A sampling of last week’s press coverage of CORE and CORE properties.

On the Market
The New York Times
Tom Postilio and Mickey Conlon’s listing at 100 West 58th is highlighted in the latest “On the Market” feature.

Cornering the Middle
The Real Deal
In this year’s rankings of New York City’s most influential real estate firms, CORE has been named the “Number 1 Mid-Size Real Estate Firm” in Manhattan. The new ranking signals CORE’s substantial increase in the value of is current listings.

Executive Travel Luxury Report
Executive Travel
In the latest edition of Executive Travel, Emily Beare is interviewed.  As the market for luxury real estate continues to evolve, Emily discusses this sophisticated buyer’s market.

Five years ago, I told a reporter from The New York Times that Manhattan was essentially becoming one luxury neighborhood and we would start to see properties in “newer” residential areas meet the market in more established areas. With all of the residential development over the past ten years, this is now a reality, and, to the surprise of a few people, last month showed that the average price of a home was more expensive downtown than it was uptown.

Above: The Atalanta Building (one of the first TriBeCa conversions) was originally a refrigeration building with no windows.

Having sold downtown for almost 2 decades, I’ve pioneered sales and marketing in a number of these newer downtown areas. And it’s because of the pioneering developers that these neighborhoods have evolved into some of the most desirable residential neighborhoods in the City. Some of the more notable pioneers should be recognized for their vision, and for blazing a trail that benefited the adopters.

What these “downtown” developers created was a product to satisfy the demand of their generation of buyers. Conversions in loft buildings with great volumes of space that the uptown buildings couldn’t satisfy.  Homes that had the amenities, services, and finishes that uptown buyers expected, but in architecturally different and historically significant buildings. New residential neighborhoods like West Chelsea, SoHo, TriBeCa, and the Bowery have now become expensive zip codes and  it’s no surprise that we are currently selling a new development in Chelsea at higher prices than almost every new development in Manhattan.

-Shaun Osher is the CEO and Founder of CORE.

In 2009, there were more than 10,000 Manhattan apartments for sale. This year, there aren’t even half that many. On Tuesday, April 2nd, Jarrod Guy Randolph was featured on a CNN Money segment about the creative measures brokers must take in Manhattan’s current low inventory market. In the segment, “NYC Brokers Get Creative to Score Listings,” Jarrod was interviewed by CNN reporter, Zain Asher. Strategies Jarrod has employed include schmoozing with doormen who know “everything that’s going on in their building” to sending strategically targeted letters. Jarrod has been able to remain successful even in one of the worst markets. His creativity even allowed him to score a gorgeous $1.975M listing at 456 West 19th Street. Watch Jarrod’s interview on CNN Money below.

In my previous post, I went into detail on the basics of new development in New York City. With the basic information provided, here are some suggestions on how to put that information and knowledge to good use.

When to buy
There are two types of buyers in new development: investors and end users. If you are an investor, the best thing for you to do is work with a highly specialized broker who can get you in on the ground floor of a new development. For end users, any time is a good time to buy as you should look at the purchase from a long term perspective. In fact, the most important aspect for an end user is quality of life, so picking the right unit is much more important. Again, you need to be guided by an expert as you are typically buying off of floorplans and may not physically see the property before committing to it. (more…)

Residential development is playing a critical role in the changing architectural landscape of New York City. From Philip Starck’s 15 Broad Street to the Time Warner Center and the newest edition of Hudson Yards, neighborhoods are changing because of each new development. Beyond being known as eye candy or game changers, these projects are proving to be New York City most lucrative investments.

Due to limited quantities, new residential developments appreciate disproportionately higher when compared to the rest of the market. Prices appreciate for several reasons in new development: new infrastructure, no barriers of entry, flight to quality, high design aesthetic, building economics and inventory. I’d like to take a moment to scratch the surface and point out these factors that impact the market, value and your bottom line.

New Infrastructure
It’s shiny and new. The largest majority of consumers love that.

No Barriers to Entry
When buying in a new development, there is no board process. You sign a contract, submit a check, and pay the balance at closing with your associated closings cost. That’s it.

Flight to Quality
Flight to quality has been influenced by the consumers, but mainly by the financiers. Underwriting standards have changed and you have to underwrite at higher numbers than ever before. Sometimes, $2,000-plus on the base price-per-square-foot. This has forced developers to build better product in order to create equal profit margins to past developments. In essence, you can only charge more if the quality is better. The better the product, the more it retains its value and tends to appreciate higher.

