Bidding wars. All-cash offers. Foreign buyers. Off-market sales. The telltale signs of New York City’s housing crunch have dominated headlines in recent years, as pent-up demand from the financial crisis gave way to a seller’s market — one in which prices have soared.

But in Brooklyn, the steep inventory decline of the past four years is easing slightly, as new developments hit the market and some homeowners cash out.

There were 4,202 properties for sale in Brooklyn during the month of June ...

1973: Soho designated city historic district

Soho, the growing artist neighborhood that was once a thriving manufacturing district, was designated as a historic district by the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission 41 years ago this month.

The Soho-Cast Iron Historic District was bounded by West Broadway, Houston, Canal and Crosby streets, and included 26 city blocks given character by 19-century loft buildings with cast-iron facades. The law made it more difficult to tear down or alter the approximately 500 buildings within the neighborhood.

The ...

According to the National Association of Realtors’ 2014 Profile of International Home Buying Activity Report, favorable exchange rates, affordable home prices and rising affluence abroad continue to drive foreign buyers to the U.S. to purchase properties and make real estate investments.

For the period April 2013 through March 2014, total international sales have been estimated at a record-setting $92.2 billion, an increase from the previous period’s level of $68.2 billion. Four states accounted for 55% of the total reported purchases – ...

Things are looking good for the owners of New York’s commercial skyscrapers.

An improving economy and increasing demand from foreign investors have brought Manhattan’s office-building values back to where they were before the crash.

According to Green Street Advisors, the index of midtown values was at 99.4 in June, up from 87.2 a year earlier. The index reached its peek in 2007 — hitting 100. Its lowest point? In April 2009, when the index sunk to 45.5.

While this boom has increased tax ...

Building owners are always looking for ways to slice and dice their properties to maximize profits. On the commercial side, selling off condo interests for either office or retail space has become commonplace. On the residential side, savvy developers such as RAL Companies have created private rooftop “cabanas.”

But some building owners in Times Square are now looking to milk their prime locations by “condominiumizing” their properties’ lucrative signage. Though telecommunications antennas have been condo-ed for years, sources said, signage-specific condos ...

In the first quarter of 2014, the listing inventory in Manhattan was relatively unchanged at 4,968 units compared with 4,960 units a year earlier, according to a report by appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Meanwhile, the average number of days a property was on the market dropped to 115 from 132 last year.

Miller Samuel’s data show 45.9 percent of Manhattan condos and co-ops sold at or above the listing price during the second quarter, up from 38.1 percent in the first ...