By Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke 10/09/12 7:10pm

off the record

Mansion

WSJ’s New Real Estate

A man’s home may be his castle, but for Wall Street Journal readers, home is Mansion, the newspaper’s aspirationally titled Friday shelter section, which debuted last week. Because houses are all well and good, but, given the choice, aren’t mansions better?

“We all like to think of our home as a mansion, even if it is a humble abode, and we all have the license to aspire, so we have created Mansion to be the home of both aspiration and real estate realization,” WSJ managing editor Robert Thomson said in a statement announcing the launch.

The section bears a subhead with a quote from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet that is uttered by the titular heroine about midway through the play.

“O, I have bought the mansion of a love, But not possess’d it,” reads the subhead. Read More

By Kim Velsey 3/28/12 1:47pm

Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

Gracie Mansion, SpecialKRB, flickr

Mayor Bloomberg Has No Gracie, But Successors (and His Girlfriend) Are Eager to Spend the Night

There’s a battle brewing over Gracie Mansion. Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t live there and he doesn’t think anyone else should either.

“The mayor should not live there,” Mayor Bloomberg flatly told The Times. Mayors should sleep on their own dimes, just as he, and all other city employees do, the mayor, who has many many more dimes than most people, explained. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/19/12 10:41am

Unreal Estate

Screen Shot 2012-01-19 at 10.23.03 AM

Drugs Don’t Pay… the Rent: At Home With Mexican Drug Lords

We’ll be the first to admit that this story has very little to do with New York real estate, except that it appeared in The Times and perhaps some of the owners’ “product” may have wound up in the homes of some of our readers at some point. Regardless, today’s Home & Garden cover story is a striking departure from the typical fare—last week, it was stuffed pets—as the Gray Lady goes inside the homes of a few Mexican drug lords. The Observer is addicted. Read More

By Max Abelson 8/04/09 9:36pm

$8.5 M. Drop and All That Jazz; East 78th Street Mansion Moves

There are worse things in the world than getting $15 million instead of $23.5 million for your parents’ ancient, scruffy Upper East Side mansion after a juicier deal falls through. (Take, for example, the penthouse triplex at 895 Park Avenue, which was once listed for $29.5 million, but went to contract this summer for around Read More