Amanda Burden and the High Line

Outgoing City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden singled out the High Line on Manhattan’s Far West Side as the highlight of her 12-year stint with the Bloomberg administration – and said she would stick with her current boss even after he leaves office.

“It had become over time a garden in the sky than ran for 22 blocks,” Burden, speaking in an interview on WNYC, said of the High Line. “I thought that if this could be turned into a park, this could become the defining feature of a whole new neighborhood.”

Indeed, several projects in the area, including the Hudson Yards megadevelopment, tout the High Line as a key perk.

Burden told WNYC that when she took office, the immediate challenge was to help Mayor Michael Bloomberg “restore confidence in the city,” referring to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Later, her efforts moved to ensuring that New York “became a city of five boroughs,” with major development projects in Brooklyn and Queens.

When asked of her future plans, Burden said that “Mayor Bloomberg has asked me to stay with him.”

Burden revealed that she would join an upcoming venture called Bloomberg Associates, which she dubbed “an Urban SWAT team” that would help cities around the world realize their development and planning ambitions. [WNYC] – Hiten Samtani

Elie Hirschfeld

From the December issue: In this month’s Meet the landlord feature, The Real Deal spoke with Elie Hirschfeld, president of Hirschfeld Properties, who told us about how he got into real estate, growing up in the shadow of father Abraham and his side gig as a Broadway producer. Click here to read more.

From left: The pool at River House (435 East 52nd Street), rendering of 606 West 57th and 12 East 69th Street

New York managed to shatter several real estate records in 2013, a banner year for condominium sales and ambitious residential developments. Here’s a recap of the barriers broken over the last year.

Priciest NYC listing and largest home
This year was designed to demolish records for the most expensive apartment listings in New York City history, it seems.

A whopping 62,000 square feet of space at storied co-op building River House, long in use as a private club, a five-story private home that came on the market in October and became the city’s priciest listing ever with a $130 million price tag. Listed by Brown Harris Stevens superbrokers Kyle Blackmon and John Burger, the digs at 447 East 52nd Street would include an 82-foot swimming pool, tennis court, screening room, wine cellar, full spa and gaming room.

But the River House property wasn’t the first to set a record this year. In fact, the listing unseated the penthouse at the Pierre, which the late Martin Zweig’s widow Barbara Digan Zweig first listed in April for $125 million (the price was later cut to $95 million), as well as hedge fund founder Steve Cohen’s One Beacon Court penthouse, listed for $115 million in April. And Steven Klar’s triplex penthouse at CitySpire at 150 West 56th Street in Midtown returned to the market with the same $100 million price tag as before, but with Klar marketing the home himself instead of going with a broker. Previously, the condominium was listed with Douglas Elliman’s Raphael De Niro.

Development: New York City’s largest apartment building
A 40-story tower at 606 West 57th Street, to be developed by TF Cornerstone, is slated to become the city’s largest apartment building by units upon completion, with a total of 1,189 rentals.

Designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, which also dreamed up the Westin Times Square Hotel and the Bronx Museum of Arts, the building is set to include 42,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and a 500-car garage.

However, an alternative plan, calling for only 848 units and a 285-room hotel, plus more than 60,000 square feet of retail space, would not quite make the bar for a record, according to the environmental impact statement filed with the city.

Country’s priciest office tower
Chinese real estate developer Zhang Xin’s family, along with Brazilian banking magnate Moise Safra, picked up a 40 percent stake in the General Motors Building at 767 Fifth Avenue this summer, valuing the office property at about $3.4 billion – the highest in the country.

The building takes up a full block across the street from the Plaza Hotel between Fifth and Madison avenues and 58th and 59th streets, with the Apple store located at street level. The sale closed on May 31, with Zhang’s relatives and the Safra family’s New York-based investment arm Safra & Co. purchasing the stake through an entity dubbed Sungate Trust. Zhang is the founder and CEO of development firm Soho China, which is based in Beijing.

City’s priciest townhouse listing
A 40-foot-wide townhouse at 12 East 69th Street on the Upper East Side is asking $114 million, and with that price tag is the most expensive townhouse yet to come on sale in New York City. Listed by Paul Anand and Gabriella Dufwa of the Corcoran Group, the 19-room home was built in 1883 and sprawls across 20,000 square feet of interior space and has 2,500 square feet of outdoor space. A three-tiered roof, heated indoor saltwater pool and limestone façade are among the luxury property’s other perks.

