Congratulations, Staten Island! You, sir (ma'am? No, definitely sir), are the only borough of New York whose number of foreclosures actually fell this quarter, according to PropertyShark's foreclosures report. Hooray! In total, foreclosures increased citywide by 4.7% to a total of 961, which isn't so bad when you look at the rest of the country, but is still 49% higher than Q2 2007. Once again, Queens—specifically District 12, which includes Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans—was the naughtiest, racking up 558 foreclosures, up from 508 in the previous quarter. Brooklyn had 167 (up from 140) and Manhattan had 38 (up from 23). Click through the gallery for more charts-and-graphs fun.
· Foreclosure Reports [Property Shark]
· Curbed Roundtable: July State O' the Market Report [Curbed]
· First Quarter Foreclosures Report: Bad Day for Queens [Curbed]
1) The leading concrete testing company in the New York area, Testwell Laboratories, is under investigation for failing to perform some tests and falsifying others on some major construction projects, including the Freedom Tower and the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees and the Port Authority both say the concrete used for their projects is sound and poses no safety threat, but yikes! Investigators took 200 boxes of documents and computers from a pair of Testwell offices, as well as from a trailer at Yankee Stadium. ['Company Hired to Test Concrete Faces Scrutiny']
2) The condo conversion of the Apthorp is a go, and when the 163 apartments in the Astor-built complex at Broadway and West 79th Street (right) hit the market, they will average about $3,000/sqft, more than the initial offering at 15 Central Park West. The average apartment price will be about $6.5 million, and current Apthorp tenants are not getting any insider deals, though they do have an early crack at any apartment in the building they want. Sales open to the general public in the fall. It's Manhattan's second-most-expensive condo conversion, behind Manhattan House. [Big Deal/Condos at Pedigree Prices]
3) Rumors of Hoboken's demise have been greatly exaggerated: "Average sales prices are still increasing for downtown condominiums in Hoboken, although most asking prices are open to negotiation these days, as several developers acknowledged in interviews. Developers say that their new buildings are still selling out, if somewhat slower than in the past." Take that, supposed down market! ['Hoboken Weathers the Market']
4) If you want to know how the rest of the country lives, look to Staten Island, where income and homeownership figures are similar to those icky other places. And in Staten Island, foreclosures are a "grimly familiar tale." ['Fighting Foreclosure on Staten Island']
"Homes are being foreclosed in New York less than in nearly every other major US city, according to a study released yesterday. And the state is bucking a national trend that has reclaimed more homes this year than last. Eighty-seven of every 10,000 properties were seized in cities this first quarter, yet New York saw only 53 of every 10,000 foreclosed, according to the report, commissioned by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and the mortgage company Freddie Mac. Only Boston, with 44, had fewer." [NYP]
PropertyShark's first quarter foreclosure report may be more than two months old, but it's never too late to break out a scary red map. The Post does just that today, reporting on the 918 foreclosures (compared to 606 the previous quarter and 554 the year before—thanks Queens!) and adding some chills by mentioning the stat from earlier this week on the big jump in the nationwide mortgage delinquency rate. And while New York is still immune from many of the woes plaguing the rest of the country, and foreclosures remain relatively low, there is cause for concern. Isn't there always? Data from May shows the problem is getting worse (Manhattan did manage to rack up 14 foreclosures in May, compared to just 23 in Q1), banks are clamping up and making it tougher for homeowners to fight their way out of foreclosure, and neighboring property values go right in the toilet once an f-bomb drops nearby.
· Danger Zone [NYP]
· First Quarter Foreclosures Report: Bad Day for Queens [Curbed]
A foreclosure auction in the land of Gossip Girl? Impossible! But it's happening, writes broker-blogger Andrew Fine, on the steps of the courthouse at 60 Centre Street next Thursday. The foreclosed property is a parlor-floor apartment at 24 East 82nd Street, in a mansion once owned by a Heart or a Whitney or something. The apartment is a 1,200-square-foot floor-through, last listed for $1.75M in 2005. The bank is looking to recover the $1.1M default plus interest. [A Fine Blog]
It's not that news of the subprime mess hitting the fan and splattering all over some Brooklyn neighborhoods is new, but it's still ugly. For instance, the May issue of the Real Deal offers a detailed look at the subprime meltdown from the vantage point of Brooklyn's Brownsville. On the descriptive side there's the dripping irony that "the only recourse against foreclosure" for buyers in trouble is "the very subprime mortgage industry" that fueled the crisis in the first place. Then there are the statistics. The average sale price of two- to four-family homes in Brownsville and Ocean Hill fell from $595,000 to $565,000 from October of last year through this March. The 2007 foreclosure rate on those homes was double the 2004 rate per stats kept by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. The neighborhoods have the city's fourth-highest level of sub-prime loans in the city. An appraiser says of the mess: "There also are a lot of distress sales." And everybody expects it to get worse before it gets better.
· No bailout for Brownsville [Real Deal]
The gang over at PropertyShark just released their April 2008 foreclosures report, and for the third consectuive month, New York City f-bombs passed the 300 mark, a level not reached in any month in 2007. The current number is 329, down 6.8% from the previous month, but up 84% year-over-year. Forecloures were slight down in Staten Island and the Bronx, and up everywhere else, though Manhattan made a minor leap from 10 to 15. Queens continues to be the big turkey, sucking up 58% of newly scheduled auctions. The 11434 zip code—comprising Jamaica, South Jamaica, Hollis and St. Albans—led the way with 24 new foreclosures.
· PropertyShark Monthly Foreclosure Report - April 2008 [PropShark; warning: PDF]
· First Quarter Foreclosures Report: Bad Day for Queens [Curbed]
Comments
1) The leading concrete testing company in the New York area, Testwell Laboratories, is under investigation for failing to perform some tests and falsifying others on some major construction projects, including the Freedom Tower and the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees and the Port Authority both say the concrete used for their projects is sound and poses no safety threat, but yikes! Investigators took 200 boxes of documents and computers from a pair of Testwell offices, as well as from a trailer at Yankee Stadium. [
PropertyShark's first quarter foreclosure report may be more than 
