City unveils Astoria rezoning proposal
It should be illegal to restrict dense development within a city that
is experiencing a housing crisis. Astoria is a prime neighborhood for
high-density redevelopment. It’s very close to Manhattan, it has good
subway access, its existing housing stock is of inferior quality, [it]
is aesthetically ugly, and more importantly — there hasn’t been
significant multi-family development there since before the freakin’
Depression!
Do you agree with Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the recession may end later this year?
1. Alan Greenspan [former chairman of the Federal Reserve] once said that the economy will not improve before real estate gets stable, but the problem is that real estate cannot improve before the economy improves. Real estate is going down and the economy is bad, so how would you know when all this will end? It may take years.
2. How can the recession be ending soon if unemployment is rising, home values continue to decline and credit card and commercial properties are heading for default? Bernanke and the stock market crooks are just trying to put one over on everyone — again.
Some landlords offer on-signing commissions
As a landlord, I will give you a straightforward answer: In a Manhattan commercial lease, it will be a large sum. It will be close to the first two months plus security that the landlord gets. Why would the landlord give all of that money out and not make money for the next two to three months?
Schumer bill ties distressed financing to rent
This is [a] very bad public policy. It creates a block of owners beholden to politicians to raise rents because that will raise property values, and a block of tenants equally opposed. It doesn’t address issues with supply and demand in housing, and it is basically a taking of private property for political purposes.
Buyers get an out at Linden78
1. Hello? Buyers: read your contracts; if the builder takes in excess of two years, they can’t force you to close. They are simply in compliance now. [I’m just] letting you know because it’s been hidden by them.
2. They are really reaching for it when they blame crane collapses at other buildings for their delay of over a full year. That takes cojones! Even [construction at] the building whose crane actually collapsed on 91st Street was only delayed for four months.