The Real Estate Board of New York held its 23rd annual Residential Deal of the Year Awards and Charity Gala last night at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers. The top prizes went to Sharon Baum, senior vice president and director of the exclusive properties division of the Corcoran Group, who received the Henry Forster Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Norman Horowitz, executive vice president at Halstead Property, who won the first prize Residential Deal of the Year Award in  sales. The Rookie Salesperson of the Year Award was given to Sarah Williams, an agent with Halstead Property, for what REBNY called “her impressive entry into New York City’s residential sales market.” – Miranda Neubauer… [more]

While the wave of residential market reports issued by brokerages earlier this month found Manhattan home prices to be stable, the Real Estate Board of New York found prices to be increasing.

The average Manhattan home price in the third quarter increased 5 percent compared to the prior year quarter to $1.39 million, according to the REBNY report released today. Citywide, REBNY found home prices increased 8 percent to $780,000. Chelsea/Flatiron saw the biggest price increase over the last 12 months, as homes averaged $2.08 million, 16 percent more than they cost in the third quarter of 2010. – Adam Fusfeld… [more]

RealPlus, developer of real estate listings platform R.O.L.E.X., is planning to launch an enhanced version of the system, offering greater control in how firms co-broke and exchange listings, the company announced today.

The R.O.L.E.X. system will be available to all Real Estate Board of New York members as an optional, fee-based service.RealPlus handles as many as 10,000 transactions per day, it said, and supports over 500 firms, all members of the REBNY Listings Service.

Features of the new program, RealPlus said, include the option to feed listings to the New York State Multiple Listings Service, supply listings to national property site Realtor.com automatically and it offers a quicker means of co-brokering listings. — Katherine Clarke… [more]

Warburg broker and REBNY technology chair Steven Goldschmidt

The Real Estate Board of New York is updating the technology behind its residential listing service, Crain’s reported, and switching to Stratus Data Systems from RealPlus Online Listings Exchange. The new service, which is compatible with applications and software that allow more programs to access information from the listing service, will be implemented in January, but the switch won’t be complete for a year.

“We needed a system that could keep up with the times,” said Steven Goldschmidt, a broker at Warburg Realty and chair of REBNY’s technology committee. “We are going from a 1995 Audi to a 2013 Lexus.”… [more]

Over three-quarters of New York brokers believe that next quarter’s values and sales will be better than or the same as last quarter, according to a second-quarter survey conducted by the Real Estate Board of New York and released today. The survey found that 77 percent of respondents reported closing rental transactions at or above asking rent in the second quarter, up 16 percent from the quarter prior. Additionally, 13 percent more brokers reported closing rental transactions and 4 percent more reported closing sales compared to last quarter. Ten percent more brokers reported closing sales at or above asking price compared to what brokers reported in the second quarter of 2010. – Miranda Neubauer… [more]

New York City home sales prices inched upward, while sales activity blossomed in the second quarter of 2011, according to a report released today by the Real Estate Board of New York.

Sales activity increased 10 percent from the first quarter of 2011, but is down four percent from the same period a year ago due to “unseasonable fluctuations” caused by the looming expiration of the homebuyer’s tax credit, according to Steve Spinola, REBNY’s president. Meanwhile, sales prices increased 2 percent from last quarter and 3 percent from the same period a year ago. In the second quarter “we saw a return to normal cyclical market patterns,” Spinola said. – Adam Fusfeld… [more]

From left: Halstead Property President Diane Ramirez, Eileen Spinola of REBNY and Secretary of State Cesar Perales

The little-known 15-member New York State Board of Real
Estate that helps craft regulations for the industry and hears
public complaints about brokerage licensing has a mandate to
meet at least three times per year yet has not held a meeting in
more than 24 months.

The quasi-governmental body, which includes appointed
members such as Diane Ramirez, president of
Halstead Property, and Eileen Spinola, a senior vice president
for the Real Estate Board of New York, last met in June
2009, before either Ramirez or Spinola began their two-year
terms. Other members include real estate brokers from the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and upstate as well as corporate
representatives. The governor, and majority and minority
leaders in the State Senate and Assembly appoint the members.
There are currently two vacant positions…. [more]

From left: 333 West 86th Street and 235 West 75th Street (building photo credit: PropertyShark)

The Landmark Preservation Commission is holding a hearing today to
decide whether to create a historic district spanning West End Avenue
from 70th Street to 109th Street, DNAinfo reported. The
district would encompass more than 800 buildings, and quell growing
concern over the recent destruction of architectural detail on two Upper
West Side buildings. In the last two months ornamental urns were
removed from 333 West 86th Street and marble columns were detached from
235 West 75th Street. Though both incidents were licensed with proper permits, residents of the buildings were surprised and angered by the changes. … [more]

Clockwise from top left: Howard Dolch and Robin Abrams, Lansco; Gary Alterman, Robert Futterman, Ariel Schuster of RKF (credit Amanda Marsh); Joanne Podell, C&W; David Green, C&W; Natalia Macias, Tishman Speyer (credit Adam Pincus); Cherri Nanninga, CBRE; Gene Spiegelman, C&W; Mark Finkelstein, Retail Strategies (credit Adam Pincus); (center) Robert Futterman, RKF; (r.) Benjamin Fox, Massey Knakal (credit Adam Pincus)

Robin Abrams and Howard Dolch of Lansco received the award for “Most Creative
Retail Deal of the Year” by the Real Estate Board of New York last night for their
representation of discount stores Filene’s Basement and Syms Clothing in opening a
new flagship location at 530 Fifth Avenue in Midtown.

Robert Futterman, Gary Alterman and Ariel Schuster of Robert K. Futterman &
Associates received a prize for the deal that “most benefits Manhattan,” for representing
grocery store Fairway Market, which took a space at 240 East 86th Street in Yorkville.

The awards for the 2010 top retail deals were announced at a cocktail party at 101 Park
Avenue in Midtown. TRD
… [more]

The Bloomberg administration is ramping up its opposition to a GOP-sponsored Senate bill that would cap property taxes for apartment building owners whose tax abatements are about to expire, calling it “a large tax break dressed up as housing policy,” the Daily News reported. The legislation, introduced by Senate Housing Committee Chair Catharine Young, would extend the now-expired 421-a tax abatement program for four years, while imposing a 30-year cap on property taxes for landlords whose abatements are expiring and who agree to keep 20 percent of their housing units affordable. In those cases, property taxes would be capped at 20 percent of the buildings’ rental income, and according to Bloomberg administration officials, the city would lose an estimated $2 billion in revenue as a result…. [more]