Manhattan’s famed Sloane mansion going on the auction block

Look back into the history books of New York Society in the late 1800’s and read about Henry T. Sloane and the infamous Sloane mansion in Manhattan.

Henry T. Sloane was a wealthy carpet manufacturer who furnished the new mansions, hotels and clubs of the New York City. He was also known as a philanthropist who donated two physics laboratories to Yale University.

In 1898 a scandal flew through New York society circles in 1898 when Sloane deeded a mansion on the Upper East Side to his wife.

Soon after, life became less than idyllic when Sloane’s wife, Jessie, had an affair with the very handsome and wealthy Perry Belmont (son of August Belmont) and married him just five hours after divorcing Sloane. Henry Sloane set out to build himself a new mansion at 18 East 68th Street, off Fifth Avenue.

Sloane moved into the Beaux-Art mansion with his two young daughters, preventing his former wife from writing to them or even speaking to them on the street until they reached the age of 21, or she could prove she had led a moral life, whichever came first.

The Henry T. Sloane mansion was designed specifically for Sloane by architect Charles Pierrepont H. Gilbert the heir to a furniture empire, in 1905. It spans over18,500 square feet and stands over five stories high. Two of the stories have 17-foot ceilings. There are 15 bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, seven fireplaces, a ballroom and a rooftop garden.

Fast Forward to 2007 when investors paid $20 Million for the property, only to have grandiose plans of flipping it for a huge profit by listing it for $64 million. But it didn’t sell at the asking price and lingered on the market with an asking price of $64 million, to $54 million, to $39 million after the fall of Lehman Brothers … and now to the current price of $37.9 million. Due to the fact the owners are in default of more than $28 Million in loans the famed house is scheduled for auction on June 22nd Street, Room 130 at 50 Centre Street at 2PM.

Calin Onet, a marketing analyst said bidding would likely start 10 to 15 percent higher than the $28.2 Million currently owed on the property.

If the mansion had sold for $64 million in 2008, it would have become the most expensive single residence in city history.

How to rent a Manhattan apartment when your credit isn’t perfect

Renting in Manhattan can be arduous, not to mention stressful if you don’t meet Manhattan landlord requirements.

Many find it difficult to meet landlords' requirements as most require that a potential tenant’s annual income is 40 to 50 times the monthly rent, and that the applicant has good credit. And some landlords require 80 times the monthly rent with good credit.

Yet, there are some potential renters whose annual income or lack of U.S. based credit history does not meet these financial guidelines. And if one is self-employed financial solvency can be even more daunting.

As a Manhattan broker who specializes in sales but also does a fair amount of rentals, I faced an interesting problem. Prior to working with my customer I ran her credit report and it was good and she makes a very good salary so I had no doubts she wouldn’t pass the stringent Manhattan landlord requirements.

Knowing she could meet landlord guidelines, I showed her an amazing apartment on the East Side. However when the landlord ran her credit report, it came back as a “maybe.” Meaning maybe her credit was good and maybe it wasn’t. They had used a different credit reporting company. The landlord suggested a guarantor but at the time, none were available.

Although I had not used them before, I told my customer about Insurent who came to my office and made a presentation. Insurent Lease Guaranty offers easy solutions to quickly getting the apartment potential tenants want. Prospective renters needing the Insurent Guaranty include graduating college students and professional school students entering the workforce; creditworthy employed non-U.S. residents; self-employed persons; relocating persons; non-employed U.S. and non U.S. persons with significant cash liquid assets, retired creditworthy individuals, U.S. students with Responsible Parties, and international students with Responsible Parties.

My customer only needed to complete an application and soon she was approved by Insurent where the landlord received a guaranty on her one year lease. For a fee that represented a small percentage of her total annual rent, she satisfied the landlord's financial and credit requirements while eliminating the hassle of finding an acceptable co-signer or guarantor or putting up significant additional security – which this particular landlord would not accept.

Insurent was there for my customer who will be moving into her new apartment in just a few weeks.

