With 12 units left for sale at the 249-unit Kalahari condominium in
Harlem, FSLM and L+M Development Partners have slashed prices. The building, at 40 West 116th Street
between Lenox and Fifth avenues, is 95 percent sold out including the
four units scheduled to close this month, according to a press release
from L+M. Prices have been cut by as much as 20 percent, the release says. The price of a 1,386-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bath
apartment, for example, has been cut by nearly 6 percent to $815,000
and a 1,732-square-foot four-bedroom, three-bath unit is currently
going for $1.14 million, a 19.5 percent discount, the release and other
pricing information show. The new prices at the green development are reportedly to better reflect the current going rates;
the original prices were determined in 2007, the same year when sales began.
It was not immediately clear how the price cuts would affect residents
who paid the pre-bust prices. At other Harlem developments, like Beacon Towers
at 29 West 138th Street, new buyers were enticed with a $300
maintenance discount in order to spur sales, but the same incentive was
not extended to existing homeowners in the building. Halstead Property
is managing sales for the Kalahari, which includes an on-site parking
garage. TRD
[more]

A quarter of the homes on the market nationwide had seen at least one
price cut as of the beginning of this month, according to real estate
search Web site Trulia.com. A total of $27.8 billion has been cut from
the prices of active listings, and the size of the price reductions has
increased month-over-month for the past three months, Trulia said. Cuts
have been most common in major metro markets, with 66 percent of the
top 50 markets seeing above average price reductions. Cuts have
averaged 10 percent off the original listing price. TRD [more]

The price of a duplex penthouse at Trump Park Avenue, listed for $51 million until it went off the market last month, is now back on the market — for $20 million less. Broker Adam Modlin is now listing the apartment for $31 million, about $5,000 per square foot. The apartment was one of the 10 properties in the city listed for over $45 million in late 2008. Modlin told the Observer that he and Trump agreed the price cut is “appropriate for today’s market.”

The New York Observer looks at the current status of 2008′s most
expensive apartment listings. Of the 10 properties listed for over $45
million in late 2008, half have been taken off the market without
selling. The one property that sold, a penthouse in the Time Warner
Center, saw its price reduced to $37.5 million from $65 million before
selling. Two of the 10, a $60 million penthouse at the Mark and Aby
Rosen’s $75 million 22 East 71st Street home, have not seen price cuts. [more]

From the May issue: As the saying goes, the rich are different
from you and me — though perhaps not so very different when it comes
to real estate downturns. Most of the highest of high-end listings and
sales in Manhattan are still concentrated on the Upper East Side, and
several brokers who traffic in such properties say the neighborhood’s
luxury market has taken a beating since fall. They note that sales of
blue-chip co-ops and townhouses have been practically nonexistent since
last September, and that price cuts for some of the city’s most
rarified addresses have become the norm. In other words, the Upper East
Side’s posh status has not made it exempt from the sales stagnation and
price drops seen throughout Manhattan in recent months. [more]

Artist Cosimo Cavallaro and former Yankee Bobby Abreu made multi-million dollar price cuts

An artist, a baseball player and a financier are among those who have
made million-dollar price cuts to their apartments. Filmmaker and
sculptor Cosimo Cavallaro first put his 15,000-square-foot apartment
and gallery at 20 South Fourth Street on the market for $12.8 million a
year ago. After several price cuts, Cavallaro landed on an asking price
of $5.95 million last week. Former New York Yankee Bobby Abreu cut the
price of his One Beacon Court condo to $6.9 million from $7.9 million.
Ramesh Singh, who left his position as global head of mortgage-backed
securities at UBS, cut the price of his 823 Park Avenue home to $14.5
million last week, $10 million lower than the unit’s August list price
and $5.5 million lower than what he paid for the unit in June 2008. [more]

From the March issue: No one is actually announcing a borough-wide “fire sale.” But with hundreds of listings — for homes ranging from trophy apartments in glittering towers to shoebox-sized studios in prewar walk-ups — with price cuts exceeding 20 percent, one could be excused for thinking there was a giant clearance tag on the island of Manhattan. Or that there could be one someday, as analysts are now beginning to agree such steep discounts will only become more prevalent as sellers reckon with the stunning recession that has already scorched big cities across the country. This month, The Real Deal drilled down to examine price cuts in Manhattan, neighborhood by neighborhood. The island was divided into 12 districts (see map in A sinking island), customized data was gathered for each on past sales by PropertyShark.com and on current listings by StreetEasy.com, and industry players discussed how far listings would need to drop for property to move. [more]