By JENNIFER CEASER- FIDI
District: With Amy Sacco as its "lifestyle consultant," the 163-unit District could have a pretty sweet scene. There's a 12,000-square-foot rooftop terrace with lighted reflecting pools, chaise lounges and cabanas, an indoor pool, a spa, a screening room and a lounge/library with billiards. And if the scene is sputtering, there's a concierge on duty 24/7. Opening September.
Dwell on Wall: Designed by Philippe Starck, this just-opened 507-unit rental has your typical amenities - 24-hour doorman and concierge, gym, penthouse lounge - and some atypical ones too, including on-site parking, free breakfast and automatic rent payments via your AMEX.
Nobu Hotel and Residences: Well, you can be assured that the restaurant here is going to be an upgrade for FiDi. The 62-story, all-glass condo-hotel (with 77 residences) will have a Nobu on the third floor, a six-floor-high atrium with retail space, a screening room, a 13,000-square-foot health club and spa with an indoor pool and the all-important private sake cellar. Occupancy: 2010.
The Setai: If it's anything like Miami's Setai, this 167-unit building could single-handedly make FiDi a cool place to live. With 44,000 square feet devoted to amenities, residents will have access to a members-only Setai club, restaurant, spa and rooftop terrace with hot tub. Other perks: room and maid service, butler service and in-room spa service. Occupancy: Fall 2008.
William Beaver House: The 320-unit building's ad campaign has morphed from sexy cartoons to pillow fights among nubile young women, so we're pretty sure it's favoring single-guy buyers. Or voyeurs, because you will be able to use the Internet to see what's going on in your apartment from anywhere in the world. Other amenities: a restaurant, lounge with wet bar, lap pool, screening room, covered outdoor dog run, sundeck and "sky lounge." Occupancy: Fall 2008.
Showing posts with label real estate market. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate market. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
PropertyShark to launch residential listings
The Brooklyn-based site expects to introduce the service for homebuyers by Sept. 1. This will be first time the five-year-old site—which provides data on sale prices, financing and appraisal values for more than 25 million properties in 20 major markets—has moved beyond commercial real estate.
"We have conquered delivering difficult-to-find information to professionals," says PropertyShark Chief Executive Bill Staniford. "We're ready to add another tool."
Mr. Staniford acknowledges that replicating such success with consumers might be difficult. In addition to the battered condition of the real estate industry, the residential listings market is overcrowded.
But real estate sites report runaway growth, citing consumers' enduring desire for information.
National competitors Trulia.com and Zillow.com both recently raised substantial infusions of venture funding.
In New York, PropertyShark's largest market, local sites StreetEasy.com and ResidentialNYC.com—the portal for industry group the Real Estate Board of New York—have established themselves as major players.
StreetEasy, a two-year-old firm offering overall market and neighborhood research, claims that it provides superior listings. Its technology scours the Web, receives feeds from brokerages and accepts submissions from brokers.
"We provide search by things like zones and elementary schools," says StreetEasy CEO Michael Smith, who isn't concerned about PropertyShark's entrance into the market. "No other tool does that."
ResidentialNYC boasts exclusive listings that are updated every 24 hours from 75 brokerage firms, which pay a $100 annual membership fee.
"The people who run ResidentialNYC are the people out there selling property every day—it has a real feel," says REBNY President Steven Spinola. He adds that, unlike StreetEasy, its listings lead directly to brokers' Web sites.
PropertyShark's service will also take users to brokerage Web sites, according to Mr. Staniford.
Regardless of which site provides the most comprehensive and reliable listings, traffic to ResidentialNYC and StreetEasy has ballooned in the past year. Both attribute the surge to the uniqueness of New York City and say that, though transactions are down, consumers still demand their real estate data.
StreetEasy, which generates most of its revenues from ads, has doubled traffic from a year ago, attracting about 4.5 million page views and 250,000 unique visitors a month in 2008. The firm, which has raised $3 million in venture funding, does not disclose financials.
Consumer cachet
ResidentialNYC, which launched in October, says it is getting about 85,000 page views a day.
Additionally, newer sites like Propertyqube.com, which combines residential listings and social networking, have gained traction. The site, introduced in May, has 10,000 members and expects to reach 25,000 by the end of the year, says co-founder David Bethony.
Several members requested the residential listing service so that they could easily view properties without having to leave PropertyShark.com "Listings are a commodity," Mr. Staniford says. "For us, it's an extension of the business. We are already generating revenue."
"We have conquered delivering difficult-to-find information to professionals," says PropertyShark Chief Executive Bill Staniford. "We're ready to add another tool."
Mr. Staniford acknowledges that replicating such success with consumers might be difficult. In addition to the battered condition of the real estate industry, the residential listings market is overcrowded.
