Weekly News (October 31, 2018)

1. “Kimchi Mama” in Palisades Park Grand Opening

2. The builder, Fred Daibes (61) in Edgewater indicted by Federal Grand Jury

He and CFO of Daibes Enterprises were charged for conspiracy of circumvent lending limits set by Mariner’s bank
He was a founder of the Mariner’s bank/ Daibes Enterprises built several large development including St. Moritz (100 Daibes Court) which was sold at $120M in 2014 and 3 months later he was beaten and robbed in his apartment in the building
They issued a false certification describing profitability of 2 gas stations and pledged as collateral after purchasing gas stations from Daibes
Other charges to misapply bank funds
If convicted, they will be facing 5 year in prison and $250K fine for conspiracy and false entries. Also they will be facing 30 year I prison and $1M fine for misapplying bank funds and making false entries to deceive a financial institution and FDIC

3. Korean owner purchased a building (TGIF) in Time Square, Manhattan

According to Real Deal, “The Montague-Lee Limited Partnership” (Owner, E.K Lee) purchased the building in Time Square at $22.5M
147-149 West 46th st. /total 10,900sf /tenants: TGIF, Michiko Rehearsal Studio, Music instrument store
He owns other buildings: Citibank building (22 W 32nd st), Manhattan H mart building (38 W 32nd st), former Seoul Garden building (34 W 32nd St)

4. Chinese investor purchased an apartment building with warehouse at $10.25M

5. Flatbush, Brooklyn is troubled with bedbugs problem

18 complaints reported out of 1000 household for 5 years
17 complaints in East Harlem (Morrisaina, Tremont, Wakefield in Bronx → same level)
NYC issued 2,033 bedbugs tickets till 8/31 2018 (2,938 tickets in 2016)

6. 71 year historical Liquor store in Queens owned by Korean

Biggest Liquor store in Queens,”Leiser’s Wine & Liquor” ( 41-30 162nd st.)
Buyer: 162 Sanford LLC (Korean owned developer)
Building and store (business) at $12M. (lot size: 10,000sf: basement and 1st floor, parking)
Liquor store opened in 1947 → running by 3 generations/ holds 4500 kinds of liquor items

7. RE Market in Dallas, TX next year looks bright

According to “Real Deal”, PWC and ULI (Urban Land Institute) reported Dallas is ranked #1 as Hot RE market of the year (Dallas was ranked #5 last year)
Dallas is good for younger population influx (140,000 last year), new high-tech start-ups
Ranking #2 is Brooklyn → price went up already, but still space for growth
#3: Raleigh /Durham NC, #4: Orlando, FL
#32: Manhattan, NY. #27: Queens/Bronx/Staten Island
Chicago is ranked #49 (7 level dropped from last year, 30 level dropped from 2 year ago)
In general, NE and South look good, Mid-North and West look not good
The report has been for 40 years (2400 professionals interviewed for 79 areas)

8. Korean Foreign Students grew to 96,000 in 2017

According to SEVIS, Korean students increased by 17% from last year ago (71,206) to 95,701
Korean students showed visible decrease for last 3 years (70,000 level in 2016)
#1 → Chines students: 481,106 / #2 → India: 249,763 / #3 → Korean students
9th-12th graders : Chinese → 45,573 / Korean → 6,842.
STEM area OPT: India → 50,507 / Chinese → 21,705 / Korean → 1,670
Companies for STEM OPT students: Amazon (2,393), Google (1,143), Intel (1,139)
Total foreign student (F-1 visa) in US → 1,591,070

9. Why truly is house inventory low?

During 10 years of recovery, for first 5 years, RE market for most of area were recovered ← many investors purchased and turned to rental houses from 2013
According to Redfin, new listing s reduced by 30% in 2013 ← REO properties reduced sharply. Biggest drop in San Jose, Denver, Phoenix, etc
Investors purchased and made them to rental housesà 46% inventory reduction in major 23 cities (reason is high rent income for investors)
If rent starts going down, large numbers of house can be on the market
RE market recovery from 2012 is not because of US economy recovery and natural increased demand, but because of price increase due to imbalance of supply and demand