Most expensive Downtown condominium sale
Though the penthouse at 56 Leonard in Tribeca is in contract for $47 million and Walker Tower’s penthouse in Chelsea is in contract for more than $50 million, the penthouse at 18 Gramercy in Gramercy Park currently holds the record for the highest price ever paid for a Manhattan apartment south of 59th Street. Houston Rockets owner Leslie Alexander picked up the digs for $42 million following Zeckendorf Development’s refashioning of the building into 16 luxury condos. The cheapest is currently on the market for $14.7 million.

Tallest building in the U.S.
The Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s 1 World Trade Center was officially named the country’s tallest building in November, according to a ruling from the height committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international body that ranks the height of buildings. The Lower Manhattan tower’s 1,776-foot height was hotly debated: Some thought the number owed to its 408-foot steel mast, which detractors called an antenna, rather than a part of the structure of the building. But the Council on Tall Buildings ultimately decided it was a “spire,” and thus part of the building’s architecture. One World Trade unseats the 1,450-foot Willis Tower in Chicago, formerly known as the Sears Tower.

Most expensive listing in the U.S.
The Copper Beech home and estate in Greenwich, Conn., remains the most expensive residential listing in both the greater New York City region and the entire country, despite a $50 million price chop in September to $140 million. Rumors have been swirling that an interested buyer is in the midst of negotiations to buy the home, which belongs to timber mogul John Ruddey. But industry observers continue to snicker that the property remains wildly overpriced.

The 12-bedroom, 15,000-square-foot mansion dates back to the 1890s, and the estate also boasts a 75-foot heated pool, 4,000 feet of water frontage and two offshore islands.

Brooklyn’s priciest listing
Booming Brooklyn, increasingly home to property prices that go toe-to-toe with their glitzy Manhattan counterparts, is now home to a townhouse asking $16 million, located at 177 Pacific Street – a record for a single-family listing in the borough.

Several other listings are hot on its heels, with a house at nearby 104 Willow Street asking $12 million (said to have once housed Truman Capote, it held the record last year for the most expensive Brooklyn listing), as well as the 50-foot-wide Tracy Mansion at 105 Eighth Avenue asking $15 million and a seven-bedroom pad at 45 Montgomery Place with a $14 million price tag.

Advocates are pushing for the legalization of basement apartments

Thousands of the city’s poor were dislodged by Hurricane Sandy from improvised living spaces and basement apartments that housing advocates say are illegal but essential accommodations in New York City.

Around 63,000 residential units were damaged during the storm, according to city estimates, and housing advocates said that that number includes thousands of illegal apartments. Many of the residents of these illegal units remain homeless, as landlords have been hard-pressed to make repairs to these below-market units.

“It’s true that a lot of the units were maybe illegal, almost definitely substandard,” Judith Goldiner, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, told the Wall Street Journal. “I’m not going to tell you they were great housing, but on the other hand they were affordable housing to a lot of low-income people.”

To be sure, not all basement apartments are illegal. There are situations in which they can be rented out – if they are more than half above ground, have ceilings at least seven feet high and meet other city regulations, according to the Journal. Advocates are pushing to get more basement apartments legalized, and Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio has also voiced his support for the plan. [WSJ] – Hiten Samtani

From left: 120 East 87th Street and 25 Tudor City Place

Leighton Candler and Debra LaChance of the Corcoran Group had the priciest listing to hit the Manhattan market this week with a $15 million condominium at 120 East 87th Street in Carnegie Hill. The 22nd floor home spreads across 3,765 square feet and includes four bedrooms, four baths and outdoor space. The apartment also boasts 12-foot ceilings, customized closets, and cherry hardwood floors, and building amenities include a health club, swimming pool, yoga studio, terrace garden and garage.

We head across the park for the week’s second-priciest listing: a seven-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot condominium at 2109 Broadway on the Upper West Side. Listed by Michel Madie of Michel Madie Real Estate Services, the home features white oak flooring, a round salon overlooking Verdi Park, a solarium and wraparound balcony.

Third on the pricey end this week is a three-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot condominium at 16 Jay Street in Tribeca. Opening from a steel door into an elevated foyer with a built-in cast-iron sculpture, the home’s study features hand-embroidered metal and silk wall panels, while the master bedroom boasts hand-embroidered drapes with an en suite bath and walk-in closet, and the living room faces an interior courtyard accessed via a cast-iron and mahogany staircase. The Filipacchi Foussard team at Brown Harris Stevens has the listing.

