Despite rising gloom about home sales across the country, sales of apartments in Manhattan appear to have strengthened this summer, with median prices up, inventory down and an increase in the number of apartment closings.

The figures suggest that the Manhattan market, buoyed by a resumption of hiring and a healthy Wall Street bonus season ahead, has so far escaped much of the distress across the country. The National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that existing home sales nationwide plummeted by 27% in July, following the expiration of federal housing tax credits.

The tax credits, worth as much as $8,000, had much less of an impact in the Manhattan market because the credits made up a much smaller percentage of sale prices than in lower-priced markets. July's median home sale price in Manhattan was $900,000 compared with $182,600 nationwide.

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By now, everyone knows the financial reasons for the housing bubble, from lax lenders to greed. But there's another, emotional side: In our rootless and confusing culture, our domiciles have become more than mere shelters, investments, havens or even status symbols. Rather, they have become extensions of our narcissistic personalities, glorified by entire industries of shelter magazines, websites and cable networks.

It's no wonder, writes Meghan Daum in her new book "Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House," (Alfred A. Knopf), that by the middle of the decade, scads of Americans were "buying real estate and melting it down to liquid form and then injecting it into their veins."

It was an addiction shared by Ms. Daum, an essayist, novelist and columnist for the Los Angeles Times. And it almost ruined her life, she writes.

Fully aware of how neurotic such an obsession is, Ms. Da...Read More| Post a comment

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A building manager was busted Tuesday for pocketing nearly $900,000 in rents paid at five upper Manhattan buildings by posing as the landlord, prosecutors said.

Luis Nunez, a married father of two, is charged with stealing $879,000, including monthly payments from Columbia University students living near the campus.

Prosecutors said Nunez, of the Bronx, spent the money enhancing his lifestyle.

"The defendant used the stolen money for furniture, jewelry, several vehicles, school tuition, etc.," Assistant District Attorney Om Gillett told a Manhattan judge.

Nunez, 42, was held on $50,000 bail after he pleaded not guilty to grand larceny charges, which could cost him seven years in prison.

The alleged 2005-to-2009 scam wasn't detected until Nunez started slacking off on duties unrelated to rent collections and the real landlords who were owed the money audited his work...Read More| Post a comment