Our company, The Corcoran Group, has created a new free app for iPhone users. The Corcoran app will allow you to search Corcoran listings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the East End of Long Island and South Florida all with full photos, property details and the agents contact information. Also, using the iPhone’s GPS, the Corcoran app will identify your location and will let you know how far away you are from a listing!

If you would like to download the new Corcoran iPhone app or learn about all its features click here!

Wednesday I went to the DMV to exchange my Jersey driver’s license for one from New York state, which was a good idea since my license was expiring in a few days.  The main DMV office is in Herald Square at the Manhattan Mall; how suburban.  Typical DMV:  long lines, attitude, ugly interior, some people who care, others who don’t.

What fascinated me was how strict they are in identifying one’s self post 9/11.  I had to provide my active New Jersey license, my original social security card, my original birth certificate with its seal, a bank statement and a utility bill.  My social security card was so old I had to get two supervisors’ approval.  It seems they haven’t made that card in decades; it makes me feel so young. 

I still have to register my car.

I’m reading a great book on the early history of Manhattan:  The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto.  It is well written and a page turner…yes, a page turner.  I’m not sure I’ve read an historical page turner before.  What I find fascinating is how the winners write history.  Most people, including myself, have little knowledge of the Dutch influences on our present day Gotham; the English did a good job of minimizing their story.  Shorto sets the record straight with zijn (Dutch for his) revisionist tale.

About six weeks ago I changed my eating habits.  Instead of wheat, potatoes, corn and sugar, I’m subsituting yogurt, green vegetables, fruit and honey.  Basically it is complex carbs out and simple carbs in.  Why?  Well I am over weight, but the driving emphasis is excess gas.  Maybe that is why I am single.  And I might add that the new diet has done wonders with the gas issue, so in my own way I am helping to prevent the warming of our planet.  Too bad I’ve only lost 8 pounds.  How I suffer for the betterment of mankind.

Anyway this post is not about my diet or at least mostly not.   Lela, my maid (acually she is an apartment cleaner, but for some pretentious reason I love calling her my maid), was cleaning on Tuesday as usual and I didn’t have an appointment till 11am, so I decided to get out of her hair, have breakfast at a diner and read the Times.  Since I had just cancelled my subscription to the Times which I had since the 80’s to save some trees I had to pay retail and was shocked to find the Tuesday edition cost two dollars.  How did that happen?  Last time I bought the Times it was 50 cents.  I felt like George Bush bumbling with the price of milk.  How out of date am I?  Clearly this paradigm shift did not bode well for the day.

So I took my $2.00 paper to that very trendy, post-retro diner at the corner of 11th Avenue and 43rd Street.  Sat down, asked for an omlette without the potatoes and toast and could I please substitute a small green salad in their stead.  No Substitutions!  I must pay extra for that small green salad.  Doesn’t a green salad cost less than potatoes and toast?  Aren’t I saving them money?  Has the value of lettuce increased while potato futures have fallen?  Does this have something to do with the Times costing $2.00?  What about costumer service?  God knows I obsess about making my clients happy.  Shouldn’t they be grateful I am eating there in these challenging times?  Don’t they want me to be a satisfied customer and tell all of my friends how fabulous they are?  Clearly I’m not in my happy place.  Despite my inner rantings, I calmly informed the waitress that their policy was absurd and I’d eat elsewhere.

Off I went to the neighborhood standard at 9th and 44th; they will understand.  I was told that a small salad was not available, but for a fee of 60 cents I could substitute sliced tomatoes for the potatoes and toast.  You mean I get the pleasure of eating out of season tomatoes for 60 cents more instead of consuming your bread and home fries?  I think not.  And while it was not a scene out of the titled movie, I did manage a huff or two upon leaving.

A third diner had the same results.

I skipped breakfast that morning, indignant and hungry.  If  only I had a Vespa to ride off on.

Both the House and the Senate have passed an extension and an expansion of the homebuyer’s tax credit. The President is expected to sign the bill Friday. Key provisions of the bill are as follows:

* Tax credit of up to $8000 is extended for first-time homebuyers who are in contract to purchase a home by May 1, 2010 and close by July 1;

* A tax credit is also available to homebuyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years of up to $6,500;

* The credit is available for the purchase of principal residences costing up to $800,000 (the prior tax credit did not set a limit on housing price);

* Income limits for claiming the credit are raised to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for couples.

