This fall's Wall Street meltdown barreled into the Manhattan residential real estate market, ending a decade-long period of skyrocketing home prices, fourth quarter market reports released today show. For the first time in 10 years -- with the exception of a brief blip in 2006 -- the median price of resale apartments fell from the prior year quarter, said Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, and preparer of Prudential Douglas Elliman's Manhattan market report.

more By Candace Taylor

Construction spending in the U.S. fell less than expected in November, as commercial and government building increased, counteracting the residential slump. Construction spending declined 0.6 percent in November, the Commerce Department said today, compared to the 1.4 percent decline that economists had estimated. The downturn in residential construction is likely to continue, economists said. Non-residential construction, including public projects, increased 1 percent in November and was 9.2 percent greater than it had been a year earlier.

more

more

The number of home sales in the outer boroughs are falling fast. Sales of one-, two-, and three-family homes in Brooklyn fell 37.5 percent last year, according to the Daily News, and in Queens, home sales fell 34.8 percent last year. The Richmond Hill neighborhood in Queens saw home sales fall from 938 sales to 665 in 2007. In Astoria, the average number of days a home sat on the market doubled in the past year, reaching 120 days on the market. In Brooklyn, Nancy Pecoraro, a vice president at Fillmore Real Estate, said she has been selling far fewer homes in Sheepshead Bay because prices are down from a year ago, but many sellers are still unwilling to lower prices.

more

Most of the 190 units at One Hanson Place have sold, but the remaining units are now available for rent. On Stribling Marketing Associates' Web site, 19 units are listed as rentals, with monthly rents ranging from $3,400 to $4,900. Three other units have been listed for-rent-by-owner since the fall. One Hanson Place was converted into a residential building in 2006 by Dermot Company and the Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds.

more

The supply of rental units available in several Brooklyn neighborhoods at the end of 2008 in Brooklyn increased compared to the same period in 2007, according to the 2008 rental market report from Brooklyn-based residential and commercial firm Ideal Properties Group. There were 13 percent more studios available for rent, 54 percent more one-bedrooms, 53 percent more two-bedrooms and 74 percent more three-bedrooms in the fourth quarter of 2008 than there had been in the fourth quarter of 2007. The report looked at Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, Carroll Gardens, Clinton Hill, Cobble Hill, Fort Greene, Gowanus, Park Slope, Prospect Heights and Windsor Terrace. TRD

more

• 1. City plan for low- and moderate-income housing delayed [NYT]
• 2. Armand Quadrini-designed building rising on Fourth Avenue and Carroll Street [GL]
• 3. City Planning hearing for Gowanus spot rezoning scheduled for Wednesday [GL]
• 4. City evicting Queens' Caffe on the Green [Queens Crap]
• 5. A look back at Atlantic Yards in 2008 [AY Report]
• 6. State judge upholds permit for Trump Soho [NYT]
• 7. Economist who denied housing bubble now admits to being wrong [Business Week]
• 8. Do sellers really have inflated expectations when they list their homes? [Seeking Alpha]
• 9. Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to shorten the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure [Queens Crap]
• 10. Coney Island is falling apart [GL]
• 11. A Willets Point business leader said the city probably won't move any businesses out until 2011 [Queens Crap]
• 12. Legislatures across the country might curb property tax increases [WSJ]
• 13. More retail bankruptcies nationwide on the way [Post]
• 14. Robert Knakal's recap of 2008 [Massey Knakal Reel]
• 15. New York City ranked seventh for multi-family housing market strength [PR Newswire]
• 16. Brooklyn property auction brings $3 million [Brooklyn Eagle]

more

Two apartments in the Plaza Hotel are being offered for sale at prices far below what they were originally purchased for. The 1,212-square-foot unit 1505 is being offered for $4.9 million, 16 percent below its July 2007 sale price of $5.873 million, according to city property records. The other unit, number 1707, is a 2,841-square-foot apartment that is being offered for $14.5 million, close to $200,000 less than its May 2008 sale price of $14.674 million, records showed.

more By Adam Pincus

A Manhattan-based private equity firm filed suit against developer Kent Swig in late December alleging he defaulted on more than $39 million in loans and inflated his stake in the Sheffield57 condominium. In a suit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Square Mile Capital Management claimed that in March 2007 it loaned $18.4 million to 25 Broad Mezz Preferred, a Swig Equities subsidiary that invested in Swig's failed conversion of 25 Broad Street, a luxury rental building in the Financial District. Square Mile claimed that the 25 Broad Street conversion began to run into financial difficulties in the summer of 2007, and that both loans were restructured at Swig's request.

more By David Jones

From the January issue: Three years ago, an up-and-coming real estate firm called Extell Development Company was denied the right to develop the controversial Atlantic Yards site, despite outbidding rival Forest City Ratner by $100 million. Now, the world has completely changed for both companies, with fortunes rising for one and falling for the other. The credit crisis has halted the $6 billion Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn for Forest City Ratner, while Extell has emerged as the most active developer in the rehabilitation of Manhattan's West Side. If Extell's chief executive Gary Barnett is accurate, when the market finally reaches bottom in the near future, he might emerge as one of the last men standing in New York City real estate. "In most of our completed projects, we don't owe the banks a dollar," said Barnett. "We are not under pressure to sell, and have a lot more flexibility to [ride out] today's market."

more By David Jones