CityRealty has undergone a redesign.

CityRealty was found back in 1995, before Google and Facebook. Geocities and Yahoo—basically an online directory at the time—were both newly-launched companies. It even predated Ask Jeeves, which didn't make its debut until 1996. CityRealty's earliest incarnation—a sort of glorified real estate classifieds—was cutting edge in the way that anything online back then was cutting edge just by virtue of being online.

"The people who founded the company thought it would be a listings site to compete with the newspapers," general manager Jim Schoenburg told The Observer. "As far as we know, we're the oldest continuously operating real estate website."

Over the years, however, new data-driven websites shouldered CityRealty aside, even though the website evolved into a more comprehensive informational platform with building reviews/write-ups by former Times architectural writer Carter Horsley. StreetEasy, in particular, revolutionized what a real estate website could and should be, transforming the city's historically secretive residential real estate industry into something substantially more transparent. Then came all the others—Brick Underground, Urban Edge, Apartments.com, New Construction Manhattan and launched just last year, The Observer Media Group's own site, Living There.

Now CityRealty is trying to shed its somewhat fusty reputation and reclaim its early prominence with a focus on data-driven building and neighborhood comparisons, building rankings and a list of top 100 "blue chip" Manhattan buildings.

But can CityRealty really hope to supplant existing data powerhouses like StreetEasy and PropertyShark?

"I think we're using the data in a novel way; it's more powerful and effective," Mr. Schoenburg said. He added that he saw CityRealty's new features as more comprehensive and geared towards potential buyers, rather than real estate professionals.

The new website, which goes live today, has  been spiffed up, with some nifty features—like the ability to easily call up graphs showing sales history in a given neighborhood or building, with price per square foot comparisons. But the historical data is somewhat limited in scope given that neighborhood price comparisons are limited to co-op sales, Manhattan, and a handful of upscale Brooklyn neighborhoods like Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights.

"I think that the field has gotten more crowded, certainly some competitors have come into the marketplace and have done fairly well, others come in and fade away," Mr. Schoenburg said. "We try to do what we do fairly well, we’re not trying to be everything to all people."

Many of the site's more interesting features seem designed to help out-of-towners understand and navigate the buildings and neighborhoods of New York. For example, the site includes short videos on buildings that zoom in using GoogleEarth to highlight where on the island a noteworthy building is located and give a similarly brief overview of history and facts. The site, which is funded via ad sales and broker referrals (when users register for the free site, receive a free "consultation" that matches them with a broker), is counting on increased traffic to make such free goodies .

But the site's limited comparative data on historic co-op sales—intra-building data is available but not neighborhood data—and the decision to exclude co-ops from the top 100 building's list may limit its influence in professional real estate circles (740 Park may not be open to the casual house hunter, but who can ignore a $52.5 million sale and some of the city's most influential residents?). After spending some time on the new site, The Observer also wondered if the pared-down and data-heavy format for individual listings (the site pulls data from REBNY rather than broker's sites) might dissuade another huge group of readers known to frequent real estate sites—nosy neighbors.

kvelsey@observer.com

No more squinting over storm zones.

Hurricane Sandy has made at least one indelible mark on the New York real estate market. Streeteasy has added storm zones to their building pages, allowing buyers and renters to easily determine what zone a property is in.

The company decided to start posting the information in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The move is consistent with the company's interest in promoting transparency in real estate, manager Jared Kleinstein told The Observer.

Mr. Kleinstein said that company had considered adding the information before and finally decided to make the change in response to demand from users.

"We also really thought it was something people should know," said Mr. Kleinstein, noting that the company also posted data on school zones and boundaries. Storm zones are information that buyers and renters might want or need when they're considering buying or renting a property.

The company will also use the data to measure traffic to listings in the different zones. He said that so far, the response, from those who have noticed the change, has been mostly positive. After all, potential buyers don't have to puzzle out storm zone boundaries for every building they're considering buying into. However, a few building owners have complained about the inclusion of the date.

Mr. Kleinstein said that the company deliberately decided not to include the zones in individual listings to avoid the appearance that they were issuing any kind of warning. The building pages also include data about the building's construction date, size and amenities. Additionally, users can find data on taxes and maintenance costs, as well as DOB permits and tax liens for individual units.

kvelsey@observer.com

What's going on inside? (Tony Fischer Photography, flickr)

StreetEasy, the go-to sales and listings database for the buyers, renters and the real estate obsessed has just made it easier to snoop on the buildings that you love and the apartments that you covet.

