My apologies.  I have not blogged about New york City real estate in a almost a month.  Some of my lack of entries can be blamed on the season, but thankfully most of it is a result of being busy with my clients.  I had a closing on a coop in Inwood earlier this month and have another closing on a condo in Brooklyn on Wed. I also have a two clients looking at townhouses in Harlem and I am negotiating the purchase of a condo on 123rd Street. Add to that coop mortgage deals going in Tribeca, Chelsea and the West Village and I had to take my New York real estate continuing education courses this month...and I managed to get all of my holiday shopping done!!   Who said that December is a slow month in real estate???

So enough excuses...back to what I like doing...writing about New York real estate, and Harlem real estate in particular.  Anybody who has strolled on Frederick Douglass Avenue (8th Avenue to purist) recently can't help but notice the buzz of building activity.  From the 125th south to 110th Street, there are perhaps six or so new buildings going up.  On 124th and 8th Avenue there is the A Loft hotel, ready for spring of 2010, (a cooler version of W Hotel, owned by the same co that towns the W). On 123rd and 8th there is 2280 FDB, a high end new condo that should also go live this spring.  Further south on Frederick Douglass there are more condo projects, a new super market as well as new restaurants, bars and a beer garden. To the east on Lenox there is a new yoga studio, coffee shop, restuarant and more small businesses set to open.

When my wife and I moved to Harlem in 2007, the begining of the boom was under way, but the financial melt down gave us reason to doubt its continued strength.  It looks like 2010 is going to bring good things to Harlem as well Harlem property owners.  Check out this article from the NYTimes real estate section for more details on the boom in Harlem real estate.  Mini boom in South Harlem.

Wine Tasting and Tour in Harlem

Who knew...George Washington slept in Harlem?  In the fall of 1776, Washington used the Morris-Jumel Mansion as his headquarters.  After Washington's departure, the Mansion played host to a succession of British and Hessian military leaders, served briefly as an inn for weary travelers, and finally returned to its role as country house. And that's just the beginning of the fascinating history of this stately mansion built on a hilltop in 1765.

Well, it is a bit too late to meet George, but you can tour the house and taste some wine  Friday October 23rd, 2009 at 7:00 PM:

Experience local wines in the setting of the historic Octagon drawing room. A tour of the Mansion is also included in the program. Tickets are $20 per person and $15 for members. Advanced registration is required. Call 212 923 8008. Located at:

65 Jumel Terrace

New York, NY 10032

Hope to see you there!

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Harlem is really starting to get new businesses and services that are making it much more livable.  New restaurants, coffee shops and now a Yoga studio.  Finally it has become clear as to what has been going on at 119th and Lenox Ave...a new Yoga studio called Harlem Yoga Studio.  It is located at 181 Lenox.  Welcome to the neighborhood...you are a welcomed addition!!  www.harlemyogastudio.com.

Model apartment at Harlem conversion opened

A rendering of PS 90 at 220 West 148th Street

The on-site model apartment for the new PS90 condominium building at 220 West 148th Street opened today, according to a press release. The project is L + M Development's $40 million conversion of the space, from public school to residential building, which will include 74 units. The building offers studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units. The model apartment opening today is a 1,484-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom home, which is listed for $710,000. Sales on units began in mid-September. 

Just did some quick research on Streeteasy.com about price per sq foot in Central Harlem (see below) and of 65 active listings, the avg size is 1,000 sq feet and the avg price per sq foot is $592, so it look like at $525 a sq ft  you are getting  a fair price.  Also, when looking at qter vs qter numbers for all of Manhattan, sales transactions are way up, while prices have slowed their decline.  While I am not one to call a market top nor a market bottom, the data is pointing to stabilization.  If you like the Dover, the price and the market seem to indicate that it is a good opportunity.

Have a good night and feel free to call me tomorrow if you have questions. 

Thanks, Rich

Real Estate for Sale

In Central Harlem

We found 65 listings around $574,000.00

Median price: $579,000     Median size: 1,000 ft²     Median price per ft²: $592

Richard C. Bouchner | Managing Director
Commodore Property Group
Real Estate | Sales & Marketing | Mortgage | Investment
12 Desbrosses Street | New York, NY 10013
T 646 825 5734 | F 800 721 6551 | C 917 627 3459
rich@cpg-nyc.com | www.commodore-group.com

Anybody who knows me knows these two things to be true:  I love good coffee (a taste I picked up from years of living in New Orleans and drinking PJs iced coffee), and I shop at locally owned businesses when ever possible.

As I was walking around Harlem yesterday looking for a brownstone for a client, I saw coffee shop called Muddy Waters that appears to be close to opening. It is located at 130th and ACP.

I hope that the coffee is good and that it is owned by New Yorkers.