The cheapest listing to hit the market this week, a one-bedroom co-op at 510 West 123rd Street in Morningside Heights, has an asking price of $115,000. The home is on the market as an investment opportunity, and a rent-stabilized tenant is currently living there, the listing says. Edward Horner of Edward Horner Real Estate has the listing.

The second-cheapest listing of the week, also an investment property, is a three-bedroom co-op located at 509 West 122nd Street. Also listed by Horner, the property is 800 square feet, and building amenities include a bike room, elevator, laundry in the building and a live-in super.

Third cheapest of the week is a $265,000 studio co-op at 25 Tudor City Place in Murray Hill. The home boasts views of Tudor Park and Midtown, a new kitchenette with granite countertops and appliances such as a Sub-Zero refrigerator. The entry hall holds white cabinetry with large closets and oak floors, and building amenities include a bike room, doorman, elevator, garage parking, laundry in building and a live-in super. Steve Corcoran and Sherrie Morgan of Steve Corcoran Real Estate have the listing. — Julie Strickland 

The Architecture Billings Index, an economic indicator of construction activity, was stopped in its tracks in November following a six-month period of accelerating demand for design services. 

The Architecture Billings Index score for the month dropped to 49.8 from 51.6 in October, as design activity was apparently less in demand, Real Estate Weekly reported. Any score above 50 reflects a jump in billings. September, for example, saw the second-highest ABI index level of the year, at 54.3, amid a boom in construction, as previously reported.

The new projects inquiry index dropped to 57.8 from 61.5 month-over-month.

“Architecture firms continue to report widely varying views of business conditions across the country. This slight dip is likely just a minor, and hopefully temporary, lull in the progress of current design projects,” chief economist Kermit Baker at the American Institute of Architects told Real Estate Weekly. [REW] — Mark Maurer

Michael Seiler and a home rendering in study

Home staging may affect prospective homebuyers’ initial perception of a house, but it won’t persuade them to pay more, according to a new study from three business professors.

The authors — Michael Seiler of the College of William & Mary, Vicky Seiler of Johns Hopkins University and Mark Lane of Old Dominion University — led hundreds of would-be homebuyers through six virtual house tours last year in an effort to conduct research. 

The study looked at staging’s impact of the sale price of a home, not the speed at which it sells, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The houses differed in furniture quality and paint choices. Buyers expressed interest in spending $204,000 on average for each of the houses – unrelated to the colors or furniture. But when it came to other buyers, they said their competition would likely adjust their offers based on how the home was staged, the study showed.

“We were able to parse out what you consciously believe and subconsciously believe,” Michael Seiler told the Journal. “Beforehand, everyone thinks poor staging is going to be a problem. But when we actually did the experiment, we found it doesn’t matter.”

The Journal of Housing Research plans to publish the study, “The Impact of Staging Conditions on Residential Real Estate Demand,” next year. [WSJ] — Mark Maurer

Smaller lenders are rapidly gaining market share

Smaller lenders touting more personalized customer service experience and local know-how have swooped in over the last few years to grab market share from giants such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Indeed, the 10 biggest lenders dominated with an 80 percent share of the primary mortgage market in 2010, according to a recent report from Fannie Mae. But as of the first half of 2013, their share had dropped to 60 percent of the market.

“What we’re seeing is the community banks and regional market lenders taking a larger market share of residential business,” Norman Koenigsberg, the president of Morganville, N.J.-based First Choice Loan Services, told the New York Times.

First Choice Loan’s loan origination volume mushroomed to $2.26 billion in 2012 from $1.2 billion in the previous year, Koenigsberg told the newspaper. Local knowledge becomes an even greater priority in specialized and cutthroat real estate markets such as New York City, he added. [NYT] – Hiten Samtani

144 Bowery

UPDATED, 3:31 p.m., Dec. 27: A three-story commercial building in Little Italy that houses New Generation Lighting hit the market for $10.2 million.

Ryan Winchester and Yagnesh Vangala of commercial brokerage Itzhaki Properties, who has the listing, is marketing the site at 144 Bowery at Broome Street for development. The building is vacant besides the ground-floor lighting retailer, though it can be delivered empty. The lot allows for about 16,000 square feet of buildable space.

“We sense that there is going to be an increase of transaction activity in the region,” Winchester told The Real Deal.

