From left: Mark Weiss, vice chairman of Newmark Knight Frank, 1290 Sixth Avenue and 14 East 103rd Street (credit: PropertyShark)Buoyed by an aging population, new government initiatives and, in some cases, the struggling economy, health care industry real estate activity in the city has doubled over the last year, according to the New York Times.

This year there have been 42 new leases and renewals totaling more than 1.2 million square feet, according to Cushman & Wakefield, compared to 25 transactions and 550,700 square feet in 2010, and 16 deals for 176,311 square feet in 2009.

Many of these deals, including ColumbiaDoctors’ 25-year lease for 120,000 square feet at 1290 Sixth Avenue, with rights of first offer for additional space, were spurred by an expected increase in demand stemming from President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, the Times said. [more]

From left: Edward Mermelstein and TRD Publisher Amir KorangyIs the housing market bound to correct itself, or does it need government guidance to get back in the right direction? That’s the question at the center of the debate over President Barack Obama’s Home Affordable Refinance Plan, which gives underwater homeowners wider access to the market’s low interest rates.

“What we’ve learned over the last couple of years is regardless of the regulation that’s put out to either force the banks to lend more or to loosen the regulatory measures, it hasn’t shown to have worked,” Edward Mermelstein, a New York City real estate developer and a partner and co-founder of law firm Rheem Bell & Mermelstein, told Multi-Housing News. “Let the market correct itself … the less interference that’s provided, the quicker that’s going to happen.” [more]

Developer Donald Trump had some advice for the Occupy Wall Street protesters in an interview with Sean Hannity that appeared on Fox News last night (see video above).

“If I could speak to that group,” he said, jokingly admitting he’s probably not the person they’d want to hear from, “I’d say, ‘Folks, let’s go. Let’s hop on the train, let’s hop on the planes — we’re going down to Washington.’”

That answer was prompted in part by Hannity, who showed no restraint in expressing his dismay for the Obama administration’s policy towards the banks.

But earlier in the interview, Trump admitted banks “have not been treating people properly.” [more]

From left: President Barack Obama and Utah Senator Orrin HatchThough critics have long panned sections of the U.S. tax codes that subsidize housing and mortgages as overly expensive and unfairly benefiting the wealthy, policy makers at a Senate Finance Committee hearing were wary of changing any law that could do more harm to the fragile housing sector, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The mortgage-interest deduction tax code deducts taxes from mortgage interest and property taxes and excludes home sellers from the capital gains tax on most sales. Some say it facilitated the housing bubble and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that gradually abolishing it would save about $215 billion by 2021. Other research has shown eliminating the code would have a minimal affect on the nation’s homeownership rate. [more]

From left: Donald Trump, Mitt Romney and the Trump Tower at Columbus Circle

Donald Trump has apparently become a mandatory pit stop on Republican presidential candidates’ long drives to replace President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. And usually it makes for a great photo opportunity.

But MediaBistro reported that when Mitt Romney “went off to kiss the ring” of the Donald, he did so privately inside the Trump Tower, evading, and ultimately disappointing, a legion of press stationed outside the building.

“Well, pictures were snapped,” Trump later said to Fox News. “But they were snapped privately.” [more]

Drastic changes are needed to stimulate a housing recovery according to a New York Times editorial, which urged President Barack Obama to push forward plans for principal reductions on home mortgages and easier refinancings.

The editorial argued that the overall economy won’t improve until the “tens of millions of Americans… crushed by the overhang of mortgage debt” get some relief. Because nationwide housing prices have declined 33 percent since the market’s peak, 14.6 million homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. Lowering interest rates, the argument goes, simply is not enough. [more]

Donald Trump more than made up for three months of not having his name attached to public office yesterday, when his name was linked to not one, but two positions — treasury secretary and, once again, president.

While discussing S&P’s recent downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on CNN, Trump said he would “consider” running on the independent ticket “if the economy continues to go the way it’s going, and if the Republicans pick the wrong candidate,” ABC News reported. He said it might be time for an independent candidate.

In May, The Donald withdrew his bid for the republican presidential nomination.

Meanwhile, earlier yesterday on Fox News, Mike Huckabee suggested Trump would make the perfect Timothy Geithner replacement for treasury secretary, according to the New York Daily News. [more]

Just because President Barack Obama’s latest budget proposal calls for rollbacks in mortgage interest deductions solely for high-income taxpayers, should a homeowner assume that all of his or her write-offs are secure from attack? Absolutely not. In fact, those tax benefits — from capital gains exclusions to home equity and second-home interest deductions — might be more vulnerable to broad-based cutbacks during the next two years than at any time in decades.
Here’s why: An influential, bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill — led by a so-called “gang of six” in the Senate — is drafting a legislative framework that would essentially seek to implement much of the president’s deficit-reduction commission report released last December. [more]

President Barack Obama (top right) and images from his former apartment at 142 West 109th Street

President Barack Obama may call the White House his home this President’s Day, but during his Columbia University years, a two-bedroom in Morningside Heights was his abode of choice, according to the New York Daily News, which took a look inside the apartment, in honor of the holiday. The apartment, unit 3E at 142 West 109th Street, has seen extensive renovations since Obama lived there three decades ago. The $1,900-a-month apartment between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues was leased up last August. [NYDN] [more]

The federal Making Home Affordable Program received a dismal review in the January Housing Scorecard from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, after it was revealed that roughly one out of every five mortgages modified in the plan falls back into default within a year. The program, aimed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, has seen limited success since it was unveiled in fall 2009, with few participants reaching a permanent mortgage modification, despite ongoing support from the Obama administration. And while around 20 percent of homeowners default after a year in the program, 15.9 percent are upwards of 60 days late on payments after nine months. TRD