Obama vs. Romney: who is receiving more $ from the NYC real estate industry?
Data from the U.S. Federal Elections Commission shows that Obama, surprisingly, is getting more money than Romney from the city real estate players so far in 2012.
During the first eight months of the year, Obama’s campaign collected 921 donations worth $300,064 from New Yorkers working in real estate. During the same period Romney’s campaign was given 270 contributions worth $239,776.
This scenario is a complete reversal of what was happening last year. In 2011, Obama’s campaign took in $206,487 from the big apple real estate bunch versus Romeny’s $344,325.

residential market stats
In the third quarter of 2012, the number of sales registered for Manhattan condos and co-ops rose 11.5% to 2,952 from 2,647 compared to the previous quarter according to the report released by Miller Samuel for Prudential. The median sale price also increased to $890,000 from $829,000 in the same period.
The transaction volume keeps increasing even as the inventory (apartments on the market) is declining.
The one-bedroom market segment gained market share from 32.8% in the third quarter of 2011 to 37.8% during the third quarter of this year. While the two-bedroom sales went down from 38.7% to 31% in the same period.
One of the trends perceived by brokers is: parents buying for their kids that are attending college. They don’t have to pay rent, and they get great value for their investment now that NYC prices are still very affordable in specific areas of the city.
The third round of quantitavie easing implemented by the Federal Reserve will keep mortgage rates low for the forseeable future with a direct effect on real estate values that will keep trending upward.

NYC managing agents: their real estate perspective
The Real Deal magazine publishes an interesting article that features the heads of the largest managing firms in the city. These are the companies that run the day to day buildings’ operations. They take care of everything from the doorman service to the energy bills and maintenance of the apartments.
David Kuperberg of Cooper Square Realty thinks that buildings that didn’t keep up with raising costs, like for example fuel and taxes, and didn’t pass that onto the owners during the years of recession found themselves having to increase maintenance by double-digits. Better to face reality sooner rather than later. Mr. Kuperberg also thinks that the wisest investment choice for a building is energy systems improvement. Energy costs on average account for 30% of the building operating expenses and an energy efficiency project has three, four and five year paybacks, which are 20% to 30% return.
According to Ira Meister of Matthew Adam Properties, most buildings today are in better shape financially than during the recession period a couple years ago. People were shocked and had to tighten their belts and so they did. One of the projects his company is focusing on is achieving savings by improving water and sewer management and therefore charges. He also noticed the buildings’ boards scrutinizing new applicants application packages way more than a few years back. They want to make sure people can afford to live in the building. This is one of the reasons why the Manhattan market is so stable and sought after by international investors.

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Warmest Regards,
Riccardo Ravasini