Along with fellow brokerage Flatiron Real Estate Advisors, Itzhaki filed a lawsuit in September against a company that owns the MetSchools site in Williamsburg and is developing a nine-story building there, as The Real Deal reported. [Bowery Boogie] — Mark Maurer

A rendering of the Empire Stores at Brooklyn Bridge Park

Designs for Midtown Equities’ Empire Stores project in Dumbo aren’t sitting well with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which sided with unhappy neighborhood residents at a hearing on the plans last week.

At issue are designs for the building’s rooftop, drawn up by Midtown Equities and Studio V, which include a two-story glass wall and hefty bulkhead. LPC Commissioner Michael Goldblum said he was “troubled by its generic quality.”

The commission holds an advisory role in the project, and will deliver a report detailing its concerns as the State Historic Preservation Office gives its final ruling on the Empire Stores development. The LPC declined to comment to the New York Observer.

The Cayre family’s Midtown Equities, along with the White Plains-based investment firm Rockwood Capital and Brooklyn-based developer HK Organization, are redeveloping the warehouse building in Dumbo and have secured tenants for at least 80 percent of the site. Furniture retailer West Elm, with a 150,000-square-foot lease agreement, is to be the site’s anchor tenant.

Office rents are in the $90s per square foot, said to be a record for the borough, as The Real Deal reported. [NYO] — Julie Strickland

A rendering of Inwood’s La Marina (credit: DNAinfo)

The noisy patrons of Inwood’s burgeoning bar crawl are bringing on complaints in droves from locals who can’t seem to get any sleep.

Inwood residents have filed a record 20,000 noise complaints so far this year, almost a third more than were reported in the same time frame five years ago, the blog Northattan reported. Residents blame the noise on the surge of bars and restaurants now serving alcohol — officials granted more than 60 liquor, beer and wine licenses this year, double the number granted in 2008, Northattan said.

Inwood’s growing number of residents is partly the reason the northern Manhattan neighborhood needs more bars in more places.

One notorious restaurant, La Marina, has been downplaying the crowds it draws at board meetings, telling the community it hosts about 500 people when it really has an 1,800-person capacity, according to residents. Local protests against the restaurant’s parties resulted in the cancellation of a concert over the summer. La Marina’s response? In a statement: “The party must go on.”

Failed attempts by an advocate group dubbed Moving Forward Unidos to get the New York Police Department involved have made locals desperate. They are now pushing a petition for a 10 p.m. bedtime.

“The noise is absolutely from the growth of restaurants that play loud music,” founding member of Moving Forward Nancy Preston told Northattan. “We believe that the restaurants have a place here — a valuable one — but they must be good neighbors.” [Northattan] — TRD

Atlantic Yards rendering (Credit: SHoP) and Bruce Ratner

Two weeks after Forest City Ratner kicked off construction of the first residential tower at Atlantic Yards, work has stalled yet again.

Known as B2, the prefabricated building currently has only three of its blocks on a frame, though previously the developer said that construction would go ’round-the-clock, Atlantic Yards Report, a blog that has been opposed to the project, reported.

Opponents have pounced on the delay, dubbing it “just the latest in an unending string of broken Atlantic Yards promises,” as Eric McClure, founder of neighborhood group Park Slope Neighbors, told the Brooklyn Paper.

A media event held around the installation of B2′s second block earlier this month, which followed a six-month construction delay for the prefab tower, was not meant to mark the beginning of a new construction period, Michael Rapfogel, a Ratner spokesperson, told the paper. The plan has always been to begin putting the prefab units together in mid-January, he said.

The chairman of Greenland Holding Group, which has invested in Atlantic Yards, slapped an eight-year timeline on the project when speaking with reporters in Shanghai in early November. The state-owned firm has plowed $200 million into the project in exchange for a 70 percent equity interest, and has been slammed by Brooklyn community leaders and critics for not moving fast enough on the construction of 2,250 units of promised affordable housing. [Brooklyn Paper] and [Atlantic Yards Report] — Julie Strickland

From left: Michael Shah (credit: Ken Schneiderman), Flatiron Hotel at 1141 Broadway and Robert “Toshi” Chan

The owners of the Flatiron Hotel are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit from a DelShah Capital affiliate, which is trying to enforce a purported $31 million purchase of the property, contending that the deal was a “sham.”

At issue are two apparent sales of the hotel: the first is DelShah’s alleged purchase in May, while the second is a sale to Robert “Toshi” Chan, through an entity called You Gotta Have Faith, which was scheduled to close Dec 4.