Also, you can now figure out if any of your neighbor are planning a massive renovation or if your co-op board is actually following through on repairs.

Besides building pages, StreetEasy is rolling out pages on each unit that include not only past and current sales, rental listings and recorded sales, but also personal property documents and building permits filed with the city. (A good way to find out if hammers will be ringing and power tools buzzing next door.)

Renters and buyers can keep track of apartments whether they're on the market or not, see how long before a building's tax abatement expires and see other public documents, mortgages, deeds, etc., that don't often leave the dark corners of city property database ACRIS.

And maybe the best part—the site makes it easy to check out Department of Buildings permits and complaints with links to the original document page on the DOB site. Residents can track work being done on the building, see if any of your neighbors have had tax liens placed on their condos, or figure out if the place is a miserable slum that tenants are fleeing in droves.

"You really get a full picture of what's going on in an apartment beyond just the listing" said StreetEasy manager Jared Kleinstein.

Being naturally and professionally nosy, The Observer was delighted, but we know from experience that uptight buildings and residents aren't always happy when others avail themselves of public records.

Mr. Kleinstein said he wasn't worried.

"We believe in transparency and giving people a batter understanding of a building and a unit," he said. "And the city's had it up online forever."

kvelsey@observer.com

"The first quarter of the Manhattan housing market showed a modest uptick in sales but declines in all the price indicators," Jonathan Miller wrote in his closely watched report for Prudential Douglas Elliman. "However, the declines were generally attributable to the expiration of the tax credit last spring and the significant shift in the sales mix toward co-ops over condos ."

In other words, blame (or credit) the Obama administration. We've been here before.

Mr. Miller's numbers, which show the median apartment price down almost 10 percent from last year and 7.4 percent from the quarter before, underscore the idea that there are fewer homes to buy, as inventory shrunk 5.3 percent, to 7,605 units from 8,027 a year ago. 

This could help drive prices up as the year continues, but Mr. Miller has also been expressing concerns about shadow inventory for some time. If the economy improves, and people begin to sell homes they have been holding on to, they could flood the market with property at a time the economy is ready to start pushing prices up. The number of days on the market also rose four days, to 127, which speaks to a possible lack of options for perspective buyers.

The median Manhattan home price reached $782,071, down from $868,000 last year and $845,000 in the fourth quarter of 2010, while the price per square foot was off 1.3 percent from last year and 3.2 percent from the fourth quarter, at $1,025 per square foot.

Part of the reason prices fell was a greater number of co-op sales, which rose 28.4 percent from the same time last year—even as prices fell, down 1.3 percent per square foot. At the same time, condo sales fell 24.3 percent from last year as prices rose a considerable 5.4 percent. This trend can be tied in part to the absorbtion of all the new condos built during the boom. As the glut runs out, the prices run up.

The shadow may indeed be lifting, as StreetEasy's report, also out yesterday, saw a 41 percent rise in inventory within its listings, to 383 new listings compared to only 271 additions last quarter. StreetEasy also saw fewer price cuts for condos, down a slight 1 percent, but still another possible sign of confidence in the market and a shortage of supply. Most striking, the site recorded median home prices down just over half a percent while average prices rose 3.5 percent.

mchaban@observer.com

"We've got half a dozen places that are of real interest," chief executive Michael Smith told The Commercial Observer when we caught up with him, addressing rumors that the company was hunting for a larger office. "Everything that we've gotten excited about has been in either Soho or Noho, mostly." In addition to Silicon Alley, the techies are also eying a couple of spaces in the Village or Union Square.

Their current office is located above the Equinox at Broadway and 20th. "We have looked in Union Square because everybody is used to being there," Mr. Smith said. "But it wasn't our first choice."

The residential market has slowed to an agonizing crawl, but the appetite for the perfect apartment and juicy celebrity gossip continues unabated: StreetEasy was the most Googled term in New York City in 2010, according to a recent celebratory piece in Real Estate Weekly. 

Now, as the firm grows from eight employees to 14, and plans to expand again to 20, they're looking for between 6,000 and 9,000 square feet of fab loft space. The search began a few months ago and is led by Janet Liff of J. Liff & Co.

"We like old better than new," Mr. Smith said. "We're generally looking for open space. We've looked at very little Class A office space." The neighborhood is really important, too. "We want a real New York neighborhood," he said, adding, "We care a lot about eating." 

