Giving Thanks - Warburg Realty - A Higher Standard Since 1896

Giving Thanks

Posted on November 23rd, 2010 by Frederick Peters, President

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Every year, at the end of our Thanksgiving dinner, my extended family goes around the table and each person speaks about what they feel particularly thankful for. This year I have a lot: my mother remains healthy and vital; I am still crazy about my wife after 33 years of marriage and we continue to lead engaged lives in which we try to give back at least some of what we get; we will welcome our first grandchild in January; our kids are both happily married and do interesting and challenging work. That’s the personal side.  And my professional gratitude list?  Here goes:

1) The Manhattan market had a good year overall, in spite of the lingering clouds of the recession. While confidence is still shaky, many buyers recognized value in our marketplace (especially relative to their other investments), so business has been good.

2) I have learned to run a tighter ship. Warburg closed two offices in early 2009 and I don’t really miss them. My wonderful staff, most of whom have been with us for many years, work every day in the dedicated manner which enables us to function effectively with 80% of the support people we employed in 2007.

3) Property is cheaper. More people can afford it, especially in this historically low interest rate environment. We are not selling exclusively to Wall Streeters any more, although finance professionals still make up a substantial percentage of our buyer and seller base. Attorneys, artists, doctors, actors, small business owners, corporate executives, real estate investors-we  are working with a more diverse professional group than at any time in the recent past.

4) There are fewer, more dedicated agents in the marketplace. At the height of the real estate boom people flooded into our business, believing that a real estate salesperson’s license was a license to print money. Now most of them have discovered how hard the job actually is and have moved on. This leaves a smaller group of more professional, better trained agents most of whom actually know what they are doing!

5)  The real estate agent has not suffered the fate of the travel agent. Statistics from the National Association of Realtors indicate that more consumers than ever use the services of a broker when embarking on a residential purchase or sale. With all the information out there in cyberspace, buyers and sellers need someone  to act as an interpreter and advisor. That’s what we do!

Happy Thanksgiving. What are YOU thankful for?

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Filed under Fred's View of Manhattan Real Estate, Frederick Peters, President.

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Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource

It’s Not That Simple: Are Real Estate and the Stock Market on Parallel Tracks? - Warburg Realty - A Higher Standard Since 1896

It’s Not That Simple: Are Real Estate and the Stock Market on Parallel Tracks?

Posted on October 18th, 2010 by Frederick Peters, President

Do New York City residential real estate and the stock market always move hand in hand? Last week I spent an interesting evening at The Real Deal annual forum at Lincoln Center, where I heard a panel discussing the state of the commercial and residential real estate markets here in New York City. I was particularly interested in hearing several of the panelist express their opinion that our residential market rises or falls in lock step with the stock market. While the two phenomena are clearly related, I think the reality is more nuanced than that observation suggests.

First, there IS a close relationship between the performance of the stock market and the city’s residential market. All real estate is local, and just as real estate in Houston is highly influenced by fluctuation in the oil markets, real estate in New York is very sensitive to fluctuation in the financial markets. Finance is our home town industry, so how it fares has a big impact on how the city fares as a whole. Tax revenues, real estate sales, charitable giving – all depend substantially on the health and wealth of Wall Street.

That said, real estate has really been somewhat decoupled from the stock market over the past ten years. We first noticed this change in 2000, when we saw the tech boom end and real estate sales and prices move up as the stock market moved down. People were disenchanted with stock in the wake of the Internet bubble and the appealingly concrete bricks and mortar aspect of property made it an attractive alternative.

That led of course to the real estate boom and bust, and now people are disenchanted with real estate in much the same way they were with tech stocks a decade ago. Fortunately for us here in New York, we were always primarily a first home market rather than an investor market. Our market dropped later and recovered earlier than almost any other in the country.  And today’s lower prices, combined with the continuing tax deductibility of mortgage interest and the once-in-a-lifetime interest rates, remain compelling incentives for many buyers.

Both the stock market and residential real estate sales are barometers of consumer confidence. But the sort of confidence they require is slightly different. Securities, into which an investor can make quick forays, small or large, are highly opportunistic investments.  Real estate is long term, especially today. No one is buying for a quick sale or a quick profit. So a real estate purchase requires confidence about the future, which is in short supply today. That’s why, even as the stock market topped 11,000 last week and the large bonuses forthcoming for Wall Street winners were touted in The Wall Street Journal, our residential sales market remains hesitant. We did not, and I predict will not, see a big bounce in response to the rising stock market and the record bonus numbers. Well priced properties continue to sell, some with multiple offers, but buyers have no appetite for a stretch.  Before our market accelerates again, buyers want more concrete signs of recovery than a rising stock market alone can provide. 

