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Real estate's on a roll! Experts dish on why housing is a hot market again
NY Daily News, May 7, 2010
Real estate's on a roll! Experts dish on why housing is a hot market again
BY Jason Sheftell
DAILY NEWS REAL ESTATE CORRESPONDENT
Friday, May 7th 2010, 4:00 AM
It all started a few weeks ago. First came the return of Tiger Woods, then the volcano eruption, then the sudden return of the real estate market. All over the five boroughs, reports started flying in about astronomical sales figures, bidding wars, and houses selling after just two days on the market. At first, I didn’t believe it. A spring rebound? The federal tax deadline?
But it was more than that. Maybe, just maybe, buyers on the fence for the past two years started pulling the trigger. Open houses started seeing huge traffic numbers. At the high end, multiple townhouses sold for more than $15 million. At the $600,000 level, apartments for sale one week were all gone the next. Things were
picking up. I asked around, trying to get a handle on just how fast things were moving. Prices shot up like lightning in all ranges. Every day, brokers were calling with stories about the market’s comeback. From 40 sales at a condo in Long Island City since January, to a 300% increase in total sales from a broker in the Bronx, to new condominiums in Manhattan flying off the shelves, here are some of those stories:
Definitely back
Donald J. Trump
Chairman, Trump Organization
“The market is definitely back, and there are real advantages and opportunities out there. We leased 300,000 square feet at 40 Wall Street — the most activity in any single building downtown — and we are currently looking at several major deals. The penthouse at Trump International Hotel & Tower sold for over $33 million dollars, and I recently purchased two new golf clubs in fantastic locations: Philadelphia and Hudson Valley. On a national level, I just received long-term financing for Trump International Hotel Las Vegas.”
Business doubled
John Reinhardt
CEO and president, Fillmore Real Estate, Brooklyn’s biggest real estate brokerage
“In the past 10 days, we have seen business double. That’s right, double. The amount of transactions to contract for the last week of April doubled the previous three weeks. If sellers are listing at the right price, they are selling quickly. The ones who are at the old prices are sitting there. It looks like every neighborhood in Brooklyn is booming, from Fort Greene to Canarsie. We are seeing record-breaking activity in Old Mill Basin, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay. At MeadowWood at Gateway in East New York, 35 units have been sold this month alone, making this its best month ever.
Flipping foreclosures
Sam Heskel
Appraiser, Borough Park
“I feel the market is starting to rebound. I believe the recovery will be a long and slow process, but I hope it’s going to be slowly but surely. In Borough Park, condo sales were nearly at a freeze since last year; until the past two months, a couple of contracts were signed and a couple of sales closed at pre-2008 prices. In Jamaica, which is a neighborhood with a high rate of foreclosures, I saw last week a house which was purchased from the bank in January by an investor who renovated the house and put it back on the market. In less than three months, it is now in contract for $400,000.”
Zero tolerance for overpricing
Pamela Liebman
President and CEO, The Corcoran Group
“People purchasing a home now will look back in 12 months and see this as a time of opportunity. Buyers are so much smarter than they were during the boom. Anything overpriced will not sell. We’re telling our agents to price for excitement, meaning to price where people can buy. Today’s buys are emotional, not financial. If the home has everything they need, buyers are making deals.
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