New Yorkers looking to purchase a “starter” apartment would be wise to stick to the East Side. Citing Streeteasy.com research, New York magazine reported that competition for selling studios and one-bedroom apartments in the Upper East Side, Lenox Hill, Turtle Bay and Murray Hill is so strong that more than one-third of those units have had their asking prices cut.

Apartments in those neighborhoods linger on the market for 33 to 42 weeks, on average, so owners “have to make their listings more compelling,” said Sofia Song, vice president of research at Streeteasy.com. [more]

In some of the city’s most desireable neighborhoods, prospective buyers are eschewing bargains and hedging their bets on rentals till the market returns.

In Riverdale, an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx, listings have skyrocketed, but sales have dropped, the New York Times reported, with available properties having increased by 80 percent over two years.

In fact, it would take approximately two years for buyers to absorb the current sales inventory in Riverdale, according to data from Streeteasy.com, more than double the time it might have taken even two years ago. [more]

Clockwise from left: An aerial view of Four Freedoms Park, an interior view, a view from the East River and Kathy Sloane, senior vice president of Brown Harris Stevens

Top co-op expert Kathy Sloane, a senior vice president and managing director at Brown Harris Stevens, has high hopes for Roosevelt Island’s Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park. Sloane, who sits on the board of the group spearheading the $53.4 million project, claims it will increase property values for the cluster of buildings across the East River, including Trump World Tower and One Beekman Place. The 4.5-acre site, which juts into the water like a ship’s prow just north of United Nations Plaza, will incorporate a lawn and a granite “room” inscribed with the “four freedoms” Franklin D. Roosevelt advocated in his 1941 State of the Union speech: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. The project is 36 years in the making, stalled by a lack of financing and the 1974 death of its designer, the noted American architect Louis I. Kahn, among other things. [more]

From left: Danny Davis, Naomi Muramatsu, Sofia Song, Sean Turner and Karen Gastiaburo

From the March issue: If there’s one thing driving the Tribeca residential market right now, it may very well be the lack of a market. Indeed, brokers and market analysts say the neighborhood’s inventory, which is roughly 30 percent lower than it was at the peak, is influencing how almost all properties are being perceived and how quickly transactions are taking place. While even slightly overpriced apartments are still sitting on the market, when a property is priced right, particularly if it’s a two-bedroom or larger, it’s getting snapped up fast. One broker said, “Two-bedrooms up to $1.9 million are [typically] trading in under two weeks with multiple offers. [more]

Judging based on price discounts, time on the market and ratio of closed sales to available listings, Sofia Song, vice president of Streeteasy, compiled a list of the 10 most populous Manhattan precincts and “most sellable” type of apartment likely to find buyers. Topping off the list was the Upper East Side, where post-war two-bedroom co-ops are most popular, followed closely by pre-war two bedrooms, with a median closing pricing of $995,000, according to New York Magazine. Post-war condominium studios with a median closing price of $549,885 was number two on the list, with pre-war two-bedroom co-ops in Midtown West ranking next, with a median closing price of $675,000. Rounding out the top five were pre-war two-bedroom co-ops in Chelsea, followed by pre-war one-bedroom condos in Greenwich Village. [NY Mag]

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Sofia Song and Noah Rosenblatt

On Monday, March 15, visitors to the real [more]

From left: Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman, Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs.com, Pamela Liebman of the Corcoran Group

As part of its 2010 “Neighborhoods Issue,” New York Magazine asked 10 real estate experts about their picks for the New York City nabes that will offer buyers the most bang for their buck by 2014. Pam Liebman, president and CEO of the Corcoran Group said West Harlem, while Streeteasy.com’s Sofia Song chose Morningside Heights. Melissa Cohn, president of Manhattan Mortgage, said that while southern Yorkville “hasn’t been popular in years,” it’s likely to appreciate in price over the next five years with the advent of the Second Avenue subway line. Retail veteran Faith Hope Consolo of Prudential Douglas Elliman picked the Garment District, where storefront leases are being snapped up west of Penn Station and there are plenty of new condominiums to house their customers. Noah Rosenblatt of UrbanDigs.com chose the Financial District and Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management chose the Far West Side, in the 50s. Other experts had their eyes on the outer boroughs’ Flushing, Bushwick and Prospect Heights neighborhoods. [NY Mag] [more]

The number of Manhattan sales dropped 45 percent to 7,430 between 2007
and 2009, according to The Real Deal’s 2010 Data Book (see the
entire residential housing market history section from the Data Book
below), but rose 8.4 percent between fourth-quarter 2008 and the last
three months of 2009. The median sales price in the fourth quarter of
2009 was down 10 percent to $850,000 in the prior-year quarter. The
average sales price in fourth-quarter 2009 was also down, by 12.7
percent to $1.3 million year-over-year. Meanwhile, there was a steep
decline in inventory in the fourth quarter in the borough, attributed to
pent-up demand, low interest rates and lower prices, according to the
data book. “We saw fewer price cuts, and those price cuts were not as
deep,” said Sofia Song, vice president of research at Streeteasy. To
purchase the 2010 Data Book, click here or see the link at the top of The Real Deal Web site. TRD [more]

Leonard Steinberg, managing director at Prudential Douglas Elliman

From the March issue:
It’s not your average buyer who can afford a Manhattan townhouse during the good times. And now, because the wealthy have been hit hard by the downturn and have less purchasing power, the pool of townhouse buyers has shrunk even more.

This month, The Real Deal talked to analysts and townhouse brokers about how one of the most specialized residential sectors of the luxury market (a market that has suffered severely since the downturn started) is holding up. According to one report, townhouses have seen an average sale price drop of 32 percent over the past year.

Some townhouses have seen even greater declines. One broker cited 16 West 12th Street, which was listed for $25 million and ultimately sold for 40 percent less, at $15 million.

Despite those price cuts, another broker said townhouses are still the most overpriced sector of the residential market, joking that there should be a tour called “Overpriced Townhouses in the 70s.”

For more on what kinds of homes are faring best and worst and who is still in the market to buy, we turn to our panel of experts.

Click image for larger version

From the February issue: The fourth-quarter market reports revealed that the recession’s worst-hit Manhattan neighborhood isn’t newly gentrifying Harlem or even the recently residential Financial District. Midtown — one of the city’s most well-established neighborhoods — saw the sharpest price decreases, the most price cuts and the longest days on the market. What happened? Experts say Midtown West, in particular, fell prey to a hotbed of speculation during the boom, fueled by an abundance of new condos, and the area is now paying the price. During the mid-aughts, thousands of new condo units were built in Midtown and quickly snatched up by investors eager to flip them for six-figure profits in the wildly escalating market of the time. Now, while overall market activity is on the rise again, falling prices have dampened demand from investors, leaving Midtown with an oversupply of condos — and absentee owners frantically trying to unload them. Around 42nd Street, “there are large, monolithic new development buildings, with a lot of investors and pied-à-terre buyers who are now desperate to sell,” explained Sofia Song, vice president of research at StreetEasy. [more]