Friday Morning Links

The January shakeout is here and it should prove to be a couple of very painful months in the city. Plenty of decisions are made in January, decisions largely delayed by the holiday season. Retailers are tallying up their gains and loses and deciding which stores to stick with and which to abandon. Real estate brokers are taking stock of which locations are expendable and which businesses are expendable. Citi Habitats is trimming some branches to hunker down in a tough market, while Homestead New York has decided to pack it in altogether. Major employers are figuring out which employees are expendable, thousands are being laid off this month, and very few are living with job security. Like they say, it's always darkest before the dawn. It's just a question of how dark?
On the bright side, rates continue to slide. Despite the overall uncertainty that is undermining the market, I have a some friends and clients that are thrilled with the rates they are locking in. Also, on the rental side, prices seem to be dropping like a stone. Landlords seem to be in full blown panic mode, afraid of getting caught with inventory at the slowest time of year. I've been seeing some apartments which are offered for a clean 20% less than the previous tenant paid. Those deals are not everywhere, but they are increasing. I'll post an example in a bit.
Homestead New York Closes Shop (The Real Deal)
Citi Habitats To Close 57th St Office In Addition To FiDi Office (The Real Deal)
Goldman Sachs Has Doomy, Gloomy Real Estate Forecast (Curbed)
Madoff Assets (Ones He Couldn't Slip In The Mail) Worth $1 Bil. (Bloomberg)
More On The New Hotel Coming To 835 Sixth Avenue (Curbed)
Mortgage Rates Hit 5%- Lowest In Decades (NY Times)

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