Weekly News (August 22, 2018)

1. New Public Parking garage in Fort Lee, NJ will be completed in Nov this year

• Capacity: 352 / 4 stories → Total 625 (outside parking: 273)
• Parking tickets in Fort Lee issued between 7/2017 – 6/2018 → 31,489 (8% Up from last year)
• Parking tickets in Palisades Park is down by 14% to 23,249 partially because of new parking spaces at the public library

2. NJ DOT begins Lincoln tunnel repair project 

• Starts 8/17/2018 and will be completed within 3 years (Daily traffic is about 150,000)
• 80 year old and the work is over due ($90M project will extend bridge’s life by 75 year)
• One way on each direction will be shut down / Exclusive bus lane will be open

3. Mixed use bldg. in Manhattan Washington Heights is listed at $10.05M

• 561 West 181st / 5 stories / Total 17,526 sf (Listed at $600/sf)
• 19 units under Rent Control( 2 x4Br, 16x3Br, 1x2Br, 2 x Retail unit(2800 sf))
• Retail stores: Hardware store, Pharmacy

4. Townhouse sold at highest price in Manhattan Downtown

• 37 West 10th / Townhouse in Greenwich Village Sold at $37.2M
• Built in 1838 → Total renovation / 5 stories 9800 sf / 6 Br, 6.3 Bath
• Court Yard inside building/ Outdoor kitchen at roof top/ Theater and Fitness room in the basement.
• Purchased ta $9.5M in 2012 → Total renovation → New building

5. NYC Luxury Condo sales is down for 1st half of the year

• According to WSJ, Above $5M condos sale went down by 31% from last year
• Mostly bigger new construction condo sales are down → Price went down as well
• Ex) New condos in Tribeca – 5Br, terrace, high ceiling penthouse listed at $40M → Lowered price 3 times → last listing price $22.5M → sales record shows at $20M

6. Big cities gain number of sales from last year

• According to Realtor.com, 16 big cities/metropolitan area among 45 in US increased sales from last year
• Luxury houses are more on the market → New breath to housing market
• House price in San Diego went up by 18% to $691,000 /Seattle up by 29% to $569,000/ San Jose Up by 44% to $1.2M
• Richmond down by 10% / Cincinnati down by 11%/ Minneapolis down by 11%, Philadelphia down by 12%/ Milwaukee down by 16%
• For a few years, baby boomers stayed their own houses/ new construction is slow
• July inventory reduced by 4% from last year (last year inventory reduced by 8% from the previous year)

7. US RE Agent’s mean income à $39,800

• According to NAR, Mean income is reduced by 6% from last year to $39,800 even though house price is soring
• Reason: Number of sales reduced due to low inventory and high price
• Newly licensed agents are more difficult
• Experienced agents with own clientele network is less affected

8. US RE market is getting enter into recession??

• According to Business Insider reports on John Rubino’s DollarCollapse.com report: Housing Bubble Enters stage 2: “Suddenly Motivated Sellers”
• Course to recession: 3 stages:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             1st stage: Price keeps increasing/ Bank regulation become loosen/ Housing demand increase/ Foreign investment added

2nd State: Start fearing about end of booming ( Suddenly motivated sellers)/ Inventory increased sharply → Prices becomes flat

3rd stage: Inventory does not move → start lowering prices / Buyers wait more and sellers become anxious to sell

• Rubino mentioned the current RE market enters to 2nd stage → Sudden inventory increase in big cities (Increase in 30 cities out of 100 cities)
• Tip: you’d better sell the house if you do not plan to stay for next 10 years.