1) The market is in that weird gray area where buyers think they should be getting deals, and sellers think they should still be getting record prices. So buyers are sticking to rentals and waiting it out, and sellers are keeping fingers crossed for their knights in shining armor (foreigners) to swoop in and give them piles of cash. ['Between Buyers and Sellers, a Stalemate'/Christine Haughney]
2) Buyers are trying to flip their Plaza apartments for huge markups even though the building is, gasp, not sold out. The one-bedroom apartment pictured at right (which is listed as a two-bedroom for some reason) was bought for $3.21 million and is now on the market for $4.995 million, and it doesn't even face the park! [Big Deal/Josh Barbanel]
3) Some rich old guys?including a billionaire investor, a former ambassador to Venezuela and Mike Wallace?are worried that the restoration conversion of the Seventh Regiment Armory into a full-on performance space will ruin their sleepy little burg known as the Upper East Side. They've formed a group called Save Park Avenue’s Residential Character to do ... something. It's not very clear what they want to do, other than be cranky and complain about parking their cars. [The City/Alex Mindlin]
4) How do the locals feel about the speedy gentrification of Brooklyn's Fourth Avenue? The same way they felt in Soho, the East Village, Williamsburg and the Lower East Side. The same way they'll feel in Bushwick and Bed-Stuy. However, they have to love the description of the Hotel Le Bleu as a "gleaming white iPod of a building." [The City/Saki Knafo]
5) Flatbush is "one of few places in the city with two-bedroom apartments for around $200,000," but the trick is you have to find it first. It's like Oz in a way. [Living In/Jennifer Bleyer]
6) Pelham Bay up in the Bronx is no place for two youngsters giving it a go in the big city, so this couple set out to find a place in East Harlem for $1,500-per-month. It turns out that even in East Harlem, $1,500/month can only get you a bedbug-infested shit hole. [The Hunt/Joyce Cohen]
7) A look at the squeezing out of garment businesses from the Garment District in Midtown West. Blame those pesky Hudson Yards and its accompanying zoning changes. [The City/Jennifer Bleyer]
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