Today marks the first anniversary of my blogging adventure. I'd like to take a moment to thank our subscribers and frequent readers for their interest and support. It has been a lot of work, but the feed back from the public and my professional colleagues has made it really worthwhile. Web traffic analytics show that I'm being read in 103 countries globally and visitors click through and read an average of over 2 stories on each visit. I'm encouraged by that broad based, quality readership. Comitini.com soft launched on November 3rd, 2006 with this post. There were at the time just a few others written in the queue to test the process while the home page was out of public view. I formally announced the site in January of 2007, after I'd had a chance to write more content, and get blogging time worked into my routine. After a year, I feel like I'm just catching my stride now. It has been a busy one with my overall practice growing, including my largest exclusive to date.

"Seems Mr. Comitini's got himself one of these here blogs—hey, it's one of the better designed broker blogs we've yet come across. His disembodied head? Nice touch."

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The Chelsea Hotel is chock full of prominent dead people...Sid Vicious' wandering spirit is said to hang out around the elevator.

Down the Hudson, south of Sleepy Hollow, New York City has its own haunts and legends of restless spirits reports a recent New York Post article that cites a list of the top haunted sites in town. The list was compiled by FindingDulcinea, a new, hand edited, Web guide site, which says that "You can scarcely walk a block in Manhattan without encountering a haunted landmark". Really?

Among the places it selected is The Chelsea Hotel. The Post's Fermino writes "Prefer your phantoms more famous? The Chelsea Hotel is chock full of prominent dead people...Dylan Thomas, Eugene O'Neill, and Thomas Wolfe supposedly have all been spotted at the West 23rd Street landmark— and Sid Vicious' (pictured) wandering spirit is said to hang out around the elevator." The Algonquin, The Dakota, Washington Square Park, The Bridge Cafe, Mark Twain's residence, Old St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Morris-Jumel mansion all made the list too. I learned a few haunting facts here, such as that public hangings took place in Washington Square Park back in the 1800's. There are snippets of gore mixed with a bit of NYC history, in a fun diversion today, as we wait for news of the Fed's adjustment (or not) of interest rates and see whether the markets get spooked too. I'm off early today to trick or treat with my little one. Enjoy!

related links:
Haunted New York: Creepy City Sites »
Vicious spirits »
Spirits at the Bar »

Sometimes a working broker is faced with challenges that seem beyond reasonable explanation. Perhaps it was the full moon, or it was feeling bolstered by the dark side prognostications of New York Magazine and other media outlets recently— but Death showed up looking for the Manhattan real estate market at our open house last Sunday. He's shown in our loft here looking svelte, but left my downtown exclusive at 80 John Street feeling disappointed, especially after noting our excellent foot traffic. Colleague Dario Mannarino, who was hosting it said, "He walked into the loft expecting the buyers to run away, but no one got spooked…I'm not sure that he could have afforded the apartment anyway. I saw him later near the subway trying to sell newspapers." Apparently, the widespread rumors in the press about Death showing up here are highly exaggerated. Although they persist, we just haven't seen bottom of the coffin about to fall out. Happy Halloween!

updated 11.6.2007

download fact sheet (pdf 170 kb) I'm representing one of the first re-sales at the newly converted, full service, South Star condominium, at 80 John Street. It's an open plan loft that has a nice sized roof terrace where the building sets back on the 12th floor. It features high ceilings, and a brand new kitchen with Bosch & Sub Zero appliances. The South Star is near two of the best food markets downtown, and a short walk to the new Tiffany and Hermes stores— it's positioned centrally for transportation and appreciation, as the financial district transforms into the most exciting new neighborhood in the city. Get more details on the listing page. I'm hosting an open house on Sunday 10/28 from 1 pm to 3 pm, if you'd like to drop by; or of course, you can call for an appointment.

Now available for download is the 3rd quarter 2007 Corcoran Report (1mb pdf) on the Manhattan residential marketplace, which shows solid performance as the average sale price in the borough increased by 14%, with a record setting median price increase of 5% to $1,414,00 (that's the price most commonly paid for a Manhattan apartment). It is said that all real estate markets are local. Our particular conditions, and strong demand, continue to cause Manhattan to perform in sharp contrast to the rest of the nation. Co-ops still comprise the vast majority of the city's housing inventory for sale. We have benefited from the extra financial scrutiny imposed by co-op boards. It seems to have insulated us so far from the fallout of the sub-prime mortgage implosion that has set back the credit and housing markets elsewhere. Corcoran data showed that available housing inventory for sale has dropped by at least 16% over the past 12 months; Jonathan Miller of appraisal firm Miller Samuel put the decrease in available listings at 31.7%. Unlike many markets which have become overbuilt, the scarcity of land available for development, a growing population, and demand as a global destination city would have caused a severe housing supply crisis here, if the pace of new construction had slowed recently. If you have questions about how your home might be priced in today's market, or any other questions about the Q3 report, please contact me.

Updated October 20, 2007

In West Chelsea on Wednesday, the new residential developments, close to the High line, opened their doors to the brokerage community for an extra long, 4 hour, open house tour. It was a big hit with the brokers, hundreds of whom were seen brushing shoulders with gallery hoppers, and making the rounds at all of the sales presentation centers. It was like an open air mall for some of the most luxurious & priciest homes on the planet.

It demonstrated great cooperation among these competing projects to gain mind share, as it recognized the contribution that the agents make to the business of selling real estate in Manhattan everyday too. A full afternoon and then some, was spent by the staffers coddling, feeding and kibitzing with the agents. Most of them that I spoke with really liked the leisurely pace, which at the same time was a very efficient use of their time in learning about the offerings.

