Manhattan real estate sales set a record in the fourth quarter of 2007, with residential sales averaging out to be $1.4 million (according to data from Prudential Douglas Elliman), an increase of 17.6% over 2006's fourth quarter. However impressive that statistic is, the growth was primarily driven by super high-end sales of at least $10 million. Apparently sales for condos at The Plaza and 15 Central Park West helped drive the average condo sale......

Even though two women accused of looting apartments during open houses were arrested last week, it's unclear whether some real estate agents have taken the crimes seriously enough to make sure their home showings are less crime-prone. The Post sent a reporter to some open houses, only to find it all too easy to potentially steal things like clothes and knickknacks. Of the four open houses the reporter and photographer went to, no ID's were......

The two women arrested for allegedly robbing a number of open houses on the Upper East and West Sides are being on bail of $30,000 each. Jessica Joyner and Jennifer Jones, charged with petty larceny, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property, will be extradited to New Jersey authorities next week because they allegedly stole $75,000 worth of items during a Saddle River, NJ home's open house. The pair, who both live in Upper......

Realtors and other open house organizers can breathe slightly easier: The police have arrested two suspects in the rash of open house robberies on the Upper East and West Sides. Upper East Side residents Jennifer Jones, 39, and Jessica Joyner, 33, were arrested and charged with petty larceny, grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property. The pair would head to open houses posing as interested buyers and one would distract the real estate agent......

We knew open houses were fun for some people, but they offer goods ripe for the stealing. Last weekend, an Upper West Side apartment, where a real estate broker was holding an open house, was robbed by a pair of thieves posing as potential buyers. Prudential Douglas Elliman vice president Heddings posted about the devious crime on Monday on TrueGotham, noting that when the broker confronted the pair, they panicked and dropped "most but......

Evidence continues to be collected and associates continue to be questioned as the police try to solve the murder of "broker to the stars" Linda Stein. Stein, who managed the Ramones back in the day and had many famous friends, was found bludgeoned to death in her exclusive Fifth Avenue apartment on October 30. So far, the police have spoken to former business associates, her family, construction workers and building residents, as well as removed......

Wow. Penny Crone, the love-her-or-hate-her but totally in-your-face local news reporter (she put the crone in "Crone!"), is now a agent at Prudential Douglas Elliman! We were upset when she was fired from WNYW Fox 5 in 2005. With her 2-pack-of-smokes-and-Scotch voice and fearlessness to get into a scrum, Crone is a New York institution; as the Diary of the Contemporary Dandy put it, "No assignment was beneath [her] dignity." Which is why we......

Sure, there are worries about the credit market and subprime mortgage situation, but real estate brokerages around the city are basking in good news: Third-quarter Manhattan apartment closings were at the highest average price ever and home inventory tightened as well. The average price for a Manhattan apartment was $1.37 million and the average price for a condo is $1.6 million, with the different brokerage saying that it's anywhere from 16-38% higher than the previous......

With the economy acting as though it's on a roller coaster given concerns about credit and mortgage markets, NYC real estate brokers are feeling the pains. Some potential buyers who would have qualified before issues with the mortgage markets now find themselves struggling to get the loans they need and being asked to put more of their money down. However, we will say it's hard to be sympathetic to someone looking for a $3.3......

If the Manhattan real estate market is still a bubble, then it's a bubble with unbelievable staying power. The Sun reports that second quarter real estate data reveals that the average Manhattan apartment sells for $1.3 million (a record-high according to three of four real estate firms). The median sales price of a Manhattan apartment is another record: $895,000. And the commercial side is also very strong, with foreign buyers opting to buy buildings and......

We knew holiday tips were trouble! The former doorman to a Sutton Place apartment building on East 52nd Street is suing his former employers for $2 million. Viorel Cincu says that he was unfairly fired after 17 years of service, after a videotape showed him allegedly stealing a colleague's $400 tip. In December 2005, residents Raffi and Stephanie Asadorian left a $400 (!) holiday tip for their baby-sitter at the front door. Apparently they had......