(more…)

It ain’t easy…

…to find an apartment! And it ain’t going to be easier anytime soon. The November Real Time Report shows us how the is market continuing to shrink, and honestly, we have a housing shortage of luxury homes in Manhattan. With less on the market, I can only predict that prices will continue to rise at an alarming rate. The extreme upper end will continue to gain strength over the next year and we can expect that a $10 million sale will be run-of-the-mill and deals over $50 million will become less newsworthy. All further proof that New York City is the strongest residential market on the globe.

Shaun Osher is the CEO and founder of CORE.

We are excited to announce the publication and release of the premiere issue of The Sargent Report: Tribeca. Tony Sargent designed a new take on The Sargent Report to provide a concise and comprehensive review of Tribeca’s luxury real estate market. This issue includes a summary of sales and market activity, details on future new developments, and the neighborhood’s most recent, noteworthy condo sales.

Sales volume for overall Manhattan real estate is at historic highs, while inventory and new listings are at five-year lows. However while luxury property sales remain high, an increase in entry-level sales draw overall averages down slightly.

In Tony’s experience  of selling Tribeca luxury condos and co-ops, he has recognized that the area is a very  strong micro-market with its own sales dynamics.

Publishing The Sargent Report: Tribeca is  a result Tony’s vision and objective to provide residents and buyers of Tribeca high-end condominiums with the best possible advice, analysis, predictions and insight needed to make confident real estate decisions.

The numbers of the September Real Time Report (click here to download the PDF) are indicative of what I’ve been predicting for the last year. Less apartments are available for sale, prices are continuing to rise, and the overall volume of deals is increasing. Our “for sale” market is shrinking, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find a home in Manhattan. The limited pipeline of new development inventory may also only satisfy a small part of the really high-end market, because most developers seem to be jumping on that wagon.

I expect that when we finally see the deals that were put into contract over the past few months close, we’ll see that there was less negotiation from the asking price. In fact, we are now starting to see deals accepted at above asking prices.

While there is still no completely accurate data or report that provides contract signed prices for a specific time period of 30 days, I estimate that we are at least ten percent higher (in pricing) than where we were a year ago.

This should be the strongest October in the past 5 years.

Shaun Osher is the Founder and CEO of CORE.

As expected, CORE’s latest Real Time Report (click here to download the PDF), which includes the most current contract data from StreetEasy, showed us that the Manhattan real estate market is strong across the board. Our monthly report found that, compared to last year, overall contract volume rose by over 26%, while inventory has continued to shrink — an overall decrease of 11% since last year. And this week Crain’s reports that this high demand and lack of supply is sending condominium prices soaring, with great success for sellers. In fact, our Walker Tower project is highlighted as one new development that is capitalizing on this “pricing pop.”

So where are we? It’s getting harder to find a good apartment at a reasonable price. (Although doesn’t that always seem to be the case if you’re a buyer?) With inventory levels continuing to shrink, I only see this becoming more difficult, and the housing shortage that I foresaw and predicted three years ago seems to have become a reality.

The effects of this? Higher prices, more bidding wars, less time on the market, and more situations where sellers are remorseful for selling and buyers are regretful over missed opportunities.

Shaun Osher is the founder and CEO of CORE.

This week, Mayor Bloomberg initiated a competition for developers to design a rental building filled with efficient studio “micro-apartments” no bigger than 300 square feet each. The current zoning precludes anyone from doing this, so it would be a change to the law — and even though it’s illegal, everyone knows that there are people who live in the confines of space smaller than this. How many people are there in this city who share an apartment of 600 square feet with 2 roommates?

I love the Mayor’s idea, as you may tell from my enthusiastic response on CNN, seen above. New York is a city filled with single professionals who are being priced out of the housing market. Even the surrounding boroughs are expensive, and I think that this initiative will keep some of these people here where they belong. Hopefully this will be the start of something new, and why stop at rentals? I look forward to the day when developers can build “for-sale” housing in the city of this size. This will make the entry level into home ownership easier to those who cannot afford $600,000 for a starter studio, not to mention encouraging smart design and creative architecture.

Shaun Osher is the founder and CEO of CORE.