Soho and Tribeca were the most expensive New York City neighborhoods in the second quarter of 2011, but Dumbo was a surprising fourth entry on the top 10 list, according to PropertyShark.com. Dumbo was ahead of many other Manhattan neighborhoods such as the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side, the West Village and Chelsea, with a median sale price of $1.075 million. That price increased 9 percent from the median sales price in the second quarter of 2010, which was $990,000. Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill was also on the list at number 10, with a median sales price of $801,000. Soho was tops at $2.147 million, a 26 percent increase over its 2010 second-quarter price of $1.7 million.
— Miranda Neubauer [more]

(source: PropertyShark)

Foreclosures on co-op apartments in New York City reached a two-year high during the second quarter, more than quadrupling in number since the second quarter of 2010, according to the latest data from PropertyShark.com.

The spike was fueled by a major uptick in scheduled foreclosure auctions in Manhattan, which had 66 in the second quarter, up from 27 at this time last year, and from 41 in the first quarter, the data shows. But the increasing distress that was apparent among Manhattan co-op owners wasn’t replicated elsewhere in the city, with all other boroughs — which have traditionally been much harder-hit by foreclosures — seeing year-over-year declines in the number of auctions scheduled during the second quarter. – Sarabeth Sanders [more]

From left: Allen Street Hotel construction photo (credit: Curbed) and a rendering of the project

DAB Group is facing a foreclosure suit at its stalled 16-story Allen Street
Hotel project on the Lower East Side, after the loan was acquired by
Manhattan-based Maverick Real Estate Partners.

Maverick acquired a $5.5 million note from Brooklyn Federal Savings Bank,
after DAB, a Valley Stream, N.Y.-based developer, allegedly went into
default, according to the complaint filed July 1 in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The loan had an initial due date of June 1, 2008, with an optional extension
to December 2008. In August 2008, DAB received an extension until Sept.
1, 2009, with three six-month extensions, until March 1, 2011. [more]

The total amount of new commercial debt issued in the city’s three most
populous boroughs fell slightly in the first half of the year compared with the
same period in 2010, new data provided by PropertyShark.com to The Real Deal
shows, even as commercial sales have rebounded strongly from the recession.
There were $5.2 billion in new commercial mortgages filed with the city through
June 27 of this year for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. That’s down 7 percent
from the same six-month period in 2010, when $5.6 billion in new mortgages
were inked, but up from the first half of 2009, when $4.8 billion in new mortgages
were filed (see chart above).
The anemic rate over the past three years represents an approximately 60
percent decline from the level of the $13.2 billion in new mortgages filed in the
first half of 2008.
In contrast, investment sales in the five boroughs fell from $19 billion in 2008 to
$4 billion in 2009, then rebounded to $12 billion in 2010, data from investment
sales firm Massey Knakal Realty Services shows (see chart comparing mortgage and sales data after the jump). [more]

From left: 40 Willow Place, 50 Remsen Street and 24 Evans Street (building credits: PropertyShark)

The mansion at 40 Willow Place in Brooklyn Heights is valued at $6.14 million, and while that might not garner so much as a second glance from New Yorkers residing across the East River, that makes it Brooklyn’s most valuable home. In fact, according to a PropertyShark.com report cited by Brownstoner, eight of the borough’s 10 most valuable homes are located in Brooklyn Heights. The ranking is based solely on the city’s assessment and does not take recent sales into account. That’s why 50 Remsen Street, the second most valuable home, is assessed at $5.85 million despite trading for $6.5 million in 2007. It also explains the absence of Gravesend homes, which, as Brownstoner notes, comprised many of the largest sales in the borough. [more]

(source: PropertyShark)

Scheduled foreclosure auctions on residential properties fell by another 47 percent in New York City last quarter, according to the latest figures from PropertyShark.com, which tracks the number of first-time home auctions planned citywide. Foreclosures have been on the decline in the city since last fall, when some of the nation’s largest lenders imposed freezes in response to an investigation into improper foreclosure practices by a coalition of attorneys general from all 50 states.

The coalition is said to be in the midst of discussing the terms of a proposed settlement with lenders, which would likely include some combination of fines, penalties and new regulations. But no agreement has been reached, and several news outlets have reported infighting amongst state officials over how severe banks’ punishment should be.

Meanwhile, the uncertainty has ground foreclosures to a virtual standstill. [more]

Scheduled foreclosures on New York City residential properties plummeted last month as mortgage servicers continued to reel from the so-called robo-signing scandal that surfaced last year and prompted a nationwide investigation into their foreclosure practices.

According to new data from PropertyShark.com, just 43 foreclosures were scheduled for the first time last month citywide, down 59 percent from the 106 scheduled in January 2011. That’s also 83 percent below the 247 foreclosures scheduled in the city during October 2010, the last month before foreclosures began their nosedive as a result of temporary lender-imposed freezes. The freezes came in response to revelations that lenders’ foreclosure paperwork was wrought with errors and that oftentimes, affidavits had been signed with little or no prior review. [more]

Vacancies in new developments stick out like a sore thumb and in Manhattan alone, at least 46 condominiums built or converted in the past five years have 69 empty retail spaces, according to PropertyShark.com. That’s in addition to new rental towers and Brooklyn’s condos which also have vacancies. “It looks incongruous,” urban planner Ethel Sheffer told New York Magazine. “It doesn’t continue to provide the kind of animated street life that most people like about cities.” The reasons for the lingering vacancies can be traced back to the recession, as the ground-floor retail market is still recovering. Comments

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Click to enlarge (source: PropertyShark)

Newly scheduled residential foreclosure auctions in New York City hit another low in January, continuing the downward trajectory that began in the aftermath of the so-called “robo-signing” controversy late last year.

According to new data from PropertyShark.com, which tracks the number of foreclosure auctions scheduled for the first time there were just 106 such filings in January, down from 247 in October 2010, when the scandal surfaced and lenders began to impose temporary foreclosure freezes. The city’s peak was 473 newly scheduled foreclosure auctions in June 2009.

Each building class — including co-ops, condos, single-family homes and two-family homes — saw similarly dramatic declines in scheduled auctions of between 40 and 60 percent on a year-over-year basis.
[more]

From the February issue: After being acquired in the spring by a California company, PropertyShark.com is seeing some big changes — starting with its office. The online real estate database company moved to 370 Lexington Avenue late last year, a space three times the size of its original office at 9 West 29th Street, according to Brian Scully, PropertyShark’s director of marketing.

Scully said that the new owner, real estate software company Yardi Systems, was consolidating some of the companies it had acquired over the last year, including two relaunched real estate publications, Multi-Housing News and Commercial Property Executive. [more]