1) A second-generation socialite bought a massive triplex (with 5,100-square-feet of wraparound terraces!) on Fifth Avenue. Happens every day. What makes this story special is the price: just $15 million. How in the heck? Ah, the apartment is in 1200 Fifth Avenue (right), up at 101st Street, making this a likely East Harlem record. This particular socialite lives in Spain, so maybe she didn't know there's no way in hell Lily van der Woodsen is heading above 96th Street for tea. [Big Deal/'The Penthoue Solution']
2) Josh Barbanel reports on perhaps the only segment of the market seeing any action: the cheap stuff, and the "meat-and-potatoes buyers" (as one broker puts it) priced out over the past few years that are now looking to take advantage of falling prices and low interest rates. They're looking in neighborhoods like East Harlem and Downtown Brooklyn, and they're ready to sign. ['For the Brave, the Moment Is Now']
3) Since Thanksgiving, broker Jillian Faulls had sent out 1,500 promotional postcards and 3,000 e-mails advertising an open house at the Park South, a new high-end condo building in Bronx Park South, near the zoo. Free car service? Check. Developer covering closing costs? Check. So why, on the first day of the weekend open house, did not one person show up? Better question: Why relive the embarrassment in the New York Times? [The City/'She Gave an Open House and Nobody Came']
4) The Times dips into the wonderful madcap world of Truffles Tribeca, and though the story is theoretically about the model apartments designed by recent graduates of Parsons, the writer spends the first half of the article picking apart the building's non-luxury luxury marketing campaign. [Postings/'A New Sales Tack: Anti-Bombast']
5) It would seem to us that a trapeze artist would need a bit more legroom than a 300-square-foot studio, but when your heart is set on moving to Murray Hill, these are the sacrifices one must make. [The Hunt/'Run Away and Join the City']
6) Nationwide, mortgage volume may be down, but fraud is way up. Like, way way up. According to a report, fraud among loan officers, brokers and other industry peeps outpaced 2007 levels by 45 percent in the second quarter of 2008. [Mortgages/'Loan Fraud Seen on the Rise']
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