly rental market report from Citi Habitats released today. Prices are higher across the board and the vacancy rate is lower than during the past three Novembers, the report shows.

“While we would expect rents to decrease and the vacancy rate to rise from October to November, the city’s rental market truly held its equilibrium,” said Gary Malin, president of Citi Habitats. “People are staying in their current apartments. Rents are up and concessions are way down. If you don’t have to uproot yourself and your family, why would you?” [more]

From the December issue: As the year draws to a close, the future seems as opaque as a glass of eggnog. Some real estate professionals say pent-up demand in the residential market could foster a busy 2012, while others predict that a sluggish economy will keep prices and activity in check.

Citi Habitats vice president Jay Molishever said the high rents, relatively low sales prices and increasing activity he is seeing in the current market are good signs for the New Year.

“At some point,” he said, “the kindling is going to burst into flames again,” bringing high prices and high volume. [more]

Lenox Hill single-family mansions have become some of the city’s most in-demand properties, the Wall Street Journal reported, but they’re rare and often pricey.

The median asking price for a Lenox Hill home is $1.2 million, or $1,045 per square foot, according to data from Streeteasy.com, compared to $1,020 a square foot in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood and $999 a square foot on the Upper West Side. Closing prices for townhouses in Lenox Hill have ranged from $8 million to $48 million since 2008, data shows.

“It’s rare to find a house in Manhattan” that is the size of the single-family homes in Lenox Hill, said Susan Greenfield, senior vice president at Brown Harris Stevens. [more]

Gary Malin, president of
brokerage Citi Habitats

At least six new New York City rental websites have launched in the last 18 months, according to Crain’s, as the city’s booming rental market and low vacancy rates drive prospective renters to do what they can to avoid paying broker fees that range from one month’s rent to 15 percent of a year’s rent.

New rental sites include 18-month old UrbanEdgeNY.com, which provides no-fee apartment listings directly from landlords, and NakedApartments.com, where apartment hunters can search for free, but brokers and landlords must pay monthly subscription fees. The new start-ups face the challenge of standing out in a sector that now has around 30 sites, Crain’s noted, including industry fixtures like Streeteasy.com and Craigslist.com, the latter of which is increasingly deemed unreliable by consumers, according to Crain’s.

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From left: Packard Square North and a rendering of Crescent ClubWith the development of Gotham Center complex, the city had long hoped Queens Plaza would be the commercial compliment to Long Island City’s residential boom, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Queens Plaza is becoming a residential beacon, too.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 new apartment units could hit the market in the area in the next three years, led by developers Rockrose Development, Meadow Properties and Heatherwood Communities.

Heatherwood has purchased four residential development sites in the area, and the first of them is set to hit the market with 142 rental units in a little more than a year at 27th Street and 42nd Road. [more]

Sara Rotter, the former director of sales for the Gramercy, Flatiron, Chelsea and West Village offices of Citi Habitats, has joined Halstead Property as director of sales for downtown, Halstead announced today.

Rotter will be working closely with Richard Grossman, the executive director of sales for downtown.

“I am thrilled to welcome Sara to our executive team,” said Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property. “Sara and Richard will be the winning leadership team in the downtown market.” – Katherine Clarke [more]

Number of signed contracts for Manhattan home sales (Source: UrbanDigs.com)

The number of signed sales contracts for Manhattan condominiums and co-ops has declined every month since July, forecasting a drop in closed sales volume for the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012, according to Jeffrey Jackson, chairman of appraisal firm Mitchell, Maxwell & Jackson.

The most widly publicized figures from recent Manhattan market reports indicate an increase in sales activity in the third quarter compared to the previous quarter. Prudential Douglas Elliman, for example, said that sales transactions rose 17.2 percent over the previous quarter, while the Corcoran Group found a 6 percent quarter-over-quarter increase. [more]