2018 Skyline Preview: Super Skyscrapers to Change Manhattan Skyline

City Realty made the rendering above, providing us an idea of what the city will look like in 2018 based on projections for buildings currently being planned or already in construction. The photo illustrates a NYC skyline 2,500 feet above Central Park. This image focuses on Billionaire's Row, the set of seven sky-high luxury apartment buildings such as One Vanderbilt, 53 W 53rd, 432 Park Avenue, 225 W 57th, and 111 W 57th Street. You click through to the full article to see a few more renderings offering some different perspectives of the area, but the story is the same; Manhattan skyline is changing more dramatically than in decades. Major residential buildings are headed ever more skyward, meaning eventually we'll all be  all living in the clouds. Full Article

What's Trending Now: A Real Estate Guide for Real New Yorkers

Been sitting on the sidelines, waiting for your year? 2015 could be it! Whether buying, selling renting or investing this is a wonderfully comprehensive guide to what the New York Real Estate Market has in store for us all in 2015. Some trends to stay on top of: skyhigh prices are staying around, but may have plateaued for the time being, mortgage rates will continued to stay low, it will remain a seller's market, but with a more reasonable 4% year over year growth expected, while rents will remain as high as ever, rental buildings will continue to be bought and converted to even more lucrative condos, a widening price gap between co-ops and condos may persuade *some* co-ops to loosen restrictive purchasing rules, and landlords and management companies are expected to tighten up on airbnb, even in Condos. Full Article  

Falling Oil=Falling Rates: How Oil Prices Affect Your Mortgage

We all know falling oil means more discretionary spending, with obvious repercussions, but did you ever think that falling oil would mean falling mortgage rates? Most real estate economists have been forecasting mortgage rates will rise in 2015, but the recent steep drop in oil prices could change all that. According to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, an examination of break-even inflation rates suggests sharply lower oil prices are a key driver of the 90 basis points rally in 10-year Treasurys and the 60 basis points drop in mortgage rates in 2014. "The possibility of further declines in oil prices increases the chances that mortgage rates drop to the 3.25%-3.5% range that we believe is necessary to get housing back to affordable levels for many," says Chris Flannigan, ABS and MBS strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Full Article

The Fashionable Homes of Fashion's Finest!

With Fashion Week upon New York City once again, we trolled the internet for an inside peak at the personal spaces of some of Fashion's biggest names and found an exceptional gallery of 12 of the most stunning rooms, in some of the most stunning homes in all of fashion. All, like the parlor of President of Marc Jacobs, Robert Duffy's Manhattan brownstone, are to be envied for sure. These insider views are a gift from reporteres at both Elle Decor and Architectural Digest as compiled by Racked in honor of Fashion Week. It includes the living rooms of Cynthia Rowley and Milly designer Michelle Smith, the dining rooms of Christian Louboutin and Trina Turk, the study of Anna Sui, the library of Mark Badgley and James Mischka, Ralph Lauren's kitchen and Nannette Lapore's to die for closet to name a few! Have fun peeping, and for more follow the links to the original full house tours on both Elle Decor and Architectural Digest! Designer Homes

Luxury Sales Pushing Prices in both Manhattan and Brooklyn

Winter is traditionally the slowest time for Residential Real Estate in Manhattan and this January was no different. Contracts were down 12% compared to last January, mainly die to a lack of affordable inventory, as there are 12% fewer listings under $1MM than last January. On a positive note, more high end inventory means both Co-ops and Condos saw significant price increases year over year, 13% and 23% respectively, although price per square foot was down in Co-ops due to a decline in sales of three+ bedroom units, which are often priced higher per square foot than smaller units.

2015 is off to a strong start in Brooklyn, where contracts were up 32% over last January and 68% of all sales were at or above asking price. In addition, the average sales price was up 21% from January of last year, and price per square foot was up as well. Just like, Manhattan, it is is important to note that numbers were skewed by several high end sales this month, most notably at the new luxury development, The Boreum, on Atlantic Avenue.

Corcoran's Monthly Market Snapshot: Manhattan

Corcoran's Monthly Market Snapshot: Brooklyn

Corcoran's 2014 Year End Review

For the LOVE of Fashion: Real Estate as the Ultimate Accessory

If, as Coco Chanel once said, "Fashion is architecture," then architecture, by way of residential real estate, has become fashion. Apartments make as much of a statement about their owners as a bespoke Savile Row suit about its wearer. A person who buys in 165 Charles is visionary and exacting, uncompromising on details. Fifty Gramercy Park North: refined. The Urban Glass House: bold. Donald Trump's Riverside South: arriviste. We cloak ourselves in these spaces the way we do in designer clothes. If you live for Prada, chances are you'd like the Richard Meier towers in the West Village. (It could become a parlor game: Does Frank Gehry link to Giorgio Armani or Tom Ford?) Real estate has become another luxury good. "In a way, it's the ultimate luxury good," says public-relations guru Harriet Weintraub, whose client roster used to include Christian Dior and Burberry, and who now also reps high-profile buildings. Full Article  

Romance and Real Estate...Is Your Housing Situation Affecting Your Love Life?

Where you live affects who you date-and who will absolutely refuse to date you. In honor of Valentine's Day, the real estate website Trulia commissioned Harris Interactive to conduct a survey looking at the intersection of attitudes about housing and romance. Are homeowners regarded as "marriage material" more so than noncommital renters? Are people more interested in potential mates if they live alone? Just how bad is your love life impacted if you live with your parents? When it comes to dating and housing, what's hot and what's not? How does co-habitation to save on rent stack up for men vs. women, and more, importantly what do each of the sexes fall in love with (in real estate terms) once they DO decide to shack up together? Find the answers in this fun and illuminating article from Time Magazine. Full Article