NYC Luxury Real Estate Blog

Melo, Meet Soho: The Knicks Newest Star Is Shopping For A New Manhattan Apartment

In his first game with the New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony received a standing ovation, scored a team-high 27 points, led his team to a win, and was at the very least partially responsible for the most-watched Knicks regular season game in 16 years. Which is not a bad way to get started in a new town, as those things go. But while the Brooklyn-born, Baltimore-raised NBA All-Star is off to a solid start in New York City, there are certain to be some bumps ahead. For one thing, it's not clear how well Anthony will fit into Coach Mike D'Antoni's offense, if at all. But perhaps more important, at least for our purposes here at New Construction Manhattan -- and for Anthony, in terms of finding a place to sleep -- is how quickly Carmelo will find himself a Manhattan apartment to call home. So, does the NBA's third-leading scorer browse Manhattan condo listings like everyone else?

(Midtown) West Side Story: Luxury Condo The Sheffield Is Making A Comeback

Back in 2005, a team of developers purchased The Sheffield -- which was then known as Sheffield 57 and has always been located at 322 West 57th Street -- for $418 million. That was a record for a residential building in Manhattan, but impressive though that price tag was, it made sense. The Sheffield had a prime Midtown West location, a host of luxurious apartments for sale, and the promise of a stellar suite of amenities. But while The Sheffield was then, as it is now, one of the more interesting condo listings in Manhattan, what happened between then and now was, if anything, too interesting. A seemingly unending series of legal disputes (and an Andrew Cuomo-mandated sales freeze) kept The Sheffield in the news, but also kept it from living up to its sky-high potential as one of the elite condo listings in Midtown West. For awhile. But in 2011, The Sheffield -- now free of that "57," and free of all that drama as well -- has belatedly and deservingly emerged as a legitimate Manhattan condominium success story. Once interesting for all the wrong reasons, The Sheffield is, at last, back where it belonged -- on lists of the most desirable condo listings in midtown.

High and Low: With New Condos and New Hotspots, The Lower East Side Is On The Rise

The Lower East Side is a pretty great place to spend time, regardless of how you plan to spend that time. Tasty foods at all price points, nightspots ranging from unapologetically dive-y to velvet rope-intensive, diversions from high-brow to low, history for days and a very booming present to boot -- the Lower East Side has all that. Which makes it that much stranger that the L.E.S. has taken so long to emerge as a powerhouse in the Manhattan luxury condo marketplace. Yes, much of the neighborhood's housing stock is of the reformed-tenement variety, and there are zoning hangups among other complicating factors, but given how many people spend their evenings on the Lower East Side, it's somewhat strange how few of them can spend the night there in new luxury condominiums.

Upper West Side Story: Architecture Critics, Condo Buyers Love UWS Luxury Condo The Laureate

We're pretty open here at New Construction Manhattan about our fondness for a number of Upper West Side condominiums. We're not alone in this, of course -- there's a reason why buildings such as the striking pre-war condo conversion The Apthorp, and new construction blockbusters such as The Aldyn and The Element are among the most-visited on New Construction Manhattan, and it's not because we blow them kisses here at the blog. We're pretty fond of The Laureate, a new construction condo on the Upper West Side that recently opened but, again, we're not necessarily the pickiest when it comes to this sort of thing. Still, it's nice when better-c redentialed individuals back up our opinions.

Leap Week: What Does That Huge Week In NYC Condo Sales Mean?

We follow the trends in the Manhattan real estate market pretty closely here at New Construction Manhattan, but there is such a thing as following them too closely. While is obviously helpful for those browsing Manhattan condo listings, it's not always possible to pick this stuff out cleanly. And being as we're down here in the mix and moment of the NYC condo market, it can be tough to find a broader perspective. So it is with some reservation, as well as some excitement, that we present the interesting but probably not terribly indicative of anything news that the first week of February was the strongest week for luxury condominium sales in Manhattan since the collapse of Lehman Brothers back in September of 2008; 31 deals were closed last week on Manhattan condos priced at $4 million or more. That collapse is generally regarded as a tipping point in the recession through which the economy is still struggling.

Apartments For One: What NYC Neighborhoods Are Best For Singles?

At a certain level, the question of which Manhattan neighborhood is best for singles is kind of a silly one. Silly because, New York being New York, just about every Manhattan neighborhood is a pretty good Manhattan neighborhood in which to be single. But, of course, there are degrees of goodness -- which means that singles hunting for their own NYC studios or one-bedroom apartments might do well to check out a new study from the New York Daily News that uses a simple formula to ascertain which Manhattan neighborhoods are best for solo NYC apartment-hunters. Besides, you know, all of them. "Factors that played an important role in ranking these neighborhoods are the numbers of restaurants, bars, nightclubs, health clubs, culture, the population of young people in the area, median age and crime figures," Jason Sheftell explains in the Daily News. "Education, family-oriented factors and price were not heavy factors, although affordability was considered."

New Mortgage Rules Promise "Financial Colonoscopy" For NYC Condo Buyers

Browsing Manhattan apartment listings is easy, but buying a Manhattan apartment is -- understandably, reasonably, and inevitably -- a much more complicated enterprise. There are many reasons for this, but the simplest and most obvious would be that, while it's free to browse NYC condos at New Construction Manhattan, it costs significantly more to actually buy an apartment in Manhattan.

Down Town: Home Prices On Decline In NYC... And Everywhere Else.

Many words might pop into a prospective home-buyer's head while browsing New Construction Manhattan's NYC condo listings, but the word "cheap" probably isn't one of them. There's a reason why Manhattan apartments have proven to be such a good investment, after all -- a limited supply (as discussed earlier at the NCM blog, ) and virtually unlimited demand has ensured that Manhattan apartments tend to hold their value very well. Of course, if you are approaching it from a buyer's perspective, it might seem more correct to say that Manhattan apartments tend to stay quite expensive. But while the Manhattan real estate market remains one of the most competitive and expensive real estate markets in the world -- and while New York City occasionally seems to be its own independent country -- the market for NYC condos is not immune from the effects of the broader U.S. economy. Which is all sort of a long way of saying that, while Manhattan apartment prices remain high, they are in fact notably lower than in years past. No, really.

Bump Ahead, Or Why Waiting To Buy A Manhattan Apartment Could Cost You Money

In the years since the economic collapse, we have seen a wide array of metaphors deployed to describe both what just happened and what lies ahead. Some were more felicitous than others and none quite did the trick, but when it comes to summing up the current situation in the market for Manhattan condominiums, "like turning around a battleship" isn't bad at all. This particular pundit-approved cliche is unusually apt when it comes to describing the Manhattan condominium market's . Given the extent of the slump in the Manhattan real estate market, this is to be expected -- and is even somewhat advantageous for those browsing Manhattan apartment listings, as condo prices are still relatively low, and price cuts still comparatively common. But a recent article in the New York Times serves as a sobering reminder of both how deep the real estate trough of the last few years actually was, and as a warning that -- once we finally get this battleship turned around -- there may still be some choppy seas ahead for those looking to buy a condo in Manhattan.

Legal Stuff

The owner of this website is not a licensed real estate broker or representative of the buildings or apartments contained on the website. This website is strictly for informational purposes. There are no property listings on this website. Nothing contained on this website shall suggest the availability of a property or guarantee the accuracy of accompanying prices.

If you would like more information about a property, we will connect you with a real estate broker who will be able to give you more information about available apartments and schedule a showing.