DS News

78 New Jersey Lisa G Lopez Broker of Record Home Alliance Realty 142 E. Bay Ave Manahawkin, NJ 08050 609-978-9009 (o) 609-384-5109 (c) lglopez@verizon.net www.HomeAllianceRealty.com www.LisaLopezProperties.com Connecticut Planet Realty, LLC Sales@CTREOTEAM.com 203-982-4985 cell www.CTREOTEAM.com Security • Preservation • Disposition Steve Rivkin the list saw its median prices more than double to end the first quarter at just under $1.3 million. With a median sale price of $2.2 million and a year over year decrease of 10 percent, Hudson Square was placed fourth on the list. At fifth place, Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass (DUMBO), was the only Brooklyn neighborhood to make it to the top 10 listing. DUMBO had a median sale price of $1.9 mil- lion during the quarter and showed a 13 percent decrease over the same period in 2017. Flatiron District, Garment District, Central Park South, East Village, and Chelsea were other Manhattan neighborhoods that made it to the 10 most expensive neighborhoods in New York. The Fight Against Zombie Homes e topic of zombie homes comes up often here in DS News, ranging from fast-track foreclosure legislation to rules about clearboard- ing and plywood bans. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that the state was buy- ing up distressed mortgages in high foreclosure areas, hoping to help keep homeowners in their homes and avoid the spread of more zombie properties. Now the fight against zombie homes has found an unexpected new ally: law students. e Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns and the Western New York Law Center recently announced a new partnership with Columbia Law School to help municipalities within Erie County track and monitor zombie foreclosures. e partnership will enlist Columbia Law School students to lend their research skills to local municipalities in the fight against zombie homes, providing resources those cities and towns might not otherwise have. e partnership is the first of its kind, ac- cording to the announcement. "is new partnership with Columbia Law School is a substantial step towards riding com- munities of vacant and abandoned properties," said Mickey Kearns, Erie County Clerk. "ere is a clear need for resources for our smaller municipalities, many of who want to take action on zombie properties, but don't have the means to do it. Working with the bright students at Columbia Law School will give these municipal leaders the necessary information to track down banks and ensure these properties are being maintained." Here's how it will work: municipalities will be able to submit a request on a specific vacant property online, and Columbia Law Students will then research that home's foreclosure status and report back with their findings. e NEW YORK Which Big Apple Neighborhood Takes the Biggest Bite? New York City is one of the most expen- sive cities in the world, but when it comes to New York neighborhoods, the TriBeCa area is the most expensive area of all, according to an analysis by PropertyShark that looked at median sale prices of homes across 10 New York neighborhoods. TriBeCa, the abbreviation of Triangle Below Canal Street in the lower Manhattan area saw median sales prices zooming to more than $3.5 million during the quarter according to the PropertyShark analysis and replaced Soho that came a close second on the list of New York's most expensive neighborhoods. It was no surprise that nine of the 10 leading neighborhoods were all in Manhattan. Accord- ing to PropertyShark, despite its growth during the quarter, TriBeCa saw a 30 percent decrease in median sales on a year-over-year basis. "e neighborhood couldn't outperform Q1 2017 due to pricey sales that closed last year at two new luxury developments and inflated the median sale price," the analysis found. "ese included 37 transactions at 30 Park Place, with a median price of $5.6 million, and 21 deals at 56 Leonard Street, with a median price of $7.2 million." SoHo too recorded a 5 percent decrease in median sale prices on a year-over-year basis and closed the first quarter with a median sale price of $3.2 million. However, the analysis noted that the West Village, which came third on the quarterly list, reflected the biggest change in prices during the quarter with the neighbor- hood recording an 88 percent year over year increase and ended the first quarter of 2018 with a median sale price of $2.3 million. Speaking of increases, Fort Greene in Brooklyn, which was otherwise fourteenth on research time will also count toward Columbia's mandatory 40-hour pro bono requirements for law students. "We are pleased to partner in this innovative initiative with Erie County Clerk Michael P. Kearns and the Western New York Law Center with Joseph Kelemen and Kate Lockhart," said Conrad Johnson, Clinical Professor of Law at Columbia University. "Zombie properties are a blighting influence throughout New York. By participating in this program, students at Columbia Law School can make a positive dif- ference while fulfilling their responsibilities to serve the public." e New York towns of Boston and Evans are the first signed on to participate in the pilot program. "We applaud the efforts of Columbia University in extending their expertise to Erie County," said Robert Klein, Founder and Chairman of SecureView and Community Blight Solutions. "We hope that they will use free services like Compliance Connections to aid in their quest to rid Western New York of these nightmare neighborhoods. ese Colum- bia Law students join fellow CU alumnae like Adam Zaranko, President of the New York Land Bank Association, and our own staff here at Community Blight Solutions, in the fight against blight." The City of Skyrocketing Foreclosures PropertyShark's annual foreclosure report revealed that New York City saw a year-over- year increase in foreclosed homes scheduled for auction of 58 percent and year-over-year foreclosure increases in every borough except Manhattan. Now, PropertyShark has released their Residential Foreclosure Report for Q1 2018, and those trends toward higher foreclosure rates seem to be continuing.

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