In a city where it’s already illegal to smoke in restaurants, bars, parks, and beaches, smokers could always retreat to their apartments to light up. Those days may be over. Condo and Co-op boards in Manhattan that want to ban smoking in their buildings may soon have the legal means to do so, because both Mayor Bloomberg and the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) proposed new policies this week that would facilitate the creation of smoking bans in Manhattan apartment buildings. Many condominium and co-op boards are increasingly considering banning smoking, and not just for health reasons: in the past, boards worried that smoking restrictions would limit the amount of potential buyers, but now the national rate for smokers is roughly 20%. With non-smokers significantly outnumbering smokers, many boards believe that banning smoking in their buildings will actually become a marketing advantage that helps attract potential buyers.

It’s been a long time coming, but the luxury apartments in One Madison Park may finally be put back on the market. Anyone who knows the history of this luxury condo knows that this is no small victory; the legal quagmire that included involuntary bankruptcy, defaulted loans, and ownership changes looked hopeless as recently as a few months ago. But now, a group of creditors including Related Companies., HFZ Capital, and CIM Group won control of One Madison Park last week - a federal court approved their plan to take the glass condominium tower out of bankruptcy. Related Cos. agreed to settle the majority of the outstanding claims (estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars) a move that will allow them to complete construction at the site. According to the developers, sales on the 55 luxury condominiums in One Madison Park that are unsold could begin by the end of this year.

It’s time for the kitchen supply stores to move aside. These longtime denizens of the Bowery south of Houston Street have reminded New Yorkers why the famed boulevard got its reputation in the first place, but their days there may be numbered. The Bowery is distancing itself from its past with every passing day. New retail boutiques, high-end restaurants, and hotels are opening up, and luxury apartment buildings are on the way too. And that’s not to mention the New Museum and a Whole Foods. In other words, all the telltale signs of gentrification have surfaced, which means the Bowery will finally join the rest of downtown Manhattan’s real estate boom. The few luxury apartments for sale on the Bowery have already generated a ton of attention, and the ones that have sold so far have done so for prices comparable to trendy Manhattan neighborhoods like SoHo and Tribeca.

Judging by the numbers released in a first quarter sales report, the Manhattan sales market is nothing if not reliable. The market exhibited stability on both a quarterly and yearly basis, and one could argue that this consistency is its defining trait. In the context of heightened economic uncertainty caused by S&P’s downgrade of U.S. debt, the debt crisis that gripped the Eurozone, a volatile stock market, a credit crunch, and concerns about the state of Wall Street bonuses, this stability is all the more impressive. The ability of Manhattan luxury apartments to weather harsh economic conditions bodes well for the future because it further cements their reputation as safe investments. Plus, the low-end of the sales market is flourishing, serving as the engine for market activity in the first quarter; it's been strong enough to carry the market through these rough waters.