From left: Howard Margolis, Marie Espinal, Ana Maria Sencovici and an apple, peeled

The Apple Peeled, a real estate blog overseen by the Howard Margolis team at Prudential Douglas Elliman, has unveiled its New York City Real Estate Sentiment Index, a ranking system to gauge industry confidence. Much like the National Association of Home builders’ Index, which measures building industry sentiment and outlook, the real estate index measures buyers’ and sellers’ current attitudes and well as their expectations for the future. According to the Apple, Peeled, it is “the first of its kind… [a] leading indicator for the NYC housing market.” The index, which culled responses from blog readers, counts any number above 50 as positive sentiment and any number below 50 as negative sentiment. In the index’s inaugural edition, released today, the overall score among buyers and sellers was 72. TRD [more]

15 Central Park West and (from top) Dolly Lenz, Howard Margolis and Michele Kleier

What does “trophy” really mean in New York real estate these days? The New York Times takes another look at the semantics of the market’s upper-upper-echelon this week, polling a number of the top brokers and appraisers in the city and not coming up with much of a consensus. Minimum “trophy” price tags ranged from $10 million to $45 million, with uptown trophy homes drawing higher cutoff prices than downtown ones. Definitions of “trophy” homes included: “my neighbors are famous;” “an apartment in 15 Central Park West;” and “I own what you want.” [more]

By Lauren Elkies and Amy Tennery

Linda Stein and images from inside her former apartment at 151 Central Park West

A home that once belonged to murdered broker-to-the-stars Linda Stein has seen an 11 percent price cut to $15.5 million, according to Streeteasy.com. Howard Margolis and Jeff Adler of Prudential Douglas Elliman, where Stein had worked, are marketing the unit, 8C, located at 151 Central Park West between 75th and 76th streets. They first listed the pad in October last year at $17.5 million. After their marriage in 1971, Stein and music producer Seymour moved into the Kenilworth, before selling it to the current owner in 1994. The building is known for its celebrity residents, including Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas. Despite Stein’s headline-grabbing death, Adler said he doubts her connection to the apartment will influence buyers. [more]

Dottie Herman

From the December issue:
Dottie Herman is the president and CEO of Prudential Douglas Elliman, which has more than 60 offices in New York City, Long Island and the Hamptons. Herman, who began her career as a real estate broker on Long Island, purchased Prudential Long Island Realty in 1989. After expanding the company to the Hamptons, she purchased longtime Manhattan brokerage Douglas Elliman for nearly $72 million with her business partner, Howard Lorber, in 2003. The company continues to grow, recently opening new offices in the West Village and in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Herman sat down with The Real Deal to discuss the challenges of starting in real estate as a single mother, career mistakes and balancing family and work.

Elliman’s Dolly Lenz has taken over marketing at the Apthorp

Superbroker Dolly Lenz has been tapped to oversee sales at the Apthorp as the project’s deadline to sell 25 units draws near. The project’s owners, Africa Israel Investments and Mann Realty
Associates, must sell roughly eight more apartments at the
163-unit Upper West Side condo conversion by September, the time frame
set in the offering plan, in order for the condo plan to be declared
effective. Seventeen units have gone into contract so far at the building, according to Howard Lorber, the chairman of Prudential Douglas Elliman, which is handling sales at the project. To sell the remaining units, the sponsors are “bringing out the big guns,” Lorber said.  More

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Howard Margolis discussed the Apthorp at a continuing education class at Touro College.

Now is a good time for deals at controversial Upper West Side condo conversion the Apthorp, said Howard Margolis, executive vice president and managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman, who heads up sales for the project. Prices have dropped to an average of $1,850 per square foot for a finished apartment, down from $3,000 when the 163-unit building, which spans an entire block between Broadway and West End Avenue on 79th Street, first came on the market in June 2008. The Apthorp narrowly avoided foreclosure in January after lenders Anglo
Irish Bank and Apollo Real Estate demanded that Maurice Mann, the
original sponsor of the condo conversion, pay more than $22 million to
correct a loan imbalance. Mann was replaced as managing agent by
Broadwall Management, and the price cuts represent the latest effort to
kick-start sales at the struggling building. [more]