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2 By Robert Knakal 7/28 9:12am

concrete thoughts

Blitt - Bob Knakal

Breaking It Down by Borough

In last week’s column, we took a look at the overall New York City building sales market and compared its recent performance with past periods. This week, we will take a similar look at the first half of 2011 (1H11) but will analyze the performance of each individual geographic submarket.

As I have written for some time, we fully expected the Manhattan market to lead the entire marketplace out of the downturn and are indeed seeing this happen. Sales volume picked up in Manhattan before it did in other submarkets, and we are starting to see value appreciation in Manhattan.

In the outer boroughs (including northern Manhattan), sales volume has been lagging and, in some cases, has only recently started to recover. Read More

By Robert Knakal 7/21 12:26pm

concrete thoughts

pie chart 1

What’s Driving Investment Sales Right Now

During the first half of 2011 (1H11), the dollar volume of investment sales transactions in the New York City market was $12.6 billion. On an annualized basis, activity is on pace to increase by 73 percent over the 2010 total of $14.6 billion.

At face value, this number leads to an extremely optimistic perspective regarding the market’s performance. However, Read More

6 By Robert Knakal 7/14 12:09pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Rent Regulations: the Good, the Bad and the Endlessly Ugly

While the recent extension of New York’s rent-regulation system came as no surprise to the vast majority of participants in our multifamily market, the results were still disappointing and have left many owners concerned that if this is the result obtained with a Republican-controlled Senate, what would occur with Democrats in power? Yes, the renewal terms could have been much worse, but that doesn’t diminish the negative implications this has on our housing market.

Let’s take a look at the terms of Chapter 97 of the Laws of 2011 and their potential impact. Read More

By Robert Knakal 6/16 4:06pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Lessons Learned and Earned, Part III

The past two weeks, this column has recapped a speech I gave to the local chapter of the CCIM in late April. The speech was an overview of the lessons that I have learned over my 27-year brokerage career, which includes growing Massey Knakal Realty Services. (Part I here and Part II here)

This week will conclude the 30 lessons delivered at that speech.

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By Robert Knakal 6/09 1:32pm

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Blitt - Bob Knakal

Lessons Learned and Earned, Part II

Last week, I began reviewing notes from a speech I made before the members of the local chapter of CCIM here in New York City in late April.

The subject of the talk was the lessons I have learned over the years building a brokerage company and selling properties in the most competitive market in the United States.

This week we continue the recap of those lessons.

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By Robert Knakal 6/02 4:46pm

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Lessons Learned and Earned, Part I

A couple of months ago, Al Holloman, a broker in our Queens office and a member of the local chapter of CCIM, asked me if I would speak at the upcoming CCIM luncheon in late April. I accepted, but was surprised by the topic the folks at CCIM wanted me to address. Most of the Read More

By Robert Knakal 5/26 2:04pm

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The Market for Apartment Buildings by Borough

Two weeks ago, this column addressed the state of the New York City multifamily market, and most of the statistics discussed pertained to the entire city-wide market. I received many e-mails and a few calls asking for the data to be broken down on a submarket-by-submarket basis, so here it is.

It is particularly illustrative Read More

By Robert Knakal 4/28 1:24pm

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Watch Manhattan Pull the City Out of Recession

As has been the case for more than a century, the Manhattan submarket is once again leading the city out of a real estate downturn. When markets recover, typically the best properties, in the best locations, show positive trends well before secondary and tertiary properties and locations do. And by almost any metric, the Manhattan Read More

By Robert Knakal 4/21 3:36pm

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The Investment-Sales Market Going Forward

In the fourth quarter of 2010, the investment-sales market experienced a whopping $5.6 billion in sales activity. This was the highest quarterly total going back to the third quarter of 2008. Going into the fourth quarter of 2010 (4Q10), we were expecting sales volume to be very high given the motivation of banks and special Read More

By Robert Knakal 4/14 3:39pm

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A Lesson on the Need for 421-a

In all of my economics classes at the Wharton School, regardless of the level of the class, illustrative examples were used to demonstrate economic principles and frequently included a mythical product called a widget. Widget manufacturers had various fixed and variable costs, various operating and profit margins, overhead, cost of goods sold and so Read More

4 By Robert Knakal 4/08 3:29pm

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The Job Numbers and Commercial Real Estate

Last Friday's jobs report from the Labor Department initiated a wave of articles and blog entries depicting a robust economy and blue skies ahead. Democrats have taken the position that the administration's policies are starting to work, and Republicans are directing most of the credit toward the extension of the Bush-era tax rates. For a Read More

By Robert Knakal 3/31 12:46pm

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Budget Deal’s Good News for the Industry

Over this past weekend, it appeared that a budget deal for New York State was agreed upon in principle. If finalized, the agreement would provide Governor Andrew Cuomo with a remarkably decisive first victory by delivering an early budget deal that would erase a $10 billion budget deficit without raising taxes and without borrowing, Read More

By Robert Knakal 3/17 1:41pm

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20/20 on Site Sales

The land/development-site market in New York City is one of the most difficult to figure out. The perception is that land values plummeted during the peak of the recession, in 2009, and that value increased in 2010 as the market started to comeback. The sales data, however, reflects a very different story.

The 2009 Read More

1 By Robert Knakal 3/10 4:58pm

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A Call for Means Testing in Rent Regulation

Food and shelter are two of life's basic necessities. For those who need assistance feeding themselves, the Food Stamp Program is available. This program issues monthly benefits that can be used to purchase food at authorized retail food stores. Food stamp benefits help low-income working people, seniors, the disabled and others feed their families. Read More

By Robert Knakal 3/03 3:50pm

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Wal-Mart and the Lesson of Betamax

The other day, I was walking around the city taking photographs of buildings for a marketing brochure I am putting together. I was using my old Polaroid Land Camera--you know, the one where the photograph slides out of the front of the camera and develops right before your very eyes. As I was standing Read More