Housing

By Matt Chaban 1/11 6:16pm

Elizabeth Stribling Is Not Afraid of Her Shadow Inventory

Shadow inventory. It was supposed to be the boogeyman of the real estate bust, thousands upon thousands of unsold properties scattered across the city. Bought or built for more than they were worth, people would hang onto these homes until the market improved, giving a better appearance to the housing supply than actually existed. It’s like the difference between the standard and broad rates of unemployment.

No matter. To real estate doyenne and new Brooklynite Elizabeth Stribling, there is no shadow inventory, or so she tells The Times in one of its patented 30-Minute Interviews. Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/12/11 2:25pm

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

Raise high the roof beams, Mr. Ratner. (SHoP_

How Invested Is Bruce Ratner In Prefab? Oh, Only a Few Million

Last week, The Observer looked at Bruce Ratner’s plans for a prefabricated Atlantic Yards project—whether he was serious about the project and whether he could achieve the steep 20 percent savings he claimed for the modular building process. A number of real estate professionals were skeptical on both counts, but they all pointed to the developers out-sized investment in prefab technology as an indicator of his seriousness. Now we know just how much of an investment that has been. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/31/11 12:34pm

This Old House

Home Sick: The Housing Crisis Is Trying to Kill Us

For almost five years now, the housing crisis has been a drag on the U.S. economy, the U.S. psyche, the U.S. spirit. It turns out it is also dragging down Americans’ health. Read More

By Matt Chaban 8/11/11 9:18am

This Old House

Obama Wants Rentals as F’d Up Foreclosures Drop to Four-Year Low

Good news! Foreclosures are at their lowest levels in four years!

Wait, no, that’s horrible news. There are so many delinquent homes out there, the banks don’t want to repossess them, and even when they want to, the bottleneck caused by the robo-signing scandal is still holding up the whole party. The Obama administration has a simple solution: Just rent it. Read More

By Matt Chaban 2/10/11 2:27pm

An Arena Grows in Brooklyn

SHoP Scores First Apartment Building at Atlantic Yards

Back when Frank Gehry got bounced off Bruce Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project, the new designs for the Nets’ arena, created by Ellerbe Beckett, were said to be so loathed by certain city officials that the developer had to find another firm to dress things up. Ratner chose local hotshots SHoP, which had made its Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/14/11 5:09pm

Hood Winking

The Financial District Is Back, But Without Its Swagger

One of the great creations of the real estate boom was “FiDi.” As many old office buildings grew obsolete, instead of tearing down the historic warren of grand towers surrounding Wall Street, developers, with the city’s encouragement, began converting them into apartments. The Financial District became, well, the Residential District.

Yet, just as traders Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/14/11 2:30pm

This Old House

2010 Set the Foreclosure Record, But 2011 Is Bound to Top It

Christmas and New Years are over, and with them went the foreclosure holiday. Banks are back at it, and as the robosigning confusion continues to unwind, they are bound to ramp repossessions up again.

Despite months of moratoriums and the drop in foreclosures that came with them, 2010 still saw more foreclosures than Read More

By Matt Chaban 12/09/10 5:41pm

Housing Woes

Fire Sale: Could Nation’s Home Values Fall By Half?

We sure do miss those homebuyer tax credits.

According to a report out from Zillow today, homes are on track to lose $1.7 trillion in value this year, 63 percent more than the $1 trillion in value they sacrificed in 2009. Much of that fall has come in the latter half of the year, Read More

By Laura Kusisto 11/08/10 10:31pm

Working Vacations

Is Israel the New Dubai?

Israel is the fastest growing real estate market in the world right now. Foreign investors — including many a New Yorker — are snapping up property in the often troubled paradise. But that might be a mistake.

Global Property Guide ranked Israel the hottest housing market for the last two years. In the most Read More

By Matt Chaban 9/30/10 10:21pm

Affordable Housing or Lack Thereof

Put Homeless in Vacant Buildings? Not So Fast!

What if there were an easy way to figure out all the empty buildings and lots in the city and put them to a better use, like housing the homeless or pushing down the city’s exhorbitant real estate prices? Advocates, led by Picture the Homeless, think there is, in the form of a Read More

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Elizabeth Stribling Is Not Afraid of Her Shadow Inventory

How Invested Is Bruce Ratner In Prefab? Oh, Only a Few Million

Home Sick: The Housing Crisis Is Trying to Kill Us

Obama Wants Rentals as F’d Up Foreclosures Drop to Four-Year Low

SHoP Scores First Apartment Building at Atlantic Yards

The Financial District Is Back, But Without Its Swagger

2010 Set the Foreclosure Record, But 2011 Is Bound to Top It

Fire Sale: Could Nation’s Home Values Fall By Half?

Is Israel the New Dubai?

Put Homeless in Vacant Buildings? Not So Fast!

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