Jonathan Miller

From the April issue: The words may change, but it’s always a variation on the same tune: Every couple of months, someone sings the song of Case-Shiller, the widely cited home price index. The question for New Yorkers is whether it’s a local theme song. While there is no question that the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city housing index is an influential measure of the country’s shifting real estate fortunes, some New York-based number crunchers argue that it says almost nothing about the city’s — particularly Manhattan’s — real estate reality. Still, New York City publications often cite the index (one recent story ran under the headline “Housing Index: New York home prices decline 10 percent”). [more]

From left: Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs.com, Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group

As part of its 2010 “Neighborhoods Issue,” New York Magazine asked 10 real estate experts about their picks for the New York City nabes that will offer buyers the most bang for their buck by 2014. Pam Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group said West Harlem, while Streeteasy.com’s Sofia Song chose Morningside Heights. Melissa Cohn, president of Manhattan Mortgage, said that while southern Yorkville “hasn’t been popular in years,” it’s likely to appreciate in price over the next five years with the advent of the Second Avenue subway line. Retail veteran Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman picked the Garment District, where storefront leases are being snapped up west of Penn Station and there are plenty of new condominiums to house their customers. Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs.com chose the Financial District and Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management chose the Far West Side, in the 50s. Other experts had their eyes on the outer boroughs’ Flushing, Bushwick and Prospect Heights neighborhoods. [NY Mag] [more]

Noah Rosenblatt, founder of UrbanDigs

UrbanDigs.com is about a month away from launching a real-time Manhattan residential market analytics platform, a data service that reports market trends and figures.
Noah Rosenblatt, founder of brokerage and real estate research Web site UrbanDigs, said that the analytics program will run through a partnership with real estate database service RealPlus, and will feature a suite of user-friendly analytical tools. The program will be free, with an option to pay an approximately $15-per-month subscription fee for additional features.
Rosenblatt said that “the desire for more transparency” motivated him to pursue the analytics platform. While he wouldn’t say what specific market indicators will be analyzed until the platform goes live in the first week of May, he said that the platform will look at “every metric worth following in this market.” [more]

From the October issue: While brokers know they’ve got to work all their sources to keep
business flowing, in this down market, leads from their managers are
more coveted than ever. While the practice of managers “feeding” certain brokers potential
buyers or sellers can lead to behind-the-scenes sniping between agents,
it’s a reality of the business. In a down market, fed leads are less likely to go to inexperienced
brokers, or those with few connections, because management typically
doles them out to top producers, sources said. “A new agent is unlikely to get fed high-quality leads,” said Noah
Rosenblatt, founder of the firm Urban Digs. “Usually, management feeds
leads to the most productive agents, because then you don’t have to
worry about a young agent not bringing the sale in.”

Blogger Noah Rosenblatt leaves Halstead Property (Animation by Derek Zahedi)

Well-known blogger Noah Rosenblatt has left his post as an associate
broker at Halstead Property to focus more attention on his popular real
estate analysis Web site, UrbanDigs.com, and launch a new consulting
business. Rosenblatt will continue to work as a real estate agent for now, but
his license is now being held by the newly founded company associated
with his Web site, UrbanDigs Analytics and Consulting. Over the next six to eight months, Rosenblatt and his partner, Jeff
Bernstein, will also redesign the Web site “to make it more social and
interactive,” and add a suite of analytical tools to help buyers and
sellers assess the state of the real estate market, Rosenblatt said. [more]

Is the real estate downturn over already? Some brokers are suggesting exactly that — for New York City at least. Brokers
are reporting that contract signings and closings are picking up, in a
decided change from this past winter’s near total lack of activity.
While that market is nowhere near the stratospheric highs of 2007 and
2008, some are predicting that the worst of the downturn has passed. “I
think we bottomed out a few months back, maybe January or February,”
said Richard Hamilton, a senior vice president at Halstead Property,
who said he recently closed on a one-bedroom with a terrace for
$515,000, as well as a 1,600-square-foot apartment in Prospect Heights
– with competing bids — for $800,000. [more]