How has Covid 19 affected average sale prices and sale volume in Manhattan?

In the Manhattan housing market,  sale volume has dropped, but there are deals, a revival since the market was legally re-opened in late June.  This could be in temporary jeopardy this winter, as we retreat indoors and face a second …

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The Covid housing market has not been easy

Since the market re-opened at the end of June,  I have seen difficulties for both buyers and sellers.  On the Upper West Side, an enthusiastic couple negotiated the purchase of a renovated multi-million-dollar apartment, and then backed out in anger …

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Manhattan’s housing market has changed

Working from upstate or my apartment in New York, in semi- isolation and driving into the city for the occasional appointment or showing, I manage a tiny piece of Manhattan’s real estate market almost entirely from my laptop.  The market …

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Beauty and Housing

After a break from real estate writing, I remind myself that this work offers the constant pleasure of beautiful things, particularly useful things, like apartments, or houses, or furniture.  It is inspiring to see the occasional wonderful house or apartment–there …

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Israel and the Palestinians, in a letter to a younger French friend

September 20, 2020 Dear Brxxx: Thanks for the article you sent me about Sheldon Adelson and his purchase of the former American embassy residence in Tel Aviv (le monde.fr).  Your note pushes me to clarify my own view of this situation, …

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Sitting in my Garden (fixing the world)

June 1, 2020 At this later time in my life, I have a few favored ways to spend leisure time.  One of them is sitting in my garden, or on my porch, looking at it.  Sometimes,  I do nothing but …

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GEORGE SICULAR

Our father was a very strong man.  He was built like a bull,  a very good athlete, a boxer, swimmer, and I think a football player in his youth–an excellent and competitive tennis player his entire adult life.  But when …

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COVID 19 AND RECONSIDERING AMERICAN CITIES

May 16, 2020 To the Editors of the New York Times Dear Sir/Madam: I am writing in response to two articles in your paper by different writers, both dated May 12. Both discuss/report on the impacts of Covid 19 on …

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Thoughts on the pandemic and its effects on the Manhattan housing market

Sunday, March 22, 2020 How will the Manhattan housing market be affected by the Covid 19 pandemic?  What are the short and the longer-term effects?  This is an attempt to address these questions.  Let us begin with the belief that …

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Tel Aviv

January 31, 2019 I am no longer in Tel Aviv or in Israel, but Tel Aviv was “home” in a country that is an unsettling combination of foreign and intimately familiar.  I was guided by knowing that many, of my …

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