Posted on July 13th, 2014 It amazes me how large organizations such as the Federal US government are grossly mis-managed: A government watchdog agency said an estimated $106 billion in payments were made in error last year (thats about $ 350 per American, and much more for those paying Federal taxes): meaning they were the… [Read More]
ARE LONDON BUYER-BLUES BEING MIRRORED IN NEW YORK?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg, President of Urban Compass, on July 8th, 2014 London is experiencing some BUYER-BLUES on the very high end and today its reported that home-price gains in London’s most-expensive neighborhoods are trailing the rest of the city because buyers are deterred by high asking prices and the possibility of new taxes. Values in… [Read More]
THE CURSE OF REAL ESTATE RANKINGS
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on July 7th, 2014 In the past few months all sorts of rankings have come out showing how real estate brokers fare next to one another in either the number of transactions they close, the total volume of sales, or the total volume of exclusives they have on their books. I… [Read More]
GOOD NEWS RELATED TO DEBT
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on July 1st, 2014 Alexander Bank on my team brought this Bloomberg article to my attention: Landlords are paying off more boom-era loans early, chipping away at $316 billion of debt maturing through 2017 that has loomed over the commercial-mortgage backed securities market since the credit seizure six years ago. Owners… [Read More]
NEW YORK AVERAGE PRICES SOAR 20%: THE 'PLAZA EFFECT' AGAIN?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg, Urban Compass, on July 1st, 2014 In this morning’s NEW YORK POST: “The sale price for Manhattan apartments has skyrocketed 20 percent this year, a market report has found. Manhattan home buyers paid an average $1.69 million in the second quarter of 2014, compared with $1.41 million for the second quarter of… [Read More]
NYC MARKET RESULTS: NEGLECT OF THE MIDDLE RICH?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg, President of URBAN COMPASS, on June 30th, 2014 Is the New York real estate market starting to soften? Some reports say so, but it probably has everything to do with the INVENTORY issue. Signed contracts may have declined in recent quarters compared to the prior year but it’s not because of… [Read More]
KIM KARDASHIAN SHOPPING NEW YORK REAL ESTATE?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on June 27th, 2014 Is Kim Kardashian shopping for an apartment in New York or is she just trying to fill her show with footage of her shopping for a home in New York? Is Sotheby’s broker Mark Amadei showing Kim apartments, but ONLY if her camera crew can accompany her on… [Read More]
THE JILLS ARE THE NUMBER ONE TEAM IN THE USA…..NATIONWIDE!
Posted on June 27th, 2014 by Leonard Steinberg The Wall Street Journal/REAL TRENDS rankings came out this morning to reveal the NUMBER ONE TEAM NATIONWIDE for 2013 as……The Jills (Jill Herzberg and Jill Eber of Miami): CONGRATULATIONS! Many claim they are the number one team and in this digital age where claims can be made that… [Read More]
ITS ALL ABOUT THE WEATHER!
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on June 26th, 2014 The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the US economy took a 2.9% dip in the first quarter of 2014….the GDP slipped by as much as an annually adjusted rate of 1%…..mostly attributed to the bad weather we experienced throughout the USA. The weather? Really? Having… [Read More]
NEW HOME SALES SOAR IN MAY: DELAYED DATA?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on June 25th, 2014 While new-home sales soared in May, the reality is the gains simply put the market back on track to match 2013’s overall pace, rather than signaling a significant momentum gain. This points to the dangers of monitoring the market moment-by-moment. Real market trends can only be seen over… [Read More]