Home sales slowed in Manhattan during the fourth quarter of 2010, but aggregate prices increased as consumers bought larger homes, according to fourth-quarter market reports released by the city’s major brokerage firms today. The median price of homes sold in Manhattan in the last three months of 2010 increased between 3 and 11.2 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, according to market reports from Prudential Douglas Elliman, the Corcoran Group, and sister companies Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens (which use the same data to produce their reports). [more]

From left: REBNY’s Neil Garfinkel and Halstead’s Diane Ramirez

A new law requiring a real estate agent to have clients sign a form stating that they understand whom the agent represents and to whom the agent will give “undivided loyalty,” will go into effect this year, the New York Times reported. The disclosure law is designed to clarify the roles of buyers’ and sellers’ agents. “This is a consumer protection law, but it also protects brokers, because now they will have a written record of what they’re already required to do now verbally,” said Neil Garfinkel, residential counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York. [more]

From left: Diane Ramirez, 380 Lenox Avenue and 1485 Fifth Avenue

Halstead Property has just signed on to be the exclusive sales and
marketing representatives for 380 Lenox Avenue and for 1485 Fifth Avenue, president Diane
Ramirez told the New York Times. She also spoke about Windows on 123 in Harlem, where Halstead
replaced the Corcoran Group as marketing agents; two contracts have been
signed since they took over, and 13 units are left. As 2010 comes to a close, the real estate market is doing better than expected, Ramirez said. Comments

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From left: Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, the firm’s old East Side office location at 1356 Third Avenue and the new building at 499 Park Avenue (building photos source: PropertyShark)

Halstead Property’s East Side office will be relocating to a new flagship location at 499 Park Avenue, at the corner of 59th Street, doubling the residential firm’s existing space, Halstead President Diane Ramirez announced today. The new office will occupy 17,000 square feet on the 14th and 15th floors of the I.M. Pei-designed building, whose glass façade provides views of Central Park. Plans are still being finalized, and the construction will be overseen by the Gensler architecture team. The East Side office, at 1356 Third Avenue between 77th and 78th streets, will close when the new location is completed. TRD

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TRD publisher Amir Korangy mingles with guests

Earlier this month, 1,400 people attended The Real Deal’s sixth annual forum addressing “The Road to Recovery.” Check out photos of people shmoozing during the networking portion of the event as well as the scene during the panel discussion and the Q & A with Sharif El-Gamal, chairman and CEO of Soho Properties and developer of the Park51 mosque and community center near Ground Zero. The panelists included hotelier Ian Schrager, CEO of the Ian Schrager Company; Daniel Tishman, chairman & CEO of Tishman Construction; Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies; Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services; Howard Lorber, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property. TRD

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Hotelier Ian Schrager, CEO of the Ian Schrager Company; Daniel Tishman, chairman & CEO of Tishman Construction; Jeff Blau, president of Related Companies; Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services; Howard Lorber, chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, and Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, batted around market issues in a panel discussion at [more]

Susan Dougherty

The real estate community is mourning the loss of longtime Halstead Property agent Susan Dougherty, who died Wednesday at t [more]

With rumors swirling that basketball great LeBron James may be headed to New York City, more brokers are jockeying for the Cavaliers’ prize player’s business. Halstead Property head Diane Ramirez has taken its effort one step further, crafting a comprehensive marketing scheme, including a video featuring retired NBA star John Starks, “Every King Needs a Castle” (see video above). Ramirez showed off her basketball prowess — sinking a backwards basket — and promised to donate her company’s commission on James’ new home to the charity of his choice. TRD

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With rumors swirling that basketball great LeBron James may be headed to New York City, more brokers are jockeying for the Cavaliers’ prize player’s business. Halstead Property head Diane Ramirez has taken its effort one step further, crafting a comprehensive marketing scheme, including a video featuring retired NBA star John Starks, “Every King Needs a Castle” (see video above). Ramirez showed off her basketball prowess — sinking a backwards basket — and promised to donate her company’s commission on James’ new home to the charity of his choice. TRD

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From left, Conan O’Brien, 115 Central Park West and Dolly Lenz

The co-op unit that NBC’s Conan O’Brien sold at the Majestic co-op building at 115 Central Park West, for close to its $29.5 million asking price, “had a quirky
layout,” said Dolly Lenz, the vice chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman who brokered the deal, the New York Post reported. “But it was the big terrace — the southeast-facing terrace — that sold it.” That terrace is one of the apartment’s three private terraces, outdoor space which makes a difference when marketing real estate. According to the Wall Street Journal, the sale ranks as one of the biggest residential sales of the year so far in Manhattan. Lenz recently brokered another deal for an apartment on
Central Park West that boasted 4,000 square feet of outdoor space,
which sold almost the moment it went on the market for its full $13.9
million asking price. While outdoor space is often priced at about 25 percent of the price-per-square-foot of interior space, the terrace or roof deck can command a huge premium. “In this hectic city, having a place to go out and have a cup of coffee on, or a place
to take your dog, is the extra little special bit,” said Diane Ramirez, president of Halstead Property, which is marketing a 4,400-square-foot Upper East Side duplex penthouse co-op with 5,000 square feet of terrace and an indoor pool for $5.5 million. “It’s just a jewel factor.” [Post]

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