Some Quietly Rejoice

Forgetting for a minute the wider implications to the economy at large if the housing bubble actually bursts, some renters are rejoicing at the prospect of housing prices coming down:

Here’s more grist for the bubble babble: Residential real-estate prices in Manhattan have been plummeting this summer.

The average price of a Manhattan apartment has dropped from $1.332 million in June to $1.145 million by the end of August — more than 14 percent, according to the latest monthly report by the Halstead real-estate company.

Likewise, the median price of the Big Apple’s condos and co-ops has dipped from a high of $831,250 in June to $725,000 in August, a 12 percent drop.

While the summer months have traditionally been a slow time for real estate, this year’s numbers have taken an exceptionally heavy nosedive.

. . .

In June, when the average sale price for a Manhattan apartment hit $1.3 million, it was a 30 percent increase over the previous year. But the August average price of $1.145 million is less than half the yearly upswing — about 14 percent — from $1.001 million in August 2004.

“The positive fundamentals are still there,” Heym said. “But people are starting to get a little nervous. Over the next couple of months we’ll see the flattening of prices, but they’ll still be higher than they were a year ago.”

Brokers are also hearing voices of concern from their clients.

“In the last week, I’ve had several sellers ask if they should lower their price,” said a Sotheby’s broker.

“At this point, I’m telling them not to panic. But it’s getting close to the point where I’m telling them they have to be flexible,” a term that sellers across the country have not had to focus on too seriously.

What, He Thought Eva Moskowitz Wouldn’t Notice?

Another day, another instance of an over-aggressive landlord trying to bully a tenant out of a fantastically undervalued rent-controlled apartment:

An Upper East Side landlord cleared out his tenant’s $158-a-month rent-controlled apartment – then dragged the 87-year-old man out of the building when he tried to complain, authorities said yesterday.

Dominick Galofaro, 38, of Brooklyn was released on his own recognizance after being arraigned on felony charges yesterday, authorities said.

Retired Chinatown cook Hop Eng found the lock changed on his fourth-floor walkup at 172 E. 89th St. when he returned Saturday from a two-month vacation in Boston.

When he complained to Galofaro, the landlord told him he had taken over the apartment, said Eng’s son, Peter. “The defendant approached the victim, grabbed him by the hand, and forced him down the stairs and out of the building,” said Barbara Thompson, spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Police arrested Galofaro on Wednesday and let Eng back into his apartment – but all that was left was a calendar, a salt shaker and La-Z-Boy chair.

Eng said, through an interpreter, “99.99% of everything was gone, just missing. “Our memories, clothes, everything. Everything that’s been inside the apartment for 46 years.”

However, never fear, Council Member and Manhattan Borough President hopeful Eva Moskowitz is on the case:

Eng pays just $158.06 for the dilapidated two-bedroom pad, while other tenants pay $1,500 for smaller units. Galofaro bought the building five months ago. Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz was helping Eng find temporary housing yesterday. “This is an outrage,” she said. “This is every tenant’s worst nightmare.”

(Do you sometimes wonder what percentage of renters would take the risk of being thrown out on the streets in exchange for $158-a-month rent? Just asking . . .)

While You Were Out

You realize that the housing market in Brooklyn’s East New York is booming, don’t you? And even if residents aren’t sure whether the neighborhood is entirely safe, it’s too good of an investment to move:

For years, Maria N. Rodriquez has been hoping her parents would sell their home in East New York, Brooklyn, and move someplace safer and more appealing.

Ms. Rodriguez, a 33-year-old mortgage consultant, remembers her anxious teenage years walking down desolate streets in a neighborhood that was one of the most run-down and crime-plagued communities in New York City.

But now, Ms. Rodriguez wonders whether her parents were right to stay in the two-family attached brick house on Montauk Avenue – a mile west of the Brooklyn-Queens border – that they bought with an uncle for $62,000 in 1987.

East New York has changed, especially in the last five years. Last year, her parents’ home was assessed at $350,000, a breathtakingly high number for those who think of the neighborhood as a symbol of urban decay.

Although the crime rate is still higher than in some neighborhoods in the city, it is way down. “For years I pleaded with them to move to a better neighborhood for safety reasons, and because I was embarrassed,” said Ms. Rodriguez, who now lives in a small ranch-style house in Island Park, on Long Island. “I made friends who lived elsewhere and they’d heard about East New York and would not come visit.”

When she would push for a move, her parents – Domingo, 62, and Milagros, 53 – “would always say yes,” Ms. Rodriguez said, “but that would be the end of the conversation.” Perhaps, somehow, they knew something better was coming.

Only a decade ago, the community was pockmarked by “vacant lots, burned-out homes on every block,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “Now they’re putting homes into every nook and cranny.”

The numbers support her perception. From 1995 through the first half of this year, according to the New York City Department of Finance, the average price for a two-family home in East New York nearly tripled, to $351,561 from $122,524.

Keep It Simple, Er, Sweetheart

If you’ve ever thought that broker you were working with was somewhat of a dim bulb, there may be a good reason for that:

Robert S. Broder is teaching his students at the New York Real Estate Institute how to KISS. “Keep It Simple,” he recites, pausing for effect. “Sweetheart.” Feet shuffle, pens scribble, and the odd cell phone chirps. In the third row of the packed house, a guy in a Polo shirt and flip-flops sits slumped, looking like a frat boy after a long night. But if he passes the licensing test, he’ll be on his way to handling someone’s multi-million-dollar sale.

Everyone, it seems, wants to get into the real-estate business. According to the Department of State, as of June, there are 27,081 licensed agents and brokers in Manhattan, up 1,491 from 2004 and 4,268 from ’03. “We’re graduating well over 100 students a week,” says NYREI’s president, Richard Levine. “You could hire a new person almost every second,” confirms Halstead president Diane Ramirez. And brokers and customers are starting to say the system is flooded with neophytes.

. . .

Maybe all this was inevitable. Selling real estate offers people with modest credentials the prospect of high financial return. That makes the field attractive to go-getters—but also to dilettantes. “In New York, anyone can become a broker,” says Joseph Benz, general manager of Metro Spire. “The test in Manhattan is identical to the test given to wannabes in Ithaca.” New York agents need only 45 hours of classes — Miami requires 72 — and even then there are cheats. One student says he routinely sees classmates sign in, then walk out. Corcoran’s David Allouch, a former Wall Streeter, notes that the Series 7 — the big exam for stockbrokers — is much harder, and that the real-estate classes are cursory. “The instructor would say, This part you need to know for the test, the rest you don’t,” he remembers. “It’s about getting the answers, not about training professionals.”

Even 80-Year-Old Clowns Do It

Of course Bozo the Clown takes advantage of the city’s rent stabilization laws. Of course:

Larry Harmon, who has played Bozo for decades, agreed to the doubling of the rent for his two-bedroom midtown pad after his landlord learned his primary residence is in California.

Under the city Rent Stabilization Law, tenants in rent-regulated apartments can be booted if their main home is elsewhere.

The 80-year-old entertainer, who owns the Bozo trademark, has kept a place at 60 W. 57th St. for 37 years and is currently paying $1,718.27 a month.

“It wasn’t personal,” said Bradley Silverbush, attorney for the landlord, 60 West 58th St. Associates.

Realizing the jig is up, Bozo seemed to be taking the news in stride:

Facing eviction, the clown agreed to a four-year lease at $3,600 a month. He’ll leave when the lease is up.

Harmon said he’s usually on the road, trying to make kids smile.

“I want to just keep laughing!” he said.

$1700 a month for a two-bedroom on 57th Street. Ha ha. Very fucking funny.