Posts with tag New York

It's all over the news: banks rushing to foreclose and consumers turning to the courts as a last resort before their homes are snatched away without due process. As Daily Finance's Abigail Field points out in this well-researched piece, some states are working hard to protect consumers: Not Florida. Florida still seems to... Continue Reading »

While in town filming Men in Black III, Will Smith, with his wife Jada Pinkett Smith and kids, is renting a 7,326-square-foot, fourth-floor condo in New York (pictured below) that had been listed for sale by Sotheby's International at $19.5 million for nearly two years, according to the New York Post. The five-bedroom,... Continue Reading »

UPDATE: Tiger Woods' former mistress, Rachel Uchitel, just closed on the three-bedroom, three-bath condo in the Murray Hill section of New York City that she will use as an investment property, the listing agent told HousingWatch just minutes after she left the closing table on Sept. 8. "It will not be her primary... Continue Reading »

If real estate brokers in the U.S. are feeling upbeat about a recent run of good sales in the luxury end of the market, then their colleagues in London must be positively giddy over the recent sale of a $220 million penthouse in the city -- the highest-priced residential property ever sold in the U.K., or just about... Continue Reading »

With amenities that include outdoor spas, poolside cabanas, private wine lockers, 24-hour fitness centers with views of the city -- who wouldn't want to live in an apartment these days? In Chicago, the big bets developers made by building nearly 1,300 new downtown apartments in 2009 appear to be paying off, big... Continue Reading »

Thanks to a court ruling last October, about 4,400 renters at Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village (Stuy Town) got to pay lower rent and an agreement last week will keep that break in place at least through December. The court had ruled that the owners of Stuy Town - Tishman Speyer and Blackrock Realty - had illegally... Continue Reading »

In Manhattan, there's one apartment whose decor will remind you over and over again exactly in which city you are nestled. Designer-owner Gail Maidman's two-bedroom apartment -- which she refurbished as an homage to the Big Apple -- has been put on sale with one major prerequisite. The future occupant must love New... Continue Reading »

A rise in existing home sales could open the floodgates to sales of even more homes in some regions of the U.S. as the buying season heats up. But that doesn't necessarily mean home values are expected to increase in the near future. An uptick in hiring, still-low mortgage rates, and a pent-up demand are... Continue Reading »

Knock, knock. Who's there? The doorman. The doorman who? The doorman who's tweeting about this terrible joke. The exchange above is no laughing matter, and some tenants in New York City are finding their relationships with their doormen just as unfunny. That's because some of those men and women who faithfully open doors,... Continue Reading »

We missed Milan this year (the city and the annual design world jamboree that convenes there) so as compensation we stopped by the more accessible Javits center in New York for the other big event of the year: the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF), a kind of Milan after-party with bad food and a... Continue Reading »

A piddly $2.5 million budget won't get you jack in New York City when you have a laundry list of requirements you won't budge on. Thursday night's episode of HGTV's "Selling New York" was less about selling property and more of a lesson on how hard it is to satisfy a New Yorker. Indecision can make for missed opportunities... Continue Reading »

Homeowners seeking help reducing their mortgage payments are fed up with banks, and they're not taking it anymore. Borrowers allege that some lenders have been giving temporary "trial" modifications under the Home Affordable Mortgage Program (HAMP), only to later refuse permanent modifications -- leaving the borrowers... Continue Reading »

Can you believe a Hong Kong man fits 24 rooms into a postage-stamp-size apartment? Sounds impossible, but it's true. Gary Chang calls it his "Domestic Transformer." He created a masterpiece using exceedingly thoughtful planning and design in a 330-square-foot space. (His architect-training, no doubt, coming in very... Continue Reading »

"I Kissed a Girl" singer Katy Perry and her funnyman fiancée Russell Brand seem to be really into having various pieds-à-terre. Tuesday afternoon the couple was spotted looking at properties in the Chinatown/East Village area of New York City with a real estate agent. They reportedly viewed a two-bedroom... Continue Reading »

Why go to all the trouble of being a movie star, vineyard owner, golf pro or naturalist, when you can just live like one -- in a spanking new high-rise or community where you have tons of amenities and are surrounded by neighbors just like you? Whether you are an urban sophisticate, a foodie boomer or a nature-loving... Continue Reading »