Chan, an operator of illegal extended stay apartments, was running the property under a multi-year lease agreement through his company, Smart Apartments.

DelShah, which previously acquired the debt on the property, filed suit on Nov. 25 in New York State Supreme Court to block the second deal for the hotel, at 1141 Broadway, between 26th and 27th streets. The suit effectively halted the Toshi transaction.

However, now one of the hotel’s current owners, Jagdish Vaswani of Main Team Hotel, shot back in court on Dec. 20, claiming that the May acquisition deal cannot legally be enforced because DelShah failed to sign a deal with an authorized representative of the hotel. Additionally, the DelShah affiliate did not legally exist because it did not file required documents with state regulators until November, Main Team asserted.

Main Team alleges that DelShah is purposely trying to prevent the Toshi transaction to collect more than $5,000 a day in interest on the hotel’s debt.

“It is clear that [DelShah] will stop at nothing to prevent the closing from occurring, and ending the stream of money that such a delay gets it,” said Ruth Haber, an attorney with Moses & Singer who represents Main Team, in a court filing.

Lawyers for DelShah and the hotel were not immediately available for comment. DelShah declined to comment, through a spokesperson. Chan was out of town and not immediately available for comment.

DelShah, led by Michael Shah, originally acquired the debt of the hotel after the owners defaulted on an $8 million loan, as The Real Deal reported.

DelShah filed suit in September to collect on $618,000 in alleged back rent and remove Smart Apartments. The suit claimed that Smart Apartments was improperly paying rent directly to the owners, including Main Team, Ibrahim Saleh, and Ming Chu Co. In November, a judge ruled that rent payments had to be turned over to DelShah.

Additionally, the hotel owners have faced a lawsuit from Born to Build, a contractor that sued to enforce a $3.5 million judgment against Saleh for allegedly transferring funds that belonged to it. The hotel owners countersued, claiming they paid Born to Build $7 million, but its contractors walked off the job. A $3.5 million lien arising from the litigation effectively blocked the sale of the hotel, the owners claim.

Main Team claims that DelShah signed its May agreement with George Hourani, a principal of Born to Build, after he acquired Saleh’s stake in the property, the court papers say.

But Saleh, who apparently fled the country, never had authority to make decisions for the hotel, according to the other owners.

Michael DeCheser and 48 Allen Street

Lower East Side-based nonprofit community center Chinese Christian Herald Crusades is looking to sell its building at 48 Allen Street for $15 million.

The 15,000-square-foot, six-story commercial site — also known as 49 Orchard Street — features a reading room, library, offices and a dining room. The upper floors hold guest rooms for as many as 50 visitors. Perhaps most enticingly to developers, the property also boasts 1,400 square feet of unused air rights. Massey Knakal Realty Services brokers Michael DeCheser, Darragh Clarke and Mei Ling Wong are handling the sale. Given the commercial zoning, the site could be converted into a hotel, the Lo-Down reported.

A staff member at the Chinese Christian Herald Crusades — which was formed in 1992 — said the group is looking for a smaller space in the neighborhood.

In August, DeCheser brokered the $27 million sale of the former Ridley Department Store on the Lower East Side, as previously reported. [Lo-Down] — Mark Maurer

From left: Simon Fuller and the Standard High Line at 848 Washington Street

Some investors are looking to kick off the New Year with a New York City hotel in their pockets, indicating a possible uptick in the market come 2014.

Among them is American Idol producer Simon Fuller, whose sights are set on the Standard High Line, developed by Andre Balazs, for which he’ll reportedly pay roughly $450 million. The London New York hotel at 151 West 54th Street is also on the block, with owner the Blackstone Group looking for at least $500 million, as The Real Deal reported.

Simon: “Some of them won’t close by the end of the year but I haven’t seen this many large assets on the market in a long time,” Justin Magazine, vice president of Savills Hospitality Group, told the New York Observer. Balazs hired Savills to find an investor for the Standard.

Banks are offering up to 75 percent lending in hotel deals, the Observer reported. [NYO] — TRD

123-32 82nd Avenue

Kew Gardens residents are distraught over the construction of a 20-story hotel tower, citing concerns about traffic, parking and noise.

The Queens Savoy Hotel and Residences, a 95,000-square-foot tower to hold 83 hotel rooms and 43 apartments, is already under way at 123-32 82nd Avenue at Queens Boulevard. The building is going up directly adjacent to the Hamptons House co-op building at 117-01 Park Lane South, and residents say that their concerns about the project’s size and impact on the area have not been addressed.

