From left: 2012 Manhattan Salesperson of the Year Wendy Sarasohn with Pamela Liebman; 2012 Manhattan Team of the Year Carrie Chiang and Janet Wang; and Maurice Singer and Yael Epstein with 2012 Brooklyn Salesperson of the Year Deborah Rieders.

The noted broker team of Carrie Chiang and Janet Wang took home the Corcoran Group’s award for the Manhattan broker team of the year at the firm’s annual awards ceremony, held earlier this month at hip Meatpacking restaurant Ajna. The pair produced sales in excess of $400 million in 2012, the company said. In 2011, that award went to Leighton Candler, who nabbed the Eastside salesperson of the year award this year. [more]

From left: Amir Korangy, Pam Liebman, Diane Ramirez and Dottie Herman

Inman’s annual list of the 100 most influential real estate leaders is out, and it includes some big New York City real estate names. [more]

Pam Liebman

The Corcoran Group’s new website, set to launch in the next few months, will be much more mobile device-friendly and will engage on a social level with prospective buyers and renters, Corcoran President Pam Liebman told the New York Times. In addition to showing pictures of the apartments on offer, it will show comments by agents on what’s happening in the neighborhoods in which those apartments are located.

The company will offer a “find” tool as opposed to a search tool, Liebman said, comparing the process of finding an apartment to finding a potential love interest online. [more]

Foreign investors of all stripes have been a major force in the U.S. housing market over the last year, but Chinese buyers, taking advantage of recession-priced real estate, better job opportunities and looking to get their children into prestigious American schools, are now the fastest growing demographic of foreign buyers. According to Businessweek, Chinese buyers, who often have no credit or access to financing, are paying all cash for homes that on average cost $400,000 — nearly twice the average cost of a U.S. home. Of the $82.5 billion invested into U.S. housing by non-U.S. buyers in the year period ending on March 2012, the Chinese accounted for 11 percent, most of which was concentrated in New York, Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California. [more]

From left: Mort Zuckerman, Susan Breitenbach, Aby Rosen and Billy Macklowe

From Apollo Global Management head Leon Black to Boston Properties boss Mort Zuckerman, the New York City real estate industry is a critical component to the East End scene. In fact, no fewer than 14 of the 100 most powerful people to descend upon the Hamptons this summer, as compiled by Hamptons magazine, are members of the industry. [more]

Corcoran Group President Pam Liebman and a Hamptons home

Sales activity is picking up in the Hamptons as sellers are beginning to lower unrealistic asking prices set when memories of the boom years were still fresh, Reuters reported. Home prices on the East End increased for six consecutive years between 2002 and 2007, but suddenly activity came to a halt because sellers’ prices were seen as too high, according to multiple real estate executives. Those sellers looked to blame everything but the economy, brokers say, including the listing agent, the marketing strategy and the appraisal. [more]

Clockwise from top left: Jennifer Reardon, Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman, Leighton Candler; Frank Castelluccio, Aaron Lemma, Liebman, Shanice Catini, Mara Ingram; Yael Epstein, Maurice Singer, Deborah Rieders, Liebman and Sarah Shuken; Carrie Chiang, Liebman, Tresa Hall and Janet Wang

The Corcoran Group’s Leighton Candler won the company’s top honors at its annual awards ceremony last week, Corcoran said today.

At the event, held at 230 Fifth Avenue, Candler was awarded the Manhattan Individual Sales Person of the Year award for 2011, the company said, as well as Corcoran’s Deal of the Year award. A company spokesperson was not immediately available to comment on which deal Candler was being honored for, but Candler last year sold hedge-fund manager Scott Bommer’s full-floor apartment on the 29th floor at the Ritz, at 50 Central Park South, for $30 million. [more]

Pam Liebman, CEO of the Corcoran Group, author Michael Gross and Wendy Sarasohn, senior vice president at Corcoran and hostess of the party (credit: Richard Lewin)

Yesterday evening a senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, Wendy Sarasohn, hosted an intimate yet lavish book party at her Park Avenue apartment for author Michael Gross. His new book, “Unreal Estate: Money, Ambition, and the Lust for Land in Los Angeles,” chronicles the lives of those buying in the Platinum Triangle — Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Holmby Hills — through their real estate.  [more]

From left, Prudential Douglas Elliman’s Dottie Herman, Halstead Property’s Greg Heym and the Corcoran Group’s Pamela Liebman The volume of Manhattan home sales declined at least 12 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, although prices continued to hold steady, according to quarterly reports issued today by the city’s largest residential real estate brokerages. Experts proffered a host of explanations for the drop in sales activity, from global economic chaos to low inventory levels to financing issues for buyers in the middle of the market…. [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]