Condos get wrapped; White elephant down; Religion and food inspire art

Good job, NY Times… that Bliss restaurant is in the middle of Sunnyside.

Although Sunnyside, like Astoria, was originally pare of LIC.

The Lhauss could have actually had something going for it. The renderings were a bit weird but I think that I could have gotten over them. Probably because I thought that that ugly yellowish crap that they put on the side was going to be some kind of stone but instead they managed to be the first building to incorporate vinyl siding into an apartment building. I haven’t been up-close but I swear that it’s the same stuff that they use on homes in the midwest.

Anyone info on McReilly’s quest in finding a new location? Are they looking or what’s the scoop?

I don’t know if it’s vinyl … but it really does look like it. Swing by.

the L haus should get the award for ugliest new development of the ear. that green facade looks ridiculous.

#8, I guess it is possible that people are buying but why are there none in contract on the elliman site?
http://www.prudentialelliman.com/MainSite/NHD/NHDInfo.aspx?id=308&loc=0&nhdproptype=&PageName=residences#BuildingListings

If people are in fact buying then Elliman is really doing a disservice to the building. The site makes it look like not a single one of the 19 listings that were released 3 months ago have gone to contract. That’s what the majority of the people out there following it think. Again, I’m not saying that I have the facts but if I were the broker I would get the building a bit more better publicity if units are actually selling. Currently all indicators point to 0% sold.

Please speak out if you know otherwise.

The contract usually show up when they close.

yes, 14 is correct. look at the other building that have not closed yet on elliman. they all have multiple “in contract” foundry, 10-63, powerhouse, crescent club. Strange that the same company would list all of those but not L Haus.

anyone here in contract?

yes and no. You should buy a home because you want to live in it. Not because it’s an investment. And these people out there that are talking about 50% price drops are just a little bit off of their rockers. In the 80′s when RE crashed and interest rates were at 10 – 15%!! housing prices didn’t fall anywhere near that and they experienced similar increases before the fall. back then we saw prices down maybe 15 – 20% in more extreme cases. I’m not saying that you should be in a rush to buy because prices certainly are not going up but you are in the market for a home keep shopping and when you find something that works for you, go ahead and buy it. Don’t expect to move out and sell it in two years for a profit though.

Bottom-line, people looking for a 50% discount will probably be waiting forever in my opinion. Just because you won’t get 50% off doesn’t mean that you can’t try and work out a deal … free parking spot, have them cover your transfer tax or even you entire closing costs. The buildings will not be willing to negotiate until they know that you are serious about buying a place…that means taking home the offering plan and putting in an offer. Otherwise they will just think that you are out bargain hunting.

and re: L Haus – I would get confirmation of how many units are in contract (if any) before you commit to anything.

L Haus looks like a suburban tract house in Levittown with fake grass on its patio after undergoing some ghastly metamorphosis.

no contract holders I presume?

It’s bit silly to compare the stock market to the housing market.
It’s people with your mentality that got us into this predicament in the first place – thinking that a home was an investment. It is not, and fortunately there are still plenty of people out there (such as myself) that bought homes to live in. Unlike the stock market, where the sole purpose is to make money. Now, you are the same people that realize that they won’t go up anymore so you are hoping that they will come down significantly so that you can get more bang for your buck (an investment).

As a percentage increase current prices outpace what we saw the 80′s but it’s nothing that pales in comparison. Not to mention that for almost 10 years before prices began to rise, they sat flat — which justified an increase (granted not as much as it did).

regardless of how you look at it. I find it hard to believe that a $600,000 apartment that is currently on the market (in LIC or anywhere in the city) will sell for $300,000 – that’s less than the lowest priced studios in LIC at the moment… just a thought. Places will go rental way before they will lower prices by 50%

I mean, just look at what the view just announced. The 20 apartments that are currently listed come with a 110% price guarantee. Basically, you buy the apartment and if after 5 years you want to move out, you can sell it back to rockrose for 10% more than you purchased it for. I see incentives like this coming out as options way before 50% reductions as well. The worst markets in this country (where everything was speculative FL, parts of CA) are maybe seeing close to 50% declines…NY was not considered a speculative market and while we have plenty of issues to deal with. There are plenty of people that paid market value here with the intention of living in a home.

24, I doubt it – in this market cash is king, and they built that building with cash. They are in no hurry to sell. They will ride this out and eventually sell at the prices that they are asking. IMO that the story with most LIC condos – they’ve sold enough units to repay debt, so they would rather rent out units for a year than and cash in when the markets recover. Most will cut 5-10% off the price and pay incentives, but I don’t think anyone is paniking to the point where they are willing to make 50% reductions. Time will tell, but I don’t see it.

Good luck trying to get your money back from developers, #22, on a losing investment. Sounds like a desperate attempt by Rockrose which is obviously hemoraging money by the day on that overpriced project, and needs people’s money asap to salvage. And you’re wrong…. look at the historical home price increase chart, nationally and especially for new york city, and you will see that home price inflation in the past 10 yrs is unprecedented, as will be the dramatic decline to come. You blame speculative investors, but it’s your insistence and entitlement that NY real estate should always go up, or decline only minimally, that is historically inaccurate and has contributed to the false notion that real estate is always safe as an investment. And this attitude is partly what has fueled poor housing investments.

it sounds like the only loophole would be rockrose going under. Not very likely. They built that building with all cash so they can certainly afford to wait. I’m not saying that I think that this is the best time to buy in that building but I’d find it hard to believe that they would not honor the deal if they were not out of business – either way, I would have your lawyer read the fine print and listen to what he tells you…not the “experts” on this site.

I think that the real reason that they are doing it is to spark sales and get above the required % of units sold to declare the plan effective so that they can get a CofO – notice that they are not offering this deal for all apartments, just enough to be declared effective. I guess that they are figuring that it is worth having to buy all of those units back if it means that they can get their offering plan declared effective. Again, they built with all cash, they just need the plan to be declared effective and then they can wait as long as they like … plus, they are a rental company so they probably figure that in the worst case they can just rent the rest out…