The 2009 New York City Halloween Parade was a rainy spectacle with substantial participation despite the weather.  Pictured are two members of the Patrick Lilly Group:  Indiana Soto and Flapper Kriegstein. 

Maybe I’m getting old, but I truly prefer the old parade when it lumbered through the side streets of the West Village.  Gone were the drunks and the massive crowds.  It felt like a small town parade, albeit a town that is hyper liberal.  Instead of one large parade, I suggest we hold many smaller parades for each of our communities where intimacy and ownership reigns.  I like my ‘Boos’ without the Booze.

My nephew turned thirty this month and is a food nut.  He loves eating well and is skinny as a rail; a very thin rail.  This is one of the things I dislike about him.  When we travel together he loves to plan the trip around his meals.  This is a trait I can easily love.  He’d never been to Le Bernardin, so I took him and his boyfriend.

If you are not familiar with the restaurant, you are not a foodie.  Owned by chef Eric Ripert, this temple to seafood, particularly fish, has received top ratings by Michelin and the New York Times for many years.  Located at 155 West 51st Street in a modernist skyscraper, the interior is a warmed-up version of international style which feels appropriate for its location and building type.  It’s not the most beautiful space, but I suspect the intention was to focus on the food and service, which is excellent.

I first went to Le Bernardin a decade ago with a friend.  I remember enjoying the food, it’s updated classic French cooking, but mostly I remember falling in love with Billecarte Salmon Rose Champagne.  It is heaven:  not too sweet, not to dry, with subtle fruit flavors and endless tiny bubbles.  Few restaurants stock it in North America and when they do I always order it.  My association with Billecarte and Le Bernardin is beneficial for both, in my mind.

Upon greeting my guests in the restaurant’s lobby, a young woman quickly came up and assisted dressing me in a well-fitting sports coat to meet the dining room’s dress policy.  It was all done quite elegantly, without attitude or reprimand, which is a sign of the superb service.  I immediately ordered a bottle of Billecarte for our group while we waited for our table.  It pleased me that I was introducing them to my favorite champagne as I was a decade ago.

The meal and service was excellent across the board with a few highlights:  a sublime sea urchin risotto, the perfect cheese plate, and an extraordinary port.  That being said, I left a bit disappointed.  At $1,000 for three and the world’s top ratings, I want to be transformed; I want each course to move me.  That was not the case.  It must be tough to manage the guests’ expectations when they are so high.

On March 23, 1857 Elisha Armstrong Otis’ first practical passsenger elevator was installed at the Haughwout Building at 490 Broadway in SoHo at the corner of Broome Street.  The edifice is a 5 story cast iron building designed by architect John Gaynor to house the Haughwout Emporium, a well known manufacturer and purveyor of cut glass, porcelains, mirrors and chandeliers.  The entire facade is comprised of 92 keystone arches crowned by an entablature of intricate friezes. 

Today the elevator is still operated manually.  Ramon Olivo has been running it for the past decade.  People come from all over the world to take a ride in the relic.

I am happy to say our office of the Corcoran Group is located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of 490 Broadway.

Thanks for the lift Ramon.

In the last two months three of my clients have been in bidding wars which is fascinating, since we are technically in a buyer’s market.

Today, one of my sellers received four offers over ask on a $1,500,000 loft in Chelsea (click on the photo to see the full listing).

Two of my buyers were also in a bidding war recently, with one winning the negotiations. 

It seems there is high demand for Manhattan properties when you get the price right.

I reviewed the Second Quarter Report of residential real estate sales in Manhattan. My firm, The Corcoran Group, has released this report comparing data based on deals that closed in 2Q 2009 (April 1 through June 30) with that of 2Q 2008.

Due to the impact of the credit crisis and our nations recession there is a decline in sales activity and sale prices over the prior year.  2009’s Second Quarter posted 50% fewer closings over 2008’s.  The large amount of available properties along with low demand in the first part of the year has forced sellers to lower prices by 12-15%.  Therefore, buyers can negotiate much more and can snap up some of the best deals to be had in Manhattan in many years.

Spring is usually the busiest season and despite a slower market, the report shows greater sales activity in the Second Quarter than the First.  In fact June 2009 was even busier for our agents than the same month a year prior.

New developments showed decreased sale prices and slower activity as well. 67% fewer new development properties closed this quarter than in 2Q 2008, having an average drop of 14% in price per square foot.

If you would like to see this report in its entirety please contact me.