1) What does the inventory roller coaster have in store for autumn? Pretty much the usual post-Labor Day bump, which appraiser Jonathan Miller sees "as a sign of confidence, that consumers are willing to see this as a market they can sell their property in." So, inventory stabilizing, transactions up?joy all around! Not so fast: Asking prices are off about 25% from last year, just before the Lehman hit the fan. Are sellers finally getting real? ['The Look of Autumn']
2) Neighbors are upset that a Harlem developer is trying to cash in on federal rent subsidies by converting a brick rowhouse at 228 West 132nd Street back into an SRO for "for the working poor and working lower-middle-class." The house (right) was purchased in 2005 for $875,000 and previous plans called for a conversion to a two-family house. Each 150-square-foot room would have a bathroom but no kitchen. The Buildings Department is reviewing the permit, but it looks like it's a go. [Big Deal/'Rooming House Returns']
3) Meet the kooky gentrification pioneers that live in a converted Greenpoint funeral home. They rented first, then bought the building in 2005 for $940,000. Any ideas what it'd sell for now? Definitely a one-of-a-kind house (ceramic urinal!). [Habitats/'The Two-Story Conversation Starter']
4) Stuy Town was too dorm-like for this unemployed young lawyer, so she set out looking for a dirt-cheap East Village rental. But 12th Street was too "seedy" (?) and Tompkins Square Park creeped her out, so she upped her budget and went with an $1,850/month walk-up in Chelsea?with no bathroom sink. Ah, New York City! [The Hunt/'Everything but the Bathroom Sink']
5) Crazy rich people keep raising the crazy asking prices on their crazy pieces of property. Crazy confidence or crazy craziness? [Big Deal/'Top This, Neighbor!']
6) Gruesome scene at the super-luxury hotel/condo Essex House on Central Park South this weekend, as an international businesswoman was found murdered in the apartment she was subletting from her sister. Cops arrested a hotel housekeeping manager and charged him with the crime after he reportedly confessed. [NYP]
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