CurbedWire: Nolita Trailer Ain't Trash, More Q1 Controversy

Thursday, April 10, 2008, by Joey

NOLITA—A tipster sends in the above curious photo of an Airstream trailer being dropped off at the construction site at Elizabeth and Prince Streets, demanding more info on said curiosity. We've learned that the new 7-story boutique condo building at 211 Elizabeth Street will use the Airstream as its showroom, and it will be set into the ground floor of the building. The whole shebang is being unveiled tomorrow, and we'll have much more to say about this building then. [CurbedWire Inbox]

BROKERVILLE—Dolly Lenz has already made her opinions felt regarding the discrepancies between the Prudential Douglas Elliman first-quarter sales report and the far sunnier Halstead/Brown Harris Stevens report, and now Halstead/BHS chief economist Gregory Heym (who prepared the report) has weighed in as well. In a memo sent to all agents in the company, he wrote: "Last week, we released our First Quarter Market Report for Manhattan based on closed sales and our competitors released their own individual reports as well. One of the other reports stated that the number of sales had fallen 34% compared to the first quarter of 2007. This decline in sales was widely reported in the media, along with our findings of only a 1% decline in the number of sales. The main reason for this discrepancy is how many sales actually closed during the first quarter of 2008."

One of the reports showed 2,282 closings, a figure we know to be incorrect. Our report was based on 2,857 closings, 99% of which were verified through public records available through the ACRIS system (the remaining 1% is through managing agents).
We understand that this discrepancy has caused some confusion, so please keep the following in mind when speaking with your clients and customers:

· Our report includes all sales in Manhattan which are verified by our Research Department either through the NYC Dept of Finance (using ACRIS), or by the managing agent of the building. Our market reports have never been based on only our company’s sales, and have always contained every public record available at the time the report was issued. Therefore, our reports are the most comprehensive and accurate in the industry.

· The firm reporting the 34% decline in sales has not been able to explain why their report is missing almost 600 sales, which were available for anyone to view on the ACRIS homepage.

· No firm can report with 100% certainty on the number of sales, as there are always sales recorded after the close of the quarter. This is why we present the number of sales not as a hard fact, but as an indication of the scope of our report.