The tour was designed to peak interest for seven buildings, some brandishing architectural pedigrees like Nouvel and Selldorf, going up in the area from 19th Street to 25th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues; creating a district of glass curtain walled modernism, rising up around Frank Gehry's iconic IAC headquarters. With the transformation of the High line finally underway, and a concentration of architecturally significant, luxury residences rising, a glossy new neighborhood is beginning to form. It is characterized by these typically smaller boutique buildings that offer large spaces and design style as standard equipment. Each one has to offer something special to draw people to this far west enclave, blocks away from subway lines and with an emerging infrastructure of parks an amenities that are still a couple of years away.

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When I launched this blog a little less than a year ago, I decided to publish my bookmarks on real estate news as I read the stuff. It created a visible trail that readers could follow, or visit at specific points, then jump to the original material on the Web. I discovered that the first version of newsreal, which was a simple list of bookmarks published from my del.icio.us account, was indeed popular. I'm happy to announce that newsreal has now grown up and, leads the redesigned third column of comitini.com. The bookmarks are still hand selected, in a point and shoot style blog on real estate, the economy, and New York City news.

I've been adding stories to newsreal for a couple of months— blogging the site out of front page view; subscribers may have noticed the merging of newsreal content in our feed several weeks ago. It's now live with a robust, new design; and still just one click to get to the original news source. The main blog's center column will continue to feature more original editorial, reports and opinion pieces. Subscribers to our RSS feed can look forward to seeing both main blog and newsreal content being delivered in one feed. The right column has been getting other finishing touches which include enhancements of my bookmarks, newsfeeds and bigger selections at the bookshop in support of corcoran cares charities. I hope you like the renovations.

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"I would tell you whatever business I've been in— real estate, barges, rail cars— it's all about supply and demand."

Sam Zell is ranked by Forbes this year as the 52nd wealthiest American. He sold his flagship company Office Equity Holdings for $39 billion to the Blackstone Group last February, which was a record breaking private equity transaction. He continues to be invested in residential housing, media and technology eqipment companies. We can all learn a few things from his success as he comments about his career and investment strategies in our latest podcast from Knowledge@Wharton.

Sam Zell, the master real estate investor, has built a fortune on the cycles that shape his industry. These days, he believes the current turmoil in financial markets is more an emotional reaction to yet another period of excess rather than a true credit collapse.

In a wide-ranging lecture at Wharton moderated by real estate professor Peter Linneman, the Chicago-based investor said markets currently are spooked by problems with U.S. subprime lending. However, they still have capital to deploy, unlike during other real estate busts when financing could not be arranged at any price.

"We're not really in a quote 'credit crunch.' I think what we are in is a 'confidence crunch,'" said Zell, funder of the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton. "I would argue the excess liquidity that existed eight weeks ago still exists today. It has a different risk premium on it, but the actual amount of liquidity has not changed."

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Third quarter 2007 sales numbers were released a couple of days ago by all of the major NYC brokerages including The Corcoran Group, and the results showed very clearly that the Manhattan real estate market was still red hot. The news was released almost simultaneously as the Stock Market peaked at a new all time high, shaking off the uncertainty caused by the sub-prime mortgage jitters, as the damage is increasingly seen on Wall Street as being manageable. I'll be posting the entire Q3 Corcoran Report on the market as soon as the downloadable versions are ready, but I'd like to take a moment to look at the downtown numbers and particularly those of my own neighborhood of Tribeca.

third quarter sales 2007 vs. 2006

Corcoran reported that the median selling price of a home in Tribeca, that's the price most people paid for a home, was $2.3 million, up 36% over Q3 2006; the average sale price was $2.286 million, up 25% over Q3 2006. Price per square foot was down by -8% indicating that the deals closed were on larger homes. Manhattan-wide, the number of deals closed was up by 20%, however fewer deals were done with -54% closed when compared with a year earlier. I believe that this actually reflects a shortage of inventory downtown as prices have risen, indicating increased competition for whatever is available.

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The Robb Report is publishing a new magazine, that has its premiere issue on newsstands, called Vertical Living. It covers super-luxury, high rise, developments in global destinations like London, Mexico, Singapore, Australia, and of course, New York City. Contributing editor Kim Fredricks interviewed me about buying into a new development. That interview follows here in its entirety and has some good advice in it; as does the very nicely crafted piece she wrote for the first issue called Small Promises (tear sheet pdf 320 kb) in which I'm quoted. Buying new construction is a place where even the most savvy buyers will benefit from their brokers' depth and breadth of knowledge. I'm pleased indeed to have been asked to comment on a subject that I've written about before. In fact, I learned a couple of weeks ago that my post about closing costs in new developments, is being excerpted and included in the next edition of New York Real Estate for Salespersons, one of the textbooks for the NY State Real Estate licensing exam; it was also a selection in the Carnival of Real Estate which is a sort of traveling show of the best real estate blog posts that Zillow blog's Drew Meyers started up. These are a few nice and unexpected validations, of the connection with the audience and the growth of my blog, which has been public for just shy of a year now.

the Robb Report Vertical Living interview

Vertical Living: Buyers are lured by the benefits of getting a good deal on pricing when buying pre-construction, but what are some red-flags that the buyer should look for before placing a down payment?

Comitini: I don't think that buyers in our market in Manhattan think they are getting a break on price. They are willing to pay well for a premium product. Sometimes with a year or two lead time to delivery, the market accelerates past the contract price and seems a bit better. New construction is generally higher priced than are re-sales, on a price per square foot basis, with higher out of pocket closing costs. Have your broker identify a couple of previous projects of the developer so you can understand if they have performed as expected.

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