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Tags: residential real estate sales, stock market

Filed under Fred's View of Manhattan Real Estate, Frederick Peters, President.

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Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource

Locals Only - Warburg Realty - A Higher Standard Since 1896-Latest post from Warburg CEO

Locals Only

Posted on September 27th, 2010 by Frederick Peters, President

Here on Guernsey in the Channel Islands between England and France, where my wife and I have just spent the week-end with our daughter and son-in-law, the residential property market is bifurcated. There is a Local Only designation on about 75% of the houses and apartments, which can only be occupied by natives of Guernsey, their spouses, those whose ancestors have lived here in the past, or those whose presence is deemed “essential” to the community (As the intricacies of this system were explained to me by our taxi driver I almost certainly do not have all the details correct!) I found this idea fascinating. The goal, increasingly significant since Guernsey has become an international tax haven, is to make sure an adequate supply of property remains within the financial reach of local residents. However, even the Local Only housing is expensive and locals like my cab driver are hard pressed to afford it (he is working two jobs, 90 hours a week, to help carry his £1500 per month mortgage.) Even in an artificially controlled environment, market forces are still at work.

In New York we have no Local Only housing. And one of the great things about our city is that every year the number of locals expands as people arrive from all over the world to become New Yorkers. Still, the market we, as brokers at Warburg and similar firms, serve represents a small triangle at the top of the wealth pyramid. Many who grew up in Manhattan cannot afford to return there as adults, especially if they have chosen careers in teaching or the social services. And increasingly the vast majority of those working in the city cannot afford to live in it, or even near it. Most of the members of my administrative staff commute at least an hour and a half each way to ensure that they have adequate home space for their families.

Does this bode well for the future of our city? The loss of tax incentives in recent years has discouraged many developers from building subsidized housing, which our city sorely needs. A change in the fate of Stuyvesant Town could further deplete the stock of middle income housing available in Manhattan. I am a strong believer in paying attention to market forces but also to the importance of diversity, ethnic and financial, in keeping New York vital and dynamic. Some form of intervention must guarantee that residential opportunities exist in New York for middle class housing, intervention which is fair to tenants, landlords, and owners alike. Because we need to figure out how to protect our own hard pressed locals. They represent both our history and our ever changing face. We need them here. 

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Interesting,timely and very good points to consider,especially in our marketplace. Interesting to note that Bermuda also has a similar properties that come with residency attachments required.

Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource

Are you a tech hungry agent ? Come to #REBCRYE and become a Tech Savvy Agent

Apples, oranges, blackberries, and droids-doesn’t all of this sound like a futuristic fruit salad?  And as if that isn’t confusing enough-everyone is talking about Twitter, Facebook, blogging and SEO -which really sounds like cereal (note to self, don’t write when hungry…)

Are you curious, or possibly more likely, totally confused by what to do and how to use any of these tools in your business?  Wary of people peddling their wares, promising to make things work; catapult you to the top of search engines-for a (often hefty and absurd) price?

Bring your confusion to RE Bar Camp Rye!

What is a bar camp you ask? It is an unconference, an event driven by YOU the attendee, low cost (in this case FREE thanks to our wonderful sponsors and volunteers-full disclosure I am one of the latter). It’s a great way to wet your palette, jam packed with knowledge, from people just like you, other real estate professionals, from the trenches. Its not about sitting in a room having fruit thrown at you, please don’t throw fruit at us, but its about planting seeds, sharing knowledge ,starting and furthering relationships , taking the online offline, so that we may do what we do best even better, serve our clients ! Have something you want to discuss or present on that you are knowledgeable about-doesn’t have to be social media related-DO come and participate too, or if you’re a little shy-send us suggestions too.

Extra special bonus, we in the NYC are lucky to now be home to one of the co-founders of the Tech Savvy Agent blog, which recently was recognized as most innovative blog by Inman News. Chris Smith will be at REBC Rye!!!! Here is a prime opportunity to connect and engage directly, ask questions, learn what may work for you!  Become a tech savvy agent, so you can learn what could work or not for you, and become an informed consumer, learn what is worth investing your time (and money) into or not.

