1) New York's buyers and sellers of real estate rediscover a practice that had gone out of fashion during a sellers market: negotiations! Market adjustments have forced both sides to bone up on the age-old skill of the compromise, with each side needing to give a little to meet in the proverbial middle. [NY Times]
2) A couple who found house hunting "boring and tiresome" strike gold when the one house they truly loved unexpectedly pops back onto the market. After securing financing from a parent, they move into a two-family home in Greenpoint. Reminds us of that old New York real estate maxim: thank God for parents. [Joyce Cohen/The Hunt]
3) As buyers get some leverage in their hunt, renters are finding prices higher in many major markets, including New York. Management companies absorb some of the pain as well since many "can barely keep up with how fast we need to raise rents.” [NYTimes]
4) An inside tour of some of the city's most recognizable and least glamourous apartment locations, such as that place next to the Holland Tunnel and with a view of the Gowanus Expressway, where rents are cheap and tenants "never open any windows because of the dust." [Metro Section]