Median home sales prices in Brooklyn rose 5 percent in the third quarter of 2011, according to Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Brooklyn quarterly survey of sales, as The Real Deal previously reported. BrickUnderground.com has some theories as to why the borough saw price increases in a relatively bleak quarter that saw flat prices in Manhattan. Aside from the obvious — affordability, driven in some measure at least by condominiums built with tax abatements — the factors behind Brooklyn’s sales numbers, BrickUnderground said, include less-crowded elite schools, vibrant small businesses and, of course, the best views of Manhattan you can get without living in Hoboken. [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]

A view of Jed Garfield, of Leslie J. Garfield & Co.’s kitchen and upstairs living room, which is filled with Damien Hirst paintings and sketches

From the November issue: A New Yorker’s address is a marker of identity — especially if the New Yorker is a residential real estate broker. This month, The Real Deal peeked inside the homes of some of Manhattan’s top brokers to find out what’s behind their front doors.

The five brokers we visited, who were all in the top 20 on The Real Deal’s latest list of top Manhattan agents (published earlier this year, in the June issue), may specialize in different sectors of the market, but they have all used their industry knowledge to pounce on insider deals and access otherwise obscure properties.

So it’s perhaps no surprise that their own homes seem to match up with the homes that fuel their businesses. [more]

The Real Estate Board of New York held its 23rd annual Residential Deal of the Year Awards and Charity Gala last night at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers. The top prizes went to Sharon Baum, senior vice president and director of the exclusive properties division of the Corcoran Group, who received the Henry Forster Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Norman Horowitz, executive vice president at Halstead Property, who won the first prize Residential Deal of the Year Award in  sales. The Rookie Salesperson of the Year Award was given to Sarah Williams, an agent with Halstead Property, for what REBNY called “her impressive entry into New York City’s residential sales market.” – Miranda Neubauer [more]

Dottie Herman, president
of Prudential Douglas Elliman

Though pricing indicators were mixed, the volume of Manhattan residential sales increased in the third quarter of 2011, creating an overall picture of stability in Manhattan’s residential market, according to quarterly reports issued today by the city’s largest real estate brokerages.

The market’s bright spots included an uptick in sales at the most expensive end of the market — larger or relatively high-end properties (those at $5 million and above) — as well as an overall decrease in inventory, which buoyed prices, and an influx of foreign buyers investing in condominiums, experts said.

The median sales price hardly budged since last year, dropping a mere 0.3 percent to $911,333, an increase of 7.2 percent over the previous quarter, according to a report from Prudential Douglas Elliman. As The Real Deal reported in the October issue, the number of sales rose 16.7 percent year-over-year and 17.2 percent since last quarter, hitting 3,106, the report said. [more]

Even though Hurricane Irene mostly passed over New York without too much damage, there is still lingering concern about what the impact of a larger storm could be on the larger number of developments rising on the New York waterfront, the New York Times reported, as for many the hurricane was the first time many realized they lived in evacuation zone A.

To limit damage from storm surges and flooding, the city’s comprehensive waterfront development plan, “Vision 2020,” recommends the installation of retractable water-tight gates at the entryways of buildings; investing in the maintenance of seawalls and bulkheads; creating “soft edges” along the shoreline that can accommodate surging tides; and restoring or creating wetlands and barrier islands. According to “Vision 2020,” sea levels by 2050 could be 12 to 29 inches higher than they are today. By 2080, they could be some 55 inches higher. [more]

Stephen Ross, founder, chairman & CEO of the Related Companies, and Pamela Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group, turned out at last night’s Stroock & Stroock & Lavan real estate reception at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Time Warner Center (see photos above). In the Mandarin ballroom, with its breathtaking view of Central Park, Columbus
Circle and the East Side of Manhattan, top real estate executives, lawyers
and others networked with each other over drinks and food.
Others spotted were Joseph Moinian, CEO of the Moinian Group, and Leonard Boxer, chairman of
Stroock’s real estate practice. — Miranda Neubauer [more]

Five additional properties from the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Brooklyn
are going on the market with the Corcoran Group, after three other properties
were listed with Massey Knakal Realty Services earlier this summer,
the New York Times reported.

The five Brooklyn Heights properties have a combined asking price of $18.8 million and belong to the Watchtower Bible and
Tract Society, the legal and publishing entity of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses. One of the houses is a carriage house built in the late
1800s on Columbia Heights, and is currently configured as two
apartments with a four-car garage. It has an asking price of $4.5
million. [more]

A supposedly haunted mansion in East Hampton has been sold for $9.25
million, according to Newsday.
The rumored ghostly inhabitants of the property may have caused its
price to drop from $19.5 million, the paper suggests.

The house is the former home of late Hamptons antiques dealer Barton
Kaplan, who died in 2002. His friend, Sam Wagner, has been discussing
the rumors in newspaper reports, saying that the building is not just
haunted by Kaplan, but also by Montauk Indians buried on the grounds
hundreds of years ago. [more]

From left: RentJuice’s David Vivero, Noah Rosenblatt of Urbandigs and a screenshot of RentJuice

San Francisco-based online rental management company RentJuice, which launched in 2009 and expanded to New York earlier this year, has launched a new Facebook-inspired feature.
The RentJuice Directory offers real estate pros the ability to browse and search for other real estate companies in their area, establish new partnerships, and send and receive a continual stream of rental listings, via one dashboard, the company said.
Sharing rental listings has always been tricky, with new property listings coming from various different sources, including big-money brokerages as well small, independent real estate firms. Sites such as listings and real estate information site Streeteasy.com and Brooklyn’s Multiple Listings Service,have made strides in bringing all the listings to one place, but the battle is never completely won.
While the majority of brokers say they embrace the market’s ever-growing transparency, some have responded by becoming less willing to share information than before. Hoping to give themselves an advantage in the market, some brokers hang on to listings and keep stum. [more]