Bubble Wrap

City Dealing to Make Luxe Condos Cheaper

The Post reports on the city’s push to expand their affordable housing portfolio by putting vacant apartments on the market at steep discounts. Negotiations are underway with a few banks who may be eager to unload their foreclosed property, but the banks would have to take significant losses.

A $500,000 luxury condo might be marked down to $300,000, suggested Rafael Cestero, the city housing commissioner.

In return for the markdown, developers or bankers would get up to a $50,000 city subsidy for each apartment.

He added that if the prices are right, the city would be prepared to buy unfinished buildings, as well as those where at least 50 percent of the units are empty.

The 15 biggest winners and losers since the crunch

With the approaching 1 year anniversary of Lehman’s collapse,The Real Deal takes a look at the best and worst deals since the onset of the credit crunch.

“Worst deals” included record-breaking purchases like the GM Building, although Mort Zuckerman, chairman of Boston Properties, told The Real Deal he still considers it “the best purchase we’ve ever made” when viewed as a long-term investment. Also singled out as a not-so-savvy investment were individual apartment sales like one at Julian Schnabel’s Palazzo Chupi, where a Wall Street buyer paid $15.5 million only to see the value plummet by 55 percent, doubling the declines seen in the overall market.

Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor: Jersey Gold Coast's final development frontier

The New York Daily News reports on the transformation underway at the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne as the first building has been completed in what will be a community of 7,000 residential units and 58 acres of parkland.

“This is the most valuable piece of real estate on the entire East Coast,” says Mayor Mark Smith, a second-generation Bayonne police officer who spent 26 years on the force. “We’re a 5-minute ferry ride from the capital of the world. The peninsula has all the potential imaginable for residents, entertainment and job creation. This project is important for the entire region.”

Market Reports: Spring Kinder to the Hamptons than Winter

Curbed Hamptons wraps up the Miller Samuel/Elliman market report on the Hamptons, which brings no big surprises. The report reveals mostly everything in a state of decline except the number of transactions, which is up from Winter.

Elliman cites ‘historic low mortgage rates and seasonal trends’ to explain the slight upturn in sales, while blaming declines expanded inventory, long marketing times and sellers who list homes at prices higher than ‘current conditions support’. (PriceUppers, that’s you.) When broken down by location, North of the Highway median sales price declined just 18.1% to $712,500 from the same time last year, but South of the Highway homes saw a 41.9% drop to $900,000. Noting the under-used dividing line, the Shinnecock Canal, it seems prices to the east fell 13.1% to $999,750, while west saw a steeper 20.3% drop from 2008 to $490,000.

Ding Dong the Doorman's Dead!

The NY Post looks at the recent rise in virtual doormen systems many developers are installing in their buildings. While these systems may bring cost savings and convenience to smaller buildings, some residents would prefer a human who can help in emergency situations.

Jeff Bennett, the developer behind several new Harlem condo buildings, including Windows123 and Soho North, said he chose Virtual Doorman because it was a selling point for buyers.

“In this building, Soho North, a real doorman would be cost prohibitive, because there’s only 11 units,” he said. “It’s a great value for the money.”

Breaking the Hamptons' clubhouse mindset

The July issue of The Real Deal looks at the practices of the tight-knight group of brokers that control real estate in the Hamptons, which are seen as unethical by many.

During the real estate boom, as properties changed hands for eye-popping prices, many homeowners were blissfully unaware of unsavory behavior. But now that the market has come to a screeching halt, the region’s notorious lack of transparency is worsening the downturn, locals say.

The fact that the downturn hit Wall Street — the Hamptons’ lifeblood — so hard may, ironically, help change things for the better on the East End.

Sharp Price Drops in Manhattan Apartments

The Times reports on the recent release of the Q2 Manhattan market reports, which show big declines in price and volume from a year ago, while activity has picked up in the last 6 weeks.

The number of closings fell more than 50 percent, and prices in some categories were reported down as much as 25 percent, compared with the same quarter in 2008. Sale prices were also down from those reported in the first quarter of 2009.

City Council OKs Fordham’s Lincoln Center expansion

Crain’s reports on the approval of Fordham’s plans to add six new buildings to its campus at Lincoln Center over the next 25 years. The expansion includes new academic buildings and dormitories, which will support the schools growing enrollment.

The vote was practically guaranteed since earlier this month Gale Brewer, D-Manhattan, who represents the Upper West side neighborhood, extracted some concessions from the school to win her support. She negotiated to reduce the heights of the buildings that Fordham will erect. She also got the school to agree to build a public atrium on Columbus Avenue and an escalator to lift people to elevated public open space. The full council typically votes to support the member who represented the district with proposed project.

Luxury Condos, All Bids Considered

The New York Times reports on the upcoming absolute auction at The Beacon where the first 12 units will be sold regardless of price.

“Our biggest problem today,” the developer said, “is buyers’ not knowing if they are getting the best deal — not knowing if they wait a little longer whether a better deal will be available. With the auction, you get everybody in a room, and they can see what other buyers, people who would be their neighbors, think a home is worth, and each one can be confident.”

The Hamptons Stress Test

Vanity Fair’s Michael Shnayerson explores this year’s decidedly different Hamptons season, which is characterized by the multitude of stories each mansion and their famous owners can tell, along with shocked brokers and bottom feeders.

But something more fundamental than prices has dropped with the times. The outrushing of money from the Hamptons, like the outflow of water from Georgica Pond when the coastal barrier has been breached, has left a stench, like pond-bottom muck, of fear, anger, and quiet desperation. Titans have been brought low, fortunes lost, a world transformed. And through that muck, curling around one Hampton estate after another, is the slithering trail of Bernie Madoff.