If you fall into any of the above categories, there is hope.

Coming soon: Manhattan rents hikes

If you’re finding it difficult to rent an apartment in New York now it could be because there is little inventory and rents are expected to rise.

Last year landlords offered a free month of rent, paid broker’s fees and did whatever it took to rent their apartments. Those days are over. The apartment vacancy rate in New York fell in the first quarter, dropping to just 2.8%.

Last year the median rent for a Manhattan apartment with landlord concessions $2,808, up 7.4%. Renters grabbed the apartments as soon as they saw them. On average, units stayed on the market for 40 days, down from 86 a year ago. Listings fell 25.6% from last year to 3,874 apartments.

Manhattan's rental market is rebounding faster than its sales market. While lower unemployment has boosted demand for rentals. Today if a renter sees an apartment they love, there’s no time to think about it. Take it or lose it because the market is definitely tightening.

Leases are being signed in several of the pricey new rental buildings where studios start at $2,700.

With less apartments vacant and new reports showing that the rental market is hot, renters can expect competition and prices to start heating up again very soon.

3 of top 10 most expensive U.S. homes sold in Manhattan

Billionaires are keeping the real estate world very busy across the country. Three of those expensive deals happened right here in Manhattan.

Coming in at number 6 on the list is a single-family townhouse sitting approximately 20,000 square feet on East 75th Street. Reportedly sold to private equity investor J. Christopher Flowers fro $53 million.

Coming in at No. 7 on the list is developer Harry Macklowe, who bought a Plaza Hotel condo for $51.5 million. The 13,000 square foot condo was bought by developer Harry Macklowe in 2007 for a cool $51.5 million.


Lastly coming in at No. 8, Russian oil man Len Blavatnik bought an upper East Side townhouse on East 64th Street in 2007 for a cool $50 million. The person who sold the townhouse to him apparently paid only $4.375 million for it in 1994

What kind of home would you buy if you could spend $50 million or more?

First Quarter 2011 Manhattan Market Report

For New Yorkers who follow the real estate market, Halstead Property one of the premier real estate firms in Manhattan has just issued its First Quarter 2011 Manhattan Market Report.

After six consecutive quarters of growth, Manhattan apartment sales prices averaged $1,364,733 in the first quarter of 2011, virtually unchanged from a year ago, but 5% less than the fourth quarter of 2010. This marked the first time since the second quarter of 2009 that the average price declined from the prior quarter. The median apartment price of $787,500 was 4% lower than the first quarter of 2010, while the number of sales fell 23% from 2010’s first quarter.

Part of the decline in prices and in the number of sales may be attributable to the scheduled expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts at the end of 2010. Although they were ultimately extended, the extension wasn’t signed until the middle of December. This was after many homeowners had already made the decision to sell before the year ended to avoid paying a higher capital gains rate. Closings that might have occurred in the first quarter of 2011 were pushed forward, which help fuel the decline in transactions.

This rush to sell was reflected in the spike in high-end closings beginning in November, which pushed the average price up to over $1.6 million by December. January of 2011 saw closing prices return to where they were in October, at approximately $1.34 million.

The average co-op sale price of $1,070,229 was 1% lower than a year ago, although prices did rise for two-bedroom and three-bedroom and larger units. Condo prices averaged $1,745,464 during the first quarter, slightly higher than a year ago. Condo pricing gains were led by one- and two-bedroom apartments.

Recent revisions to economic data indicate that New York City weathered the recession much better than economists originally thought. In total about 140,000 jobs were lost, or roughly 40,000 less than the previous estimate. Job growth has picked up recently in the higher-paying sectors such as finance and business services, and Wall Street just had its second most profitable year ever. While cash bonuses fell to $20.8 billion in 2010, this was expected as more firms are deferring compensation and paying higher salaries.

The full version of the report is available on the Halstead website at the link below:
http://media.halstead.com/pdf/Halstead_QuarterlyReport_1Q11.pdf

Positive housing signs for Manhattan

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