HUCKABEE INSANITY? 90%+ FINANCING RETURNS, BUT ONLY TO POLITICIANS?

Posted on December 19, 2010 by Leonard Steinberg Sorry we have been MIA lately, so back to the BLOG: Potential  presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is building an 8,224 sf, $3 million home on the beach in Walton County.  The Arkansas Times reported that the building permit for the three-story house lists the projected cost of construction at… [Read More]

UN-THANKFUL? A THANKSGIVING REALITY CHECK….

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Leonard Steinberg Are Americans un-grateful, using Thanksgiving as a veiled attempt at appearing thankful?  Here are some thoughts: 1)    We have exited a HUGE recession, somewhat close to a depression within 24 months, and yet everyone is complaining how SLOW the recovery is. 2)   Real estate prices,… [Read More]

TRADER JOE’S VERSUS FRESH DIRECT

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Leonard Steinberg. Because I have nothing better to do, the other day I decided to punch in the exact items of my shopping list to the FRESH DIRECT site that I had just purchased at Trader Joe’s on Sixth Avenue: the results were astonishing. Fresh Direct was about 50%… [Read More]

MARKETAINMENT – THE UNREALITY OF REALITY

Posted by: Leonard Steinberg, 11/21/2010 Have you noticed how markets have been reduced to entertainment in recent years? Did it start with Donald Trump who once upon a time was just a serious (seriously!)developer that morphed into a reality TV star? When did we ever think that picking stocks could be akin to a Wheel… [Read More]

SUPERIOR INK HOUSTON ROCKETS PENTHOUSE SELLS FOR (KINDA)RECORD

The penthouse at the Superior Ink building in Greenwich Village, New York, owned by Houston Rockets owner, Leslie Alexander, has sold for a record $ 31,5million according to the Wall Street Journal. But is it a record for Downtown? Yes and no. The quadruplex combination penthouse at 200 Eleventh Avenue sold for around $ 33… [Read More]

E.T. is the new I.T.

Did you know that the waste produced from burning coal can be re-used to create portland cement? Did you know that a incandescent light fixture replaced with a LED light fixture saves about 80% of energy consumption. So while the world seeks some miraculous new source of energy, the rest of the world has discovered… [Read More]

BABY BOOMER BUDGET CUTS

News headlines are overwhelmed with talk about how to cut the deficit. The tone before the election is noticeably different to the tone after the election as the practical realities of balancing the budget surface. On of the very biggest areas of spending is entitlements, and right now we are entering a significant milestone: The… [Read More]

TWEET NOTHINGS!

I just returned from a Real Estate Conference that addressed the future, existing technology, and new technology, and how all this will impact our lives as real estate brokers. About 500 people attended. So here I am blogging…. The most annoying aspect of this conference was the strong encouragement of that recent phenomenon called TWITTER…. [Read More]

$ 10,000+ PER SQUARE FOOT HITS NEW YORK MARKET AT 15 CENTRAL PARK WEST

The elusive $ 10,000/square foot price has been reached in Manhattan with the sale of the Zeckendorf’s penthouse at 15 Central Park West. The $ 40million sale of their penthouse marks a turning point in the history of New York real estate pricing. “We have by-passed The Gilded Age, and entered THE PLATINUM AGE,” says… [Read More]

THE $ 210,000.00 PER MONTH RENTAL: THE PLATINUM AGE BEGINS.

Rumor has it that New York’s most expensive rental lease has been signed…..a massive pad in Midtown: And the monthly rental rate? A mere $ 210,000.00! That rent is TOO DAMN HIGH! With a massive shift in political power to the right, it is only fitting that the Wasserstein apartment at 927 Fifth Avenue is… [Read More]