“The formal objections we raised when the plans were first announced centered on our belief that parking provisions were — and still are — most inadequate for Kew Gardens, but we were told that they conformed to the relevant codes,” Murray Berger, executive chairman of neighborhood group the Kew Gardens Civic Association, told DNAinfo via email.

Neighbors at Hamptons House told DNAinfo that construction is already making life difficult for them. Complaints have been filed alleging that the hotel’s construction has caused damage to the adjacent building, though the city inspector dismissed the claim saying the “cracks appeared old,” according to Department of Buildings information cited by DNAinfo.

The work site also received complaints about missing guardrails after a worker was injured by an iron beam in August, DNAinfo reported. [DNAinfo] — Julie Strickland

Mortgage lending rules slated to take effect on Jan. 10 were designed to protect borrowers and investors from the risks of bad home loans, but they could actually make it harder for first-time buyers to secure a mortgage.

The new, optional regulations require lenders to prove that borrowers are able to repay their mortgages, with stricter caps on debt-to-income ratios. If the loans conform to the federal guidelines — dubbed qualified mortgages, or QM — borrowers cannot sue lenders if the mortgages go belly up.

Now, some lenders, who initially fought the new rules, say they will simply offer loans that do not qualify, or non-QM loans. Since these mortgages will go to prime and super-prime borrowers, these buyers will have a leg up when it comes to obtaining financing for a home.

“It looks like a nice niche from a lender’s perspective because you’re not going to have as much competition,” Guy Cecala of Inside Mortgage Finance told CNBC. “The risk of operating outside the QM box is that a borrower can dispute, and basically win, if you try to foreclose if there’s a problem down the road.”

That said, some lenders may eventually be drawn to lending to the less credit-worthy, looking to charge them higher rates for the bigger risk, as was the case during the housing boom — but they will most likely be non-bank lenders that rely on private capital. [CNBC] — Julie Strickland

From left: 10 Madison Square West and 101 Leonard St

While this year has been hailed as having a near-perfect confluence of factors driving New York City residential real estate, some industry leaders are predicting it could pass.

Rising demand for sparse Manhattan condominiums combined with a no-holds-barred attitude towards luxury development has shattered records, with the average contract price exploding 60 percent in the third quarter of 2013 to a record $3.43 million, according to the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group.

Meanwhile, the number of new units coming online in Manhattan is still below the average, according to Corcoran Sunshine. In 2013, 49 residential buildings with a total of 2,269 units opened in Manhattan, south of Harlem, compared to 30 buildings with 1,309 units in the previous year, Corcoran Sunshine said.

And a rise in building permit applications, to 3,339 filed in the first 10 months of this year, up from 2,328 in all of 2012, has the market looking up since the days of 2010.

Not surprisingly, new condos are getting scooped up. For example, at least 90 percent of the 125-unit NoMad condos at 10 Madison Square West are under contract, and the 66-unit Leonard at 101 Leonard Street in Tribeca was 80 percent sold two months after opening, the New York Times reported.

However not everyone thinks the flurry of new development is a good thing. Shaun Osher, CEO of real estate brokerage CORE, voiced concerns to the Times that the pool of buyers may not be deep enough to snap up high-end condos that lack value.

“Buyers are not going to be irrational in their purchases,” Osher told the Times. “I think there will be a pushback to price-per-square-foot numbers that don’t meet the quality or location of the product.” [NYT] — TRD

An important resource for first-time and other homebuyers who find themselves in unfair competition with deep-pocket investors bearing cash just got better: The two biggest players in the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are now giving non-investor shoppers 20-day exclusive rights to bid on and buy new listings they are selling.

During the 20-day “first look” period, investors will be excluded from submitting bids. To qualify, non-investor buyers will need to commit to make the home their principal residence for at least a year. The idea, according to Fannie and Freddie officials, is to encourage greater owner-occupancy, stabilize neighborhoods that have seen significant numbers of foreclosures, and generally help out shoppers who find it difficult to outbid all-cash investors.

All-cash purchases of homes hit a high mark last month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac, a housing data firm. A stunning 42 percent of all residential sales nationwide went to buyers who paid cash — the highest rate since RealtyTrac began measuring the phenomenon in early 2011, and nearly double what it was as recently as May.

