Turtle Bay is a great section of Manhattan. There is a lot more going on there than the UN! Check out the WSJ article to learn about the housing stock and quality of life.

By SUSHIL CHEEMA

Ramin Talaie for The Wall Street Journal

Shops and restaurants occupy the first floors of buildings along East 53rd Street in Turtle Bay.

Nestled between Midtown Manhattan and the East River is the upscale enclave of Turtle Bay, home to the United Nations, soaring high-rise buildings and handsome brownstones.

If You're Browsing This Weekend . . .

First settled in 1639, the area was an important point of shipbuilding through the 18th century. Brownstones popped up after the Civil War, and the bay, home to railroad piers and wharfs, was filled in and developed by the end of the 1860s, according to the Turtle Bay Association.

Tenements housed Italian, German, Irish and Jewish immigrants. By the 1920s, the neighborhood became fashionable and notables like actress Katherine Hepburn would call Turtle Bay home.

The origin of the neighborhood's name is debated: Some say there were once turtles in a creek that ran through the area, but others say it came from a corruption of the Dutch word "deutal," or "a bent blade," used to describe the bay's shape.

Construction of the U.N. building in the late 1940s pushed out area slaughterhouses and attracted diplomatic missions and consulates and high-rise buildings. They include the Veneto, a 34-story tower, with 137 residences, and the 72-story Trump World Tower condominiums.

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Ramin Talaie for the Wall Street Journal

A pub on Second Avenue displays its location.

While some locals have long been drawn to the area because of its central location and easy access to the shopping, entertainment and dining of Midtown, investors and second-home buyers are increasingly calling Turtle Bay home.

Foreign buyers also like to be near theaters and shopping, but want a more residential feel, says Jacky Teplitzky of Prudential Douglas Elliman, who has worked with international clients.

"Most of [Manhattan's] hotels are located actually in Midtown and the East Side," she says. "A lot of these tourists, when they come over, that's what they know."

Parks: Large green space is hard to come by in Turtle Bay, but small pockets do exist.

Tudor City, a cluster of 11 apartment buildings that is practically a neighborhood in itself, was built in the 1920s and has a park and adjacent public playgrounds. Ralph J. Bunche Park, opposite the U.N., has been the site of many demonstrations.

Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Park serves as a promenade for the U.N. and is home to Katherine Hepburn Garden. Greenacre Park has a 25-foot waterfall.

Schools: Turtle Bay's schools, part of District 2, include the commercial-arts-focused High School of Art and Design.

In 2009, 92.6% of students in District 2 received a proficient score on the math exam, and 85.8% of students received a proficient score on the English Language Arts exam. In 2006, the results were 78.5% for math and 73.8% for reading.

Private schools include the Lyceum Kennedy French International School, with students in pre-kindergarten through 11th grade, which specializes in bilingual French-English education. Beekman School, a college-preparatory high school, is also in Turtle Bay.

Dining: The northern end of Turtle Bay along 53rd Street is home to a variety of restaurants and bars, including Little Thai Kitchen, Cello Wine Bar, La Gioconda, Brick Lane Curry House, Mantao Chinese Sandwiches and Obao Noodles & BBQ. Also try Traffic, with bars on two levels. For a more relaxed atmosphere, try Güllüoğlu, a Turkish bakery and café.

HUD to Investigate Mortgage Loan Denials

By TARA SIEGEL BERNARD

“Lenders have every right to ascertain the incomes of families to determine whether they are eligible for a mortgage loan, but they have no right to use a pregnancy or a short-term disability as a cause to deny that family a mortgage they would otherwise qualify for,” