This Week in Comments

Which residential projects are the most overpriced?
Every single development has to be overpriced in today’s market in order to have a shot in hell of selling it for a fair one.
 
SL Green unchanged on low renewal commissions
Expect to see a lot more open space in SL Green buildings.

Williamsburg developers follow Toll Brothers in cutting prices
Are you kidding — a rooftop cabana? Great, a buyer can sit out there and watch as their condo price plummets 40 percent over the next year. Nice try. Buyers should just sit tight [and] avoid getting underwater in a mortgage. Things will be much, much cheaper by the end of the year, especially in fringe neighborhoods.

Which condo project do you think is the least likely to get built?
1. Anything with a crane still up is pretty much doomed. Whether it’s completed or not won’t make a difference. When I hear “50 percent sold,” [or] “80 percent sold” units in specific condominium projects, I wonder how many [units] have actually closed as these so-called percentage statistics often include listings that have gone into contract as well. The banks are very reluctant to give mortgages to any condo buyers in projects that are not between 50 percent to 75 percent sold as their concern is with condominium projects being able to pay their annual debt and operating expenses. When the units actually do close, then tell me the percentages.
2. Basically anything in the planning stages in shelved for the foreseeable future. That’s just the way it is, for now at least.

Vacant building in Lower Manhattan collapses
First cranes collapsing and now a building collapses right in front of the DOB headquarters? How much longer we will have to live under the DOB’s incompetent oversight?

How has being a part of REBNY helped your business?
REBNY is unorganized and behind on all of its Internet technology…create [a] MLS and enforce [the] rules.