Dead Cat Bounce or the Bottom?

Miss Muffett : The Morgan stanley deal went thru last night. I find your posts to to be behind the times.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 11:07 AM

Miss Muffett: I don't want to twist anything believe me. Maybe you should read this:
Like Old Times (Almost)
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By JOSH BARBANEL
Published: October 10, 2008
AT a time when you might think the entire Manhattan real estate market had jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, some buyers and sellers have been engaging in that old-fashioned Manhattan pastime: the bidding war.

Though some brokers say the market remains in a pause while buyers assess the faltering economy, others have been able to close deals in every segment of the market, and even on days when the stock market has been plummeting. After all, people have to live somewhere, don’t they?

On Sept. 29, the day the House of Representatives first took up and rejected a $700 billion economic rescue plan, Randolph D. Lerner, the owner of the Cleveland Browns of the National League Football League, closed on a 1,730-square-foot two-bedroom Greenwich Village co-op at 15 West 11th Street for $4.06 million, according to city property records. That was $100,000 over the asking price, enough for Mr. Lerner to clinch the deal over an art dealer with a competing bid, according to Jan Hashey, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The seller was Jason Mutchnick, the television producer who created “Will & Grace.” According to Streeteasy.com, that apartment went into contract in August.

Also on Sept. 29, as the stock market fell by more than 770 points, Sarah Parsons, a broker with the Corcoran Group, waited anxiously, not for the stock ticker, but for a buyer to meet with his lawyer that afternoon and sign a contract for a one-bedroom in a 20-foot-wide brownstone in Park Slope.

The sellers, Kara R. Finck, a lawyer providing legal services to the poor, and her husband, Mark Humowiecki, a special counsel to the Workers’ Compensation Board, had put their 800-square-foot apartment on the market after Labor Day for $535,000, because they needed a larger apartment after the birth of a child.

The apartment, at 55 Montgomery Place, was priced right and had some special features that helped it sell quickly, Ms. Parsons said, including a private rear garden on a quiet town house street, a few doors from Prospect Park.

After two open houses, she said, there were three bids, including two over the asking price. But Ms. Parsons said that “in this environment,” the sellers chose the offer at the asking price, because the buyer, an Internet sports journalist, offered to pay cash (with some help from his family).

“If you have two or three things that are fantastic and unusual, even in this horrible market, there are some things that can sell quickly,” Ms. Parsons said. After the buyer signed, Ms. Finck and her husband made an offer for a larger apartment on the same block; their bid was accepted.

On Tuesday, when the stock market fell more than 500 points, a third-floor walk-up in a town house at 348 East 89th Street went into contract for just over the $499,900 asking price, according to Brian Lewis, a broker at Halstead Property. Mr. Lewis said that the condo needed renovation, and that the seller had agreed to “price it provocatively.”

There were 28 buyers at the first open house and almost as many at a second one, he said, and soon afterward there were two “bona fide offers,” both over the asking price, one from an investor and the other from a person who planned to renovate and live there.

Mr. Lewis said that the seller wanted to choose a buyer based on financial strength and ability to close, rather than price. In the end, the seller chose the individual buyer, after Mr. Lewis was allowed to interview the man’s mortgage broker.

“He is a professional, not in the financial field, with good job longevity,” he said.

Quick deals are not limited to lower-priced properties. A duplex penthouse at 1185 Park Avenue went on the market in mid-September, after the fall of Lehman Brothers, with an asking price of $20 million. It had been the home of Kitty Carlisle Hart, the entertainer and grande dame, who died in April, and Moss Hart, the Broadway playwright.

Brokers said that by the middle of last week, the internal listing at Brown Harris Stevens, which was held by Katherine P. Marshall, showed an “accepted offer” on the property, though a contract had not yet been signed.

“I am getting bids all day long,” said Paula Del Nunzio, a Brown Harris Stevens broker.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 11:31 AM

Miss Muffett: Let's get things straight. You are a little bitter. You want prices to drop. Understandable. But you do not want to admit the truth which is, They will not, have not and wont go down more than 10 to 15% overall. Whenever I point this out you refuse to understand it.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 12:11 PM

I show you homes going for more than asking you refuse to believe it.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 12:11 PM

fsrg : Maybe you guys missed these? or maybe you are taking to much Vicodin . SOUTH SLOPE $850,000
497 12th Street
Prewar two-bedroom, 1½-bath duplex, 1,055 square feet, with 300-square-foot outdoor space, tin ceilings, new kitchen with dishwasher and renovated bath with claw-foot tub. Common charges $340, taxes $183. Asking price $819,000, on market three months. Brokers: Kristina Leonetti and Jessica Buchman, The Corcoran Group

Despite the meltdown on Wall Street, inventory decreased in Brooklyn last week and prices went up. According to home listing Web site Trulia.com, the average listing price for a Brooklyn home rose 1.4 percent to $701,779, from $691,857, between September 24 and October 1. Listings decreased during that time to 4,625 from 4,725.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 12:59 PM

Miss Muffett: I must bring these posts up because when they show up none of the nay sayers come on to discuss.

Posted by: sebb at October 13, 2008 1:57 PM