But real estate sites report runaway growth, citing consumers' enduring desire for information.
National competitors Trulia.com and Zillow.com both recently raised substantial infusions of venture funding.
In New York, PropertyShark's largest market, local sites StreetEasy.com and ResidentialNYC.com—the portal for industry group the Real Estate Board of New York—have established themselves as major players.
StreetEasy, a two-year-old firm offering overall market and neighborhood research, claims that it provides superior listings. Its technology scours the Web, receives feeds from brokerages and accepts submissions from brokers.
"We provide search by things like zones and elementary schools," says StreetEasy CEO Michael Smith, who isn't concerned about PropertyShark's entrance into the market. "No other tool does that."
ResidentialNYC boasts exclusive listings that are updated every 24 hours from 75 brokerage firms, which pay a $100 annual membership fee.
"The people who run ResidentialNYC are the people out there selling property every day—it has a real feel," says REBNY President Steven Spinola. He adds that, unlike StreetEasy, its listings lead directly to brokers' Web sites.
PropertyShark's service will also take users to brokerage Web sites, according to Mr. Staniford.
Regardless of which site provides the most comprehensive and reliable listings, traffic to ResidentialNYC and StreetEasy has ballooned in the past year. Both attribute the surge to the uniqueness of New York City and say that, though transactions are down, consumers still demand their real estate data.
StreetEasy, which generates most of its revenues from ads, has doubled traffic from a year ago, attracting about 4.5 million page views and 250,000 unique visitors a month in 2008. The firm, which has raised $3 million in venture funding, does not disclose financials.
Consumer cachet
ResidentialNYC, which launched in October, says it is getting about 85,000 page views a day.
Additionally, newer sites like Propertyqube.com, which combines residential listings and social networking, have gained traction. The site, introduced in May, has 10,000 members and expects to reach 25,000 by the end of the year, says co-founder David Bethony.
Several members requested the residential listing service so that they could easily view properties without having to leave PropertyShark.com "Listings are a commodity," Mr. Staniford says. "For us, it's an extension of the business. We are already generating revenue."
Friday, July 18, 2008
Advice to buyers
Advice to buyers
POSTED May 27, 1:01 PM
We all know that this is a buyer's market. Home prices are way down; foreclosure sales (which usually contain bargains) are way up. And mortgage rates are also down.
So if things are so good for buyers, why aren't there more deals getting done? Because sellers are still towing the line on price. A lot of sellers haven't adjusted their price expectations to the current market conditions. A recent Zillow survey on homeowner perceptions shows that only 28% of homeowners believe their home has declined in value, when in fact 75% of homes have declined. In particular, sellers who bought their home over the last few years still have their purchase price as a bogey in their minds.
So here is my advice to buyers:
1. Make an offer! Any offer! Don't be embarrassed to offer 5-15% less than the asking price -- you never know. There are so few offers coming in that you might find a seller who'll bite. Some people think it's insulting to make a low offer, but I don't think so. It seems much more insulting NOT to make an offer at all.
2. Consider renting. There are sellers out there who are amenable to a 2-3 year lease which just covers their mortgage payments. They figure that they'll ride out the market downturn with a good rental tenant, and they'll try to sell again in a few years. This is particularly true of sellers who have already bought their new home and are saddled with two mortgages. Again: make an offer! This is how I ended up in my current home, by the way. I offered to rent a home that had been sitting on the market for sale, and we rented it for a few years before eventually buying it.
POSTED May 27, 1:01 PM
We all know that this is a buyer's market. Home prices are way down; foreclosure sales (which usually contain bargains) are way up. And mortgage rates are also down.
So if things are so good for buyers, why aren't there more deals getting done? Because sellers are still towing the line on price. A lot of sellers haven't adjusted their price expectations to the current market conditions. A recent Zillow survey on homeowner perceptions shows that only 28% of homeowners believe their home has declined in value, when in fact 75% of homes have declined. In particular, sellers who bought their home over the last few years still have their purchase price as a bogey in their minds.
So here is my advice to buyers:
1. Make an offer! Any offer! Don't be embarrassed to offer 5-15% less than the asking price -- you never know. There are so few offers coming in that you might find a seller who'll bite. Some people think it's insulting to make a low offer, but I don't think so. It seems much more insulting NOT to make an offer at all.
2. Consider renting. There are sellers out there who are amenable to a 2-3 year lease which just covers their mortgage payments. They figure that they'll ride out the market downturn with a good rental tenant, and they'll try to sell again in a few years. This is particularly true of sellers who have already bought their new home and are saddled with two mortgages. Again: make an offer! This is how I ended up in my current home, by the way. I offered to rent a home that had been sitting on the market for sale, and we rented it for a few years before eventually buying it.
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