First-time buyers looking for affordably priced homes have been hit especially hard by the profusion of investors waving cash at sellers. They locate a home that fits their budget, make an offer with a mortgage contingency, and then lose the sale to an investor who has no financing requirements. A mortgage contingency ties the contract to the ability of the bidder to obtain a loan, which slows the process and often makes the offer less attractive to the seller.

Fannie and Freddie have large inventories of previously foreclosed homes for sale — byproducts of the economic woes of 2008 to 2010. As of last week, Fannie had roughly 35,000 houses listed for sale around the country through its “HomePath” program. Freddie Mac had 13,000 active listings in its “HomeSteps” program. Buyers can access the listings online by state, city and price range, then submit offers through a participating broker.

In California, for example, Fannie had 2,136 properties listed, many below $200,000. Current listings range from a $139,000, two-bedroom single-family house in Big Bear City to a $700,000 three-bedroom home in South San Francisco. Buyers in San Diego could pick up a two-bedroom condo for $394,000.

In Washington state, Fannie had nearly 1,900 listings including a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath condo in Everett for $215,000 and a four-bedroom, three-bath house in Monroe at $445,000. Shoppers in Virginia had 742 houses to choose from, including a three-bedroom, three-bath house in Virginia Beach for $214,000 or a condo in Alexandria for $369,900.

Freddie also has active listings in every state through HomeSteps, ranging from a three-bedroom single-family home in Key Largo, Fla., for $485,000 to a $99,900 condo in Silver Spring, Md.

Both companies offer mortgage deals on some, but not all, properties. Freddie’s financing includes features such as 5 percent down payments, no required appraisals, and no mortgage insurance. Freddie also provides up to $500 toward new purchasers’ home warranty policies.

Fannie’s financing deals start at 5 percent down with no mortgage insurance or appraisal costs. HomePath listings that need some fix-up may also be eligible for “renovation mortgages,” where the loan amount includes funds for the purchase itself plus the estimated money needed for improvements.

Here’s the deal on “first look” exclusions of investors from bidding. On all homes listed on or after Dec. 17 (Freddie) and Jan. 2 (Fannie), owner-occupant buyers will get a shot at viewing houses and submitting bids with no competition from investors for 20 days after listing. Currently the exclusion is for the first 15 days.

If Fannie or Freddie receives acceptable offers from owner-occupant bidders, they will sign contracts to sell without seeing any competing bids from investors. Chris Bowden, Freddie Mac’s senior vice president for HomeSteps, said the extra time for exclusive bidding could be “especially important for buyers in markets where home inventories are shrinking.”

So if you or someone you know is thinking of a home purchase, check out HomeSteps and HomePath listings online. If you qualify and keep your eye on the clock, you just may get a chance to buy a new home with mortgage terms you can afford — without worrying about fat-cat investors muscling in and outbidding you with cash.

Kenneth Harney is a syndicated real estate columnist.

From left: Interior of 71 Laight Street, 520 West 28th Street and the interior of 135 East 79th Street

The practice of tapping a “starchitect” and a well-known interior designer to craft luxury condominium projects — a new approach only 10 years ago — is now an essential component of successful marketing in New York City.

“If you look at the most high-profile, high-priced projects, you will see that everyone has a named architect or a named interior designer, and often both,” Susan de França, president and CEO of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, told the New York Times.

Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron is credited with a chunk of the success of Alexico Group and Hines’ 56 Leonard in Tribeca. Zaha Hadid’s attachment to Related Companies’ 520 West 28th Street is drawing eyeballs and checkbooks. And Robert A.M. Stern’s Superior Ink in the West Village and 15 Central Park West drew bigger price tags than their neighbors, thanks in part to his cachet.

Such big names can cost developers 30 to 40 percent more and tack an additional 10 to 20 percent in construction costs, but the return comes in the sale prices.

“It is difficult to quantify with an exact measure, but I would say there is a 30 to 50 percent premium if a project is completed by a starchitect,” de França said.

And while the pre-crash days featured starchitects working on building exteriors, the newer approach involves a collaboration between the architect and the designer on interior and exterior design.

For example, marketing materials at the Sterling Mason at 71 Laight Street noted both the husband-and-wife interior design team Gachot and architect Morris Adjmi. William Sofield, who designed fashion boutiques for Guffi, Yves Saint Laurent and Harry Winston, tackled both the interior and exterior at Brodsky Development’s 135 East 79th Street. [NYT] — Julie Strickland