NANUET—While the third quarter 2020 residential sales numbers will not be released by OneKey MLS until next month, Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty executive Joseph Rand in a sneak preview said the region is currently enjoying a very robust sales market. “The (sales) surge continues,” Rand said. He noted that in August, new deals…
Read MoreNEW CITY—After the Rockland County Legislature narrowly defeated his proposal to increase local sales taxes and sell a shuttered county office building to offset declines in revenues due to COVID-19, Rockland County Executive Ed Day threatened that in response he may be forced to lay off hundreds of county workers and raise taxes by 10%…
Read MoreWHITE PLAINS—The Board of Directors of Westchester County’s Local Development Corporation (LDC) recently voted to approve more than $340 million in bond financing for two major not-for-profits. At its August 20th meeting, the LDC board unanimously approved $300 million in bond financing for Westchester County Healthcare Corporation, the public authority responsible for governing the Westchester…
Read MoreLOUDONVILLE, NY—A newly released survey reveals that New Yorkers have deep concerns about the coronavirus in terms of a potential second wave this fall as well as how local school districts and colleges are currently reopening. A poll released today (Sept. 2) by the Siena College Research Institute found that a little over half of…
Read MoreWHITE PLAINS—In some good news in the times of COVID-19 for the Westchester County economy, The NRP Group announced on Aug. 31 it had broken ground on a new community of 303 market-rate apartments along the I-287 corridor in White Plains. Situated on a 70-acre site at 1133 Westchester Ave. that previously served as the…
Read MoreTARRYTOWN—Legends Realty, after nearly 10 years as an affiliate of William Raveis Real Estate, has joined the growing The Corcoran Group, LLC. The brokerage firm, which has locations in Tarrytown, Briarcliff Manor and Irvington, now operates as Corcoran Legends Realty. The launch of the Legends affiliate was announced today virtually by The Corcoran Group President…
Read MoreYONKERS—Citing a need to offset $21.6 million in withheld state aid, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano is warning the city may need to reduce city programs and services and reduce its workforce by more than 200 positions. Yonkers’ potential cuts come after the city's Fiscal Year 2021 Adopted Budget assumed full Aid and Incentives to Municipalities…
Read MoreNEWARK—Considered one of the most important infrastructure projects in the New York metro region, the start of construction of the long-delayed Hudson Tunnel project has been pushed back by one year. The Gateway Program Development Corporation released an updated financial plan for the project on Friday. GPDC in its plan noted that the projected start…
Read MorePURCHASE—The law firm Milber Makris Plousadis & Seiden, LLP has signed a long-term direct lease deal totaling 25,000 square feet at 100 Manhattanville Road here. The law firm will relocate its Westchester office to the property owned by RPW Group from subleased space in White Plains. Commercial brokerage firm Newmark Knight Frank handled the full…
Read MoreNEWBURGH—While Orange County is in the midst of a solicitation for two storied properties on Grand Street here, the City of Newburgh has issued a Request for Proposals on Aug. 24 for developers to redevelop the iconic City Club Building at 120 Grand St. The Mayor’s Strategic Economic Development Advisory Committee, in coordination with the…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—A little over a week after first proposing a controversial 0.5% Adverse Market Refinance Fee on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced on Aug. 25 that it would delay the fee’s implementation until Dec. 1, 2020. The FHFA first announced the Adverse Market Refinance Fee on Aug. 12 and…
Read MoreNEW YORK—Real estate firm Helmsley Spear, LLC, which was founded in 1866, reported on Aug. 26 it had signed a new four-year sublease with Lincoln Financial comprising almost 16,000 square feet for its headquarters office, in conjunction with Swig Equities, LLC, and Falcon Pacific Construction/Builders, LLC. “Helmsley Spear and the related Swig Equities companies have…
Read MoreNEW CITY—Rockland County Executive Ed Day and Commissioner of Finance Stephen DeGroat announced on Aug. 24 that Moody’s Investors Service increased the rating to Rockland’s Various Purposes Bonds and Refunding Bonds to A1 from A2. Moody’s also upgraded to A1 from A2 the county’s issuer and general obligation limited tax ratings. “To receive this type…
Read MoreRYE BROOK—A majority of Westchester businesses from a good cross section of the county’s economy say they are slowly recovering from the pandemic and expect to continue to struggle for some time, according to a survey released today (Aug. 24) by the Business Council of Westchester’s Economic Recovery Task Force. Some of the key findings…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—A majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics believe that the U.S. economy is in recession and do not expect the downturn to end until the latter part of 2020 or the early stages of 2021. On a darker note, NABE President Constance Hunter, CBE, chief economist, KPMG, said that 80%…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—Proof that the local home sales market is very strong despite the COVID pandemic can be found in the latest statistics released today by the National Association of Realtors. NAR reports that existing-home sales in the Northeast rose by a record 30.6% in the month of July. NAR reported that nationwide home sales continued on…
Read MoreNEW YORK—Moody’s Analytics released its new forecasts for commercial real estate rents and vacancies on Aug. 17 and predicted that office and retail rents will drop sharply due to COVID-19 in 2020 and beyond. Noting that the office property sector was already experiencing downward pressure on the usage intensity of office space even before the…
Read MoreWASHINGTON—The Mortgage Bankers Association reported on Aug. 17 that the share of late FHA loans rose to nearly 16% in the second quarter, up from about 9.7% in the previous quarter. The second quarter FHA delinquency rate was the highest level on record dating back to 1979. The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit…
Read MoreIn launching the new Real Estate In-Depth regular feature “Five Questions With,” the editor and publisher of the print and online newspaper seek to interview key newsmakers of the day and ask probing questions on matters that affect the readership’s business and day-to-day lives, but also provide insight into how and why certain decisions were…
Read MoreALBANY—As the New York State economy continues its reopening process and the state continues to post low COVID infection numbers, local sales tax collections are improving, although still down compared to last year. Sales tax revenue for local governments in July fell 8.2% compared to the same period last year, according to New York State…
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