Noise, crowding, pollution, and the sheer rush of our complex, modern society are rapidly becoming as oppressive to many individuals as the worst kind of political dictatorship. -Thomas F. Eagleton And the erstwhile VP candidate and U.S. Senator from Missouri never even lived in a NYC apartment building. While the New York Times has successfully transformed itself into a national publication, we are pleased to see that it's not afraid to commit serious column-inches......

If it's April, it's time to get quarterly real estate data. The NY Times reports that the "prices and number of apartments selling in Manhattan rose" during the beginning of the year. Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property say sales were up 12% versus 2006's 4th quarter. And in an amusing example of how different data can be, BHS and HP say prices rose 6%, but Prudential Douglas Elliman says prices rose 5.4% and......

Real estate pundits are calling the downturn in the New York residential real estate market, as the NY Sun reports, a "soft landing" versus a "bubble burst." Apparently the fourth quarter was pretty good for some real estate brokers! What happened? Real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller, who prepared a report for Prudential Douglas Elliman (one of three reports released yesterday), said there were less properties on the market and sellers were setting realistic asking prices.......

Did you read the NY Times Real Estate article about smelling other apartments' goings on, like their cooking, their smoking, and letting their dogs pee and think, "Wow, that's totally my apartment"? There were a bunch of great quotes. Like:“Notwithstanding the fact that in New York everyone likes to complain about everything, as New Yorkers, we’re just not accustomed to having complete privacy in our ear-space, our sightline and our nose-space.” - lawyer Jacqueline A.......

Mmm, there is nothing like it when the NY Times dips its toes into celebrity journalism. Sure, their story about what celebrities do when they buy or sell homes had some interesting new facts, but it also makes Gothamist feels less dirty than when we decide to get that issue of US Weekly for a subway ride (it takes 10 minutes to read!). This is our favorite anecdote:Dolly Lenz, a vice chairman of Prudential Douglas......

Lockhart Steele's Curbed points me to the Douglas Elliman page for Meryl Streep's townhouse. Lockhart says that the building is on 12th between 5th and 6th -- if pushed, I guess I'd call that Greenwich Village. Elliman, on the other hand, calls it a "sought after Gold Coast location". Huh? Can Gothamist explain what probably the most landlocked part of Manhattan is doing being described as "Gold Coast"? I always thought the Gold Coast was......

With the farewell of Below 14th, Lockhart Steele gives Manhattanites (and even some Brooklynites) something tastier to chew on: Curbed, which is "based on the idea that everything in New York City comes back to real estate, rent and the neighborhoods we live in." In other words, it's not just the Lower East Side. It's beautifully designed by Khoi Uong with technology by Eliot Shephard, and Gothamist looks forward to contributors moblogging crowded open houses.......

If you want to own a place in New York City, to paraphrase Dave Chappelle, you've gotta be rich, bitch! Douglas Elliman and Corcoran release sale figures for the first three quarters, confirming that the market is hotter than ever. An apartment in Manhattan New York Region > Apartments Going Up, to an Average of $1 Million" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/nyregion/15price.html">averages at $1million (a 32% increase, up from $760,000 during the same time last year), with the median......

The Post has yet another article on how Manhattan apartments are crazy expensive, and people are buying them, even if they're tiny. Douglas Elliman's Manhattan Market Report for the 1994-2003 (PDF here) period shows "the average price for a Gotham apartment was a staggering $872,160 last year - up 93.8 percent from the 1994 average of $450,084; the average price per square foot jumped even more during the same time - 146.7 percent from $278......

Manhattan real estate proves to be scarily impervious to as the average apartment price has broken the $900,000 mark, to ring in at $916,959 according to Douglas Elliman. That's right, just to make sure everyone knows that living in New York is also part of some crazy experiment in financial derring-do and torture, CNN does the dirty work for us: It would take "an average American family, with an average income of $42,409, according to......

Trying to make it easier for film and television location scouts' jobs a lot easier here, the Mayor's Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting has announced a partnership with Douglas Elliman make it easier for New Yorkers to offer up their homes to be filmed in with its new Locations Initative. Agency commissioner Katherine Oliver says, "It's our role to be a referral center. The beauty of this is putting business-to-business relationships together." Douglas Elliman......