And, by the way, if you don’t believe in the power of  the fruit salad (if its for you, or that it works for anyone) WHEN (not if) you come to REBC Rye, be sure an introduce yourself to me and I will be glad to tell you some of the awesome things I’ve learned, people I have met, and yes, even business too!  At the end of the day, it’s not about social media, it’s about integrating tools to improve your business, that hasn’t changed-it’s just that now we have to “plug in” occasionally…

Don’t miss this event, register at www.rebarcamprye.com, connect and engage onhttp://facebook.com/rebcrye (and for those of you tweeting, the event hashtag is #rebcrye-if you don’t know what that is,come ,and find out !)

Follow me there !  The event is on Saturday September 11th from 8:30 to 4:30 in Rye, NY at the Hilton.

Nikki Beauchamp is on the planning committee for REBC Rye, an agent at Warburg Realty in NYC,, blogs on the Warburg Realty blog, and atYourNYCRealEstateResource.com …and of course on twitter and facebook!

Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp , Your NYC Real Estate Resource

Friends Don’t Let Friends Move To The Suburbs via @WarburgRealty blog-Top 10 Reasons to live in #NYC

I am a born and raised New Yorker (as were my mother, my grandmother and grandfather, and my great grandmother, who was one of the first Jewish girls at The Brearley School in the 1880s). As such I have always been fascinated by the notion many people seem to have that they need to leave the city to raise their kids and to have a “normal” life. Like every real estate broker working here, I consider myself to be a de facto member of the local Chamber of Commerce, boosting the city at every opportunity.

So here are my Top Ten Reasons to live and raise kids in New York:

10. ECOLOGY – Since New Yorkers live vertically, we use much less fossil fuel per capita for heating. And you don’t get in your car every time you need something, thus further reducing your carbon footprint. You can take the subway, or a bus, or a cab, or …

9. MOBILITY – you can WALK! One of the best things about New York is that you can walk everywhere. It clears your head, it is beautiful, and you get aerobic exercise.

8. SAFETY – Yup, New York City is on the FBI’s list of top ten safest cities in America with populations of over 500,000 (and seriously, does something much smaller even QUALIFY as a city??)

7. PARENTAL ANXIETY – Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teenagers in the United States. How great it was for me and my wife to know that our kids were NEVER in a car piloted by a friend who may have been drinking! From doormen to neighbors, there was also safety in having an extra set of eyes on things at all times.

6. BEAUTY – with its extensive network of parks, including the jewels of Central Park, Prospect Park, and Van Cortlandt Park; its zoos and botanical gardens; its amazing neighborhoods of Victorian brownstones and 1920s apartment buildings; its iconic skyscrapers; and its reclaimed waterfronts, New York is a fascinating and richly varied treat for the eye. And if you have kids there are lots of places for them to play and hang out, many within walking distance (see MOBILITY.)

5. PHILANTHROPY – New Yorkers are committed to the not-for-profit organizations which keep their city vital. In social justice, in the arts, in education, foundations and not-for-profits are working every day to make New York and the world safer, more humane, more open, and more engaged. You can give your money, your time, or both, but giving back is a big part of living here and there are opportunities for every budget and area of interest.

4. CREATIVITY – from all over the country and all over the world, artists and creators flock to New York. Painting, writing, composing, dancing, programming, inventing – everything new under the sun is taking place here. It is inspiring just to be close to it, and opportunities to be part of it abound.

3.  ACTIVITY – whatever you love, it is readily available. Sports, museums, every kind of music, theater, nightlife, bookstores – as a kid, or a teenager, or an adult, there is never any reason to be bored in New York.

2. DIVERSITY – New York is a microcosm of the world. Ethnic and lifestyle diversity give the city its unique flavor culturally, aesthetically, linguistically, and gastronomically. New Yorkers come into contact every day with others from different backgrounds and who have made different choices. We have a clear sense of what unites us rather than what divides us.

1. OPPORTUNITY – New York offers an extraordinary number of job and educational opportunities. Every day of the year New York is filled with tourists, students, families, ambitious young professionals, and business leaders who know this is where they have to be. Here you can find or create the right school, the right niche, or the right company.

Convinced? Call me or your favorite real estate agent and we will make it happen for you or your business.  

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Posted via email from Nicole Beauchamp Team, Your NYC Real Estate Resource