During my Harlem brownstone walk about, I also met a man named George who runs a deli and news stand at 78 West 131 Street, between  Lenox and Fifth Avenue called Tasty News.  George's aunt owns the place and he runs it.  He and I chatted for 30 minutes about the challenges of owning and running a small business, the lack of good customer service in Harlem and the lack of variety in Harlem when it comes to fast and healthy eating.  Tasty News needs more customers.  It is located just of off Lenox, which means that if you don't know it is there, it is easy to miss it.  George had a sign that he put on the corner, which helped draw in customers, but he was fined by the city for having it placed where it was blocking a ramp. Harlem needs more people like George:  He grew up in Harlem, he and his wife (she is a nurse) want to own a business and want do right by the people in Harlem, and he cares about customers.  Now the people of Harlem need to support a local business.  Skip McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts for a change....give Tasty News a try Muddy Waters a try.

Townhouse market hit hard in Harlem

Harlem townhouses, left to right: 148 West 121st Street, 419 West 146th Street, 152 West 132nd Street

Townhouses have always been something of an anomaly, a frustratingly hard-to-track, hard-to-price sector of the real estate market.

And with so few annual sales, it's hard to put too much stock in statistics about them.

Still, Streeteasy.com's first-quarter market report figures on townhouses are eye-opening.

According to Streeteasy.com, which pulls its data from closed sales filed with the city, there were only 19 townhouses sold in the first quarter of 2009. That's down a sizable 75.9 percent from 79 sales in the first quarter of 2008, according to Sofia Kim, vice president of research at Streeteasy and the author of the report.

Meanwhile, the median townhouse sales price fell 47.7 percent from the prior year quarter to $1.7 million, which Streeteasy.com attributed in part to the fact that more of the closings than typical were in Upper Manhattan, where the median townhouse sales price is $1.07 million. In comparison, the median townhouse sales price is $7.6 million on the Upper East Side, $7.282 million in Midtown, $5.5 million Downtown, and $978,295 on the Upper West Side, according to the report.

Of 19 closed townhouse sales, 10 of them were in Upper Manhattan, the report said, compared to four in Midtown, two on the Upper East Side, two Downtown and only one on the Upper West Side. While the number of transactions in Upper Manhattan tumbled 64.3 percent from the same quarter of last year, the percentage was still smaller than the other neighborhoods. The Upper West Side, for example, saw an annual decline of 90 percent.

Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraiser firm Miller Samuel, said he hasn't yet compiled data for townhouse sales in 2009, but he said he expects the number of townhouse sales this year to have decreased at roughly the same pace as co-ops and condos, which declined 47.6 percent in the first quarter from the same quarter of last year, according to a quarterly market report he prepared for Prudential Douglas Elliman. "It's in line with what we're seeing everywhere else," Miller said.

He cautioned that trends in townhouse data aren't always particularly telling because of the very small number of sales. 

Townhouses all over the city face the same obstacles in the current economic environment, including the scarcity of jumbo and construction loans, and the crippling impact of stock market and Bernard Madoff losses on the formerly deep pockets of potential buyers. 

But the super-high end market -- which includes many townhouses south of 96th Street -- is also suffering from the perception that ostentatious displays of wealth are passé, and even risky at a time when unemployment keeps climbing. 

Therein may lie the relative strength of the Upper Manhattan townhouse market. Buyers view Harlem fixer-uppers as a value play, while townhouses in more established neighborhoods epitomize the height of luxury.

"The price sensitivity is probably the biggest factor," said Norman Horowitz, an executive vice president at Halstead Property. "I'm seeing a lot of interest [in townhouses] under $1 million." 

Horowitz has around nine listings for Harlem townhouses priced at less than $1 million, a price point that was nearly unheard of at the height of the market. His listings include a 5,220-square-foot five bedroom house at 148 West 121st Street with an asking price of $995,000, and a 12-foot-wide home at 419 West 146th Street in Hamilton Heights on the market for $795,000.

According to Streeteasy.com, the average price of a townhouse in Upper Manhattan is $1.19 million, down 15.7 percent from the same quarter last year, while the median price fell 10.6 percent year-over-year. 

Horowitz said much of his clientele are "value buyers" who are enticed primarily by the declining prices.

"You can buy 4,000 square feet of townhouse for under $1 million," Horowitz said. "That's under $250 a square foot. Compare that to Downtown luxury condos. Some of them are $2,000 per square foot."

Rich Bouchner, a Harlem townhouse owner and managing director of the Commodore Property Group, a Manhattan-based mortgage broker and residential real estate sales firm, said the perceived value of Harlem real estate is a key reason buyers are attracted to the area.

Harlem is "one of the last places in the city where you can find townhouses and brownstones that are affordable," Bouchner said. "I think people will come uptown who would have [typically] gone to the outskirts of Brooklyn and Queens.