Reports to-day lament the state of the housing market, and for sure the markets around the country are not very healthy. Some housing markets show signs of healing. Home-sales activity in New York, Washington, D.C., and parts of California continue to improve. But other markets, including Tampa, Fla., and Chicago, face rising foreclosures and weak… [Read More]
RICHARD MEIER’S MODEL MUSEUM – LONG ISLAND CITY
Richard Meier’s Model Museum in Long Island City is a small gallery devoted to the architect’s ongoing love of the physical process of architecture. The 3,600 sq ft warehouse space is dominated by a vast model of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, still one of the architect’s most celebrated and sizeable commissions. Rather than… [Read More]
FORECLOSURES HIT THE RICH
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. In an article in this morning’s TIMES, the point is made that the housing bust we are witnessing right now is not… [Read More]
NEW YORK POWER CRISIS
With the current heat wave straining the power supply all across the North East, maybe now is the time to look closer at the accute power needs of New York, not to mention the entire USA. We have more energy on this earth than we could ever use, yet because of political agenda’s, how that… [Read More]
MANHATTAN COMMERCIAL SPACE VACANCY RATES DROP FOR FIRST TIME IN 3 YEARS
The un-occupancy rate in New York fell to 10.8 percent from 11.6 percent at the end of March according to Cushman Wakefield. Rents declined for the seventh straight quarter to $54.31 a square foot from $55.38. I guess when banks are hiring 6,800 employees in 3 months, you need space….
LARGE CITIES KEEP GROWING
New York City, the nation’s largest city with about 8.4 million people, continued to grow steadily. The city’s population expanded 0.5% in 2009, compared with 0.4% a year earlier but down from 0.7% in 2007. The recession has prevented people moving to the suburbs to buy homes. This keeps people in larger cities and draws… [Read More]
FEDERAL TAXATION STUPIDITY – IT GETS WORSE IN 2013!
Is the Federal Government blind, stupid, or worse, thoroughly corrupt? I suspect its all three. Why on earth do federal taxes make absolutely ZERO accounting for the cost-of-living in various cities? Is it accurate that $ 250,000.00 earned in Manhattan is the equivilant of earning $ 250,000.00 in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Albany, New York? NO!… [Read More]
NEW HABITS OF THE WEALTHY BUYER
The majority of wealthy investors rely on their own expertise over the advice of wealth managers, according to a new survey, which will come as a fresh blow to an industry still reeling from massive outflows of client money. Real estate group Knight Frank and US-based Citi Private Bank asked high-net-worth respondents to their 2010… [Read More]
NEW YORK: THE BEST GLOBAL CITY?
New York fares well in comparison to other global capitals following the economic downturn of 2008, according to Cities of Opportunity, an annual report on what makes cities thrive, released in a report by the Partnership for New York City and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The report analyzes how twenty-one global cities perform as centers of business opportunity, according to… [Read More]
RETAIL UP 0.3%! A REFLECTION ON REAL ESTATE?
Led by a big gain in electronics, U.S. retail sales increased 0.3% to a seasonally-adjusted $355.5 billion in February, despite three major snow storms in the East, the Commerce Department estimated Friday. Sales have risen in four of the past five months, and were up 3.9% compared with a year earlier. Most categories of retailers… [Read More]