Supply is down in 28 different major metropolitan housing markets, according to the Wall Street Journal’s quarterly report on residential sales, with the New York City market showing the least amount of change in inventory. The number of homes listed for sale dropped just 2.5 percent in New York City since last quarter, according to the report. Long Island and Queens, listed as separate from the New York City market in the report, saw a 10.8 percent decline in inventory since the same quarter last year. Although all markets evaluated showed declines, the report said that there is major potential for inventory to creep back up, as banks acquire more foreclosed homes in the coming months.

The New York City Industrial Development Agency has granted preliminary approval for incentive packages for the expansion of two industrial companies in Queens. The program would give Dinas Distribution Corporation and PA Austin sales and real estate tax incentives valued at up to $1.5 million and $1.2 million, respectively. The NYCIDA, which the New York City Economic Development Corporation oversees, said that the two groups would create 45 new jobs immediately and around 20 more over the course of three years. The two projects will also generate around $7.4 million in tax revenue in the next 25 years, according to a statement from the group. “These two companies are perfect examples of the types of companies the NYCIDA was created to assist,” Seth Pinksy, NYCIDA chairperson, said. TRD [more]

From left: the L Haus in Long Island City, the Toren in Downtown Brooklyn

A spurt in sales activity over the summer strengthened the Brooklyn and Queens housing markets, though prices and sales volume are still weaker than last year, according to a third-quarter market report released today by Prudential Douglas Elliman. “It’s good news taken with a grain of salt,” said Jonathan Miller, the president of appraisal company Miller Samuel and the preparer of the report. “The wild card is going to be if we see an elevated level of activity going forward.” The number of home sales in Brooklyn leaped 29.3 percent to 1,847 in the third quarter, up from 1,428 in the second quarter. But sales were still down 19.6 percent from 2,298 in the third quarter of 2008. Meanwhile, the median sales price of a co-op, condo or house in the borough increased for the first time in two years, jumping 7.9 percent to $476,000 in the third quarter from $441,090 in the previous quarter. It’s still some 6.7 percent lower than the $510,000 median sales price in the third quarter of last year, however. [more]

Downtown Brooklyn and Queens’ Rockaway Point have been tapped to receive millions in stimulus money for developments. The Bloomberg administration granted $20 million for a housing and retail complex, City Point, to be built on the east side of the Fulton Mall in Downtown Brooklyn, and $16 million for a supermarket and shopping mall in Rockaway Point, Queens. The projects were chosen because they presented long-term commercial and construction opportunities for the city, according to David Lombino, a spokesperson for the city’s Economic Development Corporation. “We’re eager to sustain the momentum in neighborhoods like these that had benefited from significant private investment in more flush times but are seeing little today,” Lombino said. After financing those projects, the city still has approximately $90 million in federal stimulus funds yet to be distributed.

An Arizona-based company called Major Event Rentalz, which allows
homeowners to rent out their homes during sporting events that attract
thousands of out-of-town spectators, has now targeted homes in
Flushing, Queens, the site of the upcoming U.S. Open. The company is
offering residents of Flushing $2,000 a day to sublet a three-bedroom
and upwards of $10,500 a day to sublet an eight-bedroom home to
spectators who will flood the neighborhood for the tennis tournament,
which starts August 31. So far, 10 residents have offered their homes
through the online service, which collects a 10 percent commission,
while others are cutting out the middleman altogether and utilizing
Craigslist to advertise two-week sublets to tournament goers. However,
not all Flushing residents are thrilled about an influx of transients
entering the neighborhood. Sandi Viviani, president of the
Broadway-Flushing Homeowners Association, called the advertisements
degrading to the community and said she tears them down when she spots
them. Comments

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The family of Dale Hemmerdinger, outgoing Metropolitan Transportation
Authority chairman, is trying to take back control of the Shops at
Atlas Park, a Queens mall it founded and then lost to foreclosure in
February, sources told the New York Daily News. A foreclosure sale is
expected to take place later this year or early in 2010, and community
leaders in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens say the Hemmerdingers
formed ATCO Advisory Services, a subsidiary of their retail management
firm, to buy the mall back at the foreclosure sale. But Damon
Hemmerdinger, Dale Hemmerdinger’s son, said that ATCO Advisory Services
was not formed to bid on the mall. [more]

The decline of sales prices in Brooklyn and Queens accelerated in the
second quarter of 2009, with both boroughs showing double-digit annual
price drops, according to quarterly market reports released today by
Prudential Douglas Elliman. In Brooklyn, the median sales price
slipped 16 percent to $441,090 in the second quarter, from $525,000 in
the same period of 2008. Queens, meanwhile, saw a 13.8 percent decline
in median sales price, to $362,000 in the first quarter from $420,000
in the second quarter of 2008. For both boroughs, that’s a more
dramatic increase in median price drops than first-quarter 2009, when
Brooklyn saw a 10 percent decline in median sales prices compared to
first-quarter 2008, and the Queens median price fell 5 percent. [more]

The Department of Buildings’ Queens Quality of Life Unit has been
unable to address thousands of complaints regarding illegal home
conversions because inspectors have not been able to access private
properties, according to an audit by New York City Comptroller Bill
Thompson. The division received complaints about 8,345 properties
during the 2008 fiscal year and was unable to access 39 percent, or
3,279 of them. In 23,410 inspection attempts, according to a press
release from the comptroller’s office, inspectors were unable to gain
access 67 percent of the time. An illegal home conversion could mean
adding an apartment in the basement or garage of a home or dividing an
apartment into separate units. TRD Comments

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After committing to play their first two seasons at Long Island’s
Hofstra University, a new expansion soccer team called F.C. New York is
looking to build a 9,000-seat arena in Queens. The team, which has
discussed possible sites in Jamaica or Governors Island with Department
of Parks & Recreation officials, wants a stadium that is easily
accessible by several subways lines and has adequate parking. “We want
to play soccer in the best venue possible,” said Doug Peterson,
president of F.C. New York. “To get a franchise you need to have a
proper stadium, and we’d prefer to play in Queens.” [more]

A Chinese-American woman who sued the board of her building for discrimination won a $225,000 verdict, but the jury said there was no proof of racism. The jury awarded Lisa Sheen the money because it said her building, the Mainstay Cooperative in Flushing, Queens, criticized her for doing renovations to her apartment. Sheen, who sued the co-op board for $11 million, said the board tried to oust her from the building because she is Chinese. Sheen said this is the second time the co-op board has been sued for racial discrimination against Asians. [more]