After an era of giddy figures–with the average price of an apartment in Manhattan closing in on $1 million–New York City’s residential real estate market has started to lose its sense of certainty. Any broker asked about the state of affair…

For all the permanence that its centuries-old history suggests, the midtown neighborhood of Murray Hill and Kip’s Bay is a neighborhood with a little bit of everything. A gently evolving mix of turn-of-the-century brownstones rubs shoulders…

Suppose you want to give new life to your dingy old kitchen, enlarge your living room or convert a bedroom loft into a cozy, office study. You have to choose a professional who can best turn that dream into reality, and choosing the right p…

For more than one hundred years, The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) has been an invaluable resource for real estate professionals in New York City. More than just a trade association, REBNY has expanded over the years to include advo…

In April 2001, the Committee of Condominiums and Cooperatives of the Real Property Section of the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York County Lawyers Association approved a new…

Every year, co-ops and condos spend serious time and energy compiling their operating budgets. The process can start as early as September, with an evaluation of the first eight months of expenses for the past year–the primary purpose of wh…

In October 2000 Judge Louis York (New York Supreme Court, First Judicial Department) issued a decision that annulled the City of New York’s lead-poisoning prevention statute, commonly called Local Law 38. In the many news articles and attor…

Although the US economy appears to have been in a steady decline for some time, it would seem that financial fraud and abuse are, unfortunately, "growth sectors." In 1996, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) published i…

When I was growing up in the ‘60s, our large rental building in Queens was like a village. My mother played mah jong once a week with several neighbor ladies, and Tuesdays were Dad’s poker nights. We kids played freely in the halls, practic…

Few things are more important for a building than having a competent managing agent willing to work closely with board members to make their home a safe, harmonious place to live. A big part of any good managing agent’s job is to be "on cal…