That sounds exactly like the swinging (but not-too-swinging) Union Square of the early 2000s. "Union Square is a great neighborhood, but it's a little overdone," Mr. Smith said. "It's gone from foodie to corporate foodie. It's great for companies who want to move from midtown to the new midtown. We were never interested in being in the old midtown, and we're certainly not interested in being in the new midtown."

The firm is, thus, headed "to downtown," Mr. Smith said, referencing the Soho area. (That should be music to some brokers' ears.)

Mr. Smith, a Web entrepreneur, not a real estate guy, has assembled a band of mostly outsiders to bring order to the chaos of residential real estate listings. Nonetheless, he proved himself perfectly capable of dishing about the commercial real estate market. "It's wonderful to have choices," he said. "We've definitely looked for office space when 'How far west do you want to go?' is the only question that they'll ask you."

While landlords still have a lot of power, tenants can hold their own in terms of rents and concessions. But isn't it supposed to be a landlords' market again? "That's bull," said Mr. Smith, adding, "There's been a lot of leasing activity and the commercial market responds really quickly to that, but let's not kid ourselves: There's a lot of property that's sitting on the market."

lkusisto@observer.com

The largest of the eight is the 10,000-square-foot home at 672 Halsey Lane in Water Mill, with seven bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms. It has an elevator and two-story pool house, in addition to a pool, tennis court, and even a fireplace outside.

The second largest is a three-story, 9,500-square-foot house at 235 Middle Line Highway in Water Mill, which includes seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms and a tennis court and pool. (Sounds like a party.) It’s truly a retreat in that you have to motor down a gated 1,700-foot winding driveway to get there.

The “spa house” at 327 Downs Path in Southampton Village has a steam room, a sauna, and “meditative garden” for relaxing after you’ve called it a day playing tennis, running on the treadmill in the gym, or playing pool in the game room. The house has six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms.

Then there’s the 5-acre resort at 128 Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton, which has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a heated pool, a library and staff quarters.

39 Pheasant Close in Southampton Village has a separate breakfast room and formal dining room, a gourmet kitchen, tennis court, pool, and a view of the pond from the covered patio.

If you rent the over 100-year-old, shingle-roofed home at 24 Ocean Avenue in East Hampton, Sotheby’s can throw in a housekeeper and manager/chef, making the six-bedroom, five-bathroom house more of a bargain.

The 5,000-square-foot house at 5 Pondview Lane in East Hampton may have only six bedrooms, but it has lots of bathrooms: 11.5, to be exact.

And the 7,500-square-foot mansion at 936 Cobb Road in Water Mill has six bedrooms and seven bathrooms, in addition to a brick pizza oven, elevator, private deck, pool, gym, theater, full bath, and a private small pond outside with a boat dock.

Just to be sure, homes are selling as well at high marks: 

The most expensive closing in the second quarter so far, since March 30, was for 64 Mecox Bay Lane in Water Mill, a one-family home that sold for $8.3 million. The three-story, 7,100-square-foot spread has nine bedrooms, 9.5 bathrooms, a formal dining room, and heated pool and tennis court outside. According to Corcoran’s Web site, “Upstairs the master with fireplace reigns over 4 additional bedroom suites.” To top the house’s hierarchical structure, a staff bedroom is on the first floor; and the other staff quarters are in the basement with the media room, wine cellar and gym.

Median prices for new-development luxury condos in three of Manhattan’s glitziest neighborhoods dropped substantially during the third quarter, according to a new report from research outfit StreetEasy (PDF here). From trendy downtown Manhattan all the way through the glamorous Upper West Side (and even midtown in between), median prices for top-tier newer condos declined quarterly by 29.1 percent, 31 percent, and 32.4 percent, respectively.

The Upper East Side was the only neighborhood with a median sales price increase among new luxury developments (nearly all condos), with a jump of 145 percent. (StreetEasy defines the luxury market as the top 10 percent of the condo and co-op sales marke; for this quarter, it included all apartments sold at $3.1 million and above.)

The flagging new-development market lagged the luxury resale market, which also declined, but not by nearly as much. The median price for new luxury condos was $4.1 million in the third quarter, down 16.1 percent from the prior quarter and 14.6 percent less than the same time last year. Resold luxury apartments had a third-quarter median price of $4.395 million.

Of the 325 luxury apartment sales in Manhattan in the three months ending Sept. 30, 200 were resold apartments and 125 were in new developments. Luxury co-ops accounted for 56 percent of the luxury resale market, and their number inched upward 2.8 percent to 112 in the third quarter.