Posted by Leonard Steinberg on March 4th, 2013 Corporate profits have grown strongly over the past few years, yet job growth has not. We are in a golden age for corporate profits, especially among multinational giants that are also benefiting from faster growth in emerging economies like China and India. These factors, along with the Federal… [Read More]
NEW YORK GREEN LAW TO CREATE A RENEWABLE ENERGY WEBPORTAL
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on March 4th, 2013 A new GREEN LAW was signed into effect this past week by Mayor Bloomberg, Intro 887-A: It establishes a Renewable Energy Webportal that consolidates information into an easy-to-navigate website that New York homeowners can access to study new climate change initiatives, how they can implement renewable energy systems,… [Read More]
HALF-BILLION IN FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS: WHY NYC TAXES ARE SO HIGH?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on March 4th, 2013 $ 506,000,000.00 per year wasted: I often wonder why New York real estate taxes are so high? Do we really get that much in the way of services from our government? We all know the unions abuse the system religiously to pay some workers excessively with excessive benefits… [Read More]
UNDERSTANDING THE SEQUESTER STUPIDITY
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on March 1st, 2013 As the SEQUESTER kicks in to-day, automatically cutting certain budgets across the board, the stupidity surfaces when you realize the cuts do not address the largest areas of the budget: entitlements. Imagine your household is having a budgetary crisis: would you cut the rent, the largest monthly… [Read More]
REAL ESTATE TAX ROBBERY: THE MOST CORRUPT TAX SYTEM IN THE WORLD?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 27th, 2013 The overly corrupted, inequitable real estate structure of New York reveals further evidence now to showcase just how bad the situation is: Did you know that Class 1 (single family) properties in Manhattan have gone up over 37% since 08 yet Brooklyn’s Class 1 properties increased only slightly since 08,… [Read More]
BACCARAT HOTEL CONDOMINIUMS HIT MARKET – IS MIDTOWN BECOMING OVER-SATURATED WITH MEGA-LUXE?
THE BACCARAT HOTEL AND CONDO located at 20 West 53rd Street make its debut in what I think is a rather over-subscribed midtown mix: Starwood Capital’s hotel and condo tower has already settled on a price for its penthouse unit, supposedly asking $60 million ($8,128/sf). For $60 million, the buyer gets a duplex with 7,381 square… [Read More]
BANKS TOO BIG TO FAIL: ARE THEIR PROFITS TAXPAYER SUBSIDIZED?
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 20th, 2013 Are those huge banks that are too big to fail not as profitable as we thought, and are the profits they are making a tax-payer funded(government paid) subsidy? Banks that are potentially the most dangerous can borrow at lower rates, because creditors perceive them as too big… [Read More]
JEAN GEORGE’S PERRY STREET RESTAURANT RE-OPENS POST SANDY
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 19th, 2013 PERRY STREET, the ultra-cool, chic + sleek, Thomas Juul Hansen-designed West Village Jean Georges restaurant, re-opened tonight after undergoing extensive renovations and repairs as a result of SANDY, the hurricane that caused flooding in lower Manhattan in late 2012. The place looked exceptional and the food was… [Read More]
ITS OFFICIAL: HOUSING PRICES ROSE IN 88% OF US CITIES IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2012
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 16th, 2013 It’s official in the mainstream press(although looking in the rear-view mirror is often a bit late): housing prices across the board are rising: Prices for single-family homes climbed in almost 88 percent of U.S. cities in the fourth quarter as the housing recovery broadened. The best-performing metro… [Read More]
BIG DEALS ARE BACK!
Posted by Leonard Steinberg on February 15th, 2013 Wall Street is still reeling from the re-birth of the BIG DEAL, where this week Warren Buffet and a Brazilian group swooped in to buy out HEINZ. Similar confidence in the BIG DEAL is being seen in the New York luxury real estate market where big players… [Read More]