Comptroller John Liu

An audit on the city’s property assessments found more than 10 percent of Queens co-ops were overvalued by as much as 25 percent, according to the New York Post. Comptroller John Liu said the sudden spike was do to an unpublicized shift to a flawed new computer system that improperly compared properties. For example, in one case a co-op in the East Village was examined against a property in Washington Heights, according to the Wall Street Journal, and in another a parking garage was contrasted with a residential building, the Times said. [more]

City Finance Commissioner David Frankel agreed yesterday to cap property tax hikes on co-ops at 10 percent, caving to pressure from City Council members. According to the Daily News, the change of heart came in response to an outcry by some 300 co-op owners, who were told their taxes were likely to increase by more than 50 percent this year. The Finance Department, which used a new computer system to assess the properties, said the astronomical assessments were in some cases due to a glitch in the new system; other properties had simply been undervalued for years. [more]

Frustrated with increasing property taxes on rental apartment buildings, New York City developers and contractors are warning the Bloomberg administration that if it doesn’t change its tax policy, development of new rental buildings will stop, the Wall Street Journal reported. The increase has become a particular concern for owners of rentals built within the past two decades with 20 percent of their units set aside for low-income families. If taxes continue to outpace revenue, the Real Estate Board of New York says new development of these projects will not be possible. [more]

The city is planning to relinquish around 37,000 square feet of ground- and second-floor space in the Brooklyn Municipal Building to retail or development companies who would help transform the corner of Joralemon and Court streets into a shopping destination. The borough has been lobbying for such a plan for months, and today the Wall Street Journal reported that the city is accepting sale and leasing proposals for the space, with an official announcement expected today.

A study commissioned by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership recently found that the first two floors and the basement of 210 Joralemon Street could be worth $20 million in a sale for retail use. Comments

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Co-op and condominium transactions in Manhattan lagged in November, according to data from the New York City Department of Finance. The figures, compiled from deeds and co-op sales documents, show that sales in the first two months of the fourth quarter were more than 25 percent below the first two months of the prior quarter. So far this quarter, the average apartment price was nearly flat while the median price fell 3.9 percent. The median co-op prices fell while the median condo price rose. But according to the Journal, brokers say the local housing market is still faring better than the market across the country, where prices have been sliding and mortgage delinquency and foreclosure rates remain high. Comments

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Simon Elias (left), Flatotel at 135 West 52nd Street and Izak Senbahar

Alexico Group is facing a $196.7 million lawsuit at the Flatotel, after Atlas Capital accus [more]

Sales of Manhattan apartments picked up during the second quarter of 2010, to the fastest pace since the summer of 2008, a sign that the market has been recovering during the spring selling season, the Wall Street Journal reported. During the second quarter, which ends June 30, sales were running 80 percent above the pace reported a year ago, according to the Journal’s review of closed-sales filings with New York City’s Department of Finance. The market for Manhattan co-ops was particularly strong, with sales comprising about 54 percent reported so far during the second quarter, hitting the highest pace since the summer of 2007. Though analysts said there has likely been a modest recovery in prices, some brokers have cautioned that a further recovery would depend on the pace of recovery for the U.S. economy as a whole. The most recent figures are still more than 25 percent below the peak sales figures reported in mid-2007, when condo prices were rising quickly, and apartments in new condo developments were selling fast. The Journal also reported last week that buyers were favoring condos over co-ops, since they are easier to acquire, somewhat of a reversal from the typical recession buying trends. [WSJ]

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Sales of Manhattan apartments picked up during the second quarter of 2010, to the fastest pace since the summer of 2008, a sign that the market has been recovering during the spring selling season, the Wall Street Journal reported. During the second quarter, which ends June 30, sales were running 80 percent above the pace reported a year ago, according to the Journal’s review of closed-sales filings with New York City’s Department of Finance. The market for Manhattan co-ops was particularly strong, with sales comprising about 54 percent reported so far during the second quarter, hitting the highest pace since the summer of 2007. Though analysts said there has likely been a modest recovery in prices, some brokers have cautioned that a further recovery would depend on the pace of recovery for the U.S. economy as a whole. The most recent figures are still more than 25 percent below the peak sales figures reported in mid-2007, when condo prices were rising quickly, and apartments in new condo developments were selling fast. The Journal also reported last week that buyers were favoring condos over co-ops, since they are easier to acquire, somewhat of a reversal from the typical recession buying trends. [WSJ]

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Could a lack of counter space be forcing one of New York’s premier chefs to pack his bags for a new home? Daniel Boulud, the French restaurateur, has put his three-bedroom condominium unit at 610 Park Avenue, above his famed restaurant Daniel at 65th Street, on the market, brokers say. The 2,500-square-foot Upper East Side apartment, which has three bathrooms, is on the market for $6.5 million, according to a listing at that street address that first appeared two weeks ago on Brown Harris Stevens’ Web site, without pictures of the kitchen (see accompanying slide show). That listing does not have a unit number, and the agent for it, John Burger, would not confirm that the apartment is Boulud’s. “I can’t comment on any of my clients,” Burger said. But city property records indicate Boulud does own a condo in the building. And one of the photos in Burger’s listings shows some furniture upholstered in striped animal-hide-like fabric that would seem to match the “zebra-print couch” Boulud refers to in a 2003 interview in the New York Times interview about his home. [more]

The average sales price of a home in New York City sank 22 percent to
$644,000 in the second quarter of 2009 from $824,000 at the same time last
year, according to a report released today by ResidentialNYC.com, the
real estate listings Web site maintained by the Real Estate Board of
New York. The report, which tracks data about co-ops, condos
and one- to three-family homes in all five boroughs from the city’s
Department of Finance, found that the number of home sales in the city
dropped 35 percent to 7,194 from 11,008 in the second quarter last
year, while in Manhattan, sales plummeted 47 percent to 1,788 from
3,348 in the prior-year quarter. Second-quarter reports released by city brokerages last Thursday showed a more dramatic drop in sales — a decline of at least half from the second quarter of 2008. TRD [more]