The current inventory crunch, the worst in recent memory, has become the defining feature of New York’s residential market. At the end of the first quarter, there were just 4,960 co-ops and condos in Manhattan for sale – a 34% decrease from 7,560 in the same period of last year according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. Current inventory is around the levels of 2004, before the real estate boom gathered steam. Inventory peaked in 2009 and has been falling ever ...

This month in 1939, Tiffany&Company announced it would relocate to 727 Fifth Avenue, 20 blocks north of its former store location at that time.
Tiffany’s headquarters at 401 Fifth Avenue was built in 1905 but by 1939 the area south of 42nd Street was losing its high-end shopping hub allure, the action was moving north.
In 1939 the New York Times wrote: “The move provides a significant touch of stability to the street, which has become known as America’s Rue ...

Lower East Side (LES)

The Real Deal reports interesting facts about the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. This is a new up and coming area for future city development.

The construction company Extell paid nearly $150 million for the site of a now-shuttered Pathmark store at 227 Cherry Street. The firm is expected to build a high rise residential rental tower on the site (apparently its name will be The Lo-Down).

More importantly a 1.65 million-square-foot development site, the largest piece of ...

Construction has finally resumed at the stalled 500 Metropolitan Avenue site in Williamsburg — once dubbed “The Gateway to Williamsburg.” The 15-story project will be mixed use, with 148 hotel rooms and 81 residential units, and slated to be completed in 2015. The developer is still Chetrit Group, the architect is still Gene Kaufman, and the building will still be wedge-shaped and glassy. The construction has been on ice since 2008 during the economic downturn. Nice ...

The Jehovah’s Witnesses recently sold three of their Dumbo, Brooklyn sites (located at 173 and 177 Front Street and 200 Water Street) for $30.6 million in apparent preparation for their move upstate. Brooklyn developer Shelly Listokin of Urban Realty Partners is the buyer. (Listokin was one of the developers of Brooklyn’s 20 Henry Street condo.) The area is apparently zoned for hotel, residential and community use. Time will soon tell what develops in ...

Brooklyn home prices are getting so high, some buyers are heading back to Manhattan. The median price of a Brooklyn home in the first quarter rose 14.4% to $515,000, the highest price reached since the second quarter of 2008, according to a report from Douglas Elliman. Brooklyn’s prices are being pushed up by strong demand coupled with a sharp decline in inventory, which fell 45% in the quarter to a five-year low. Prices in North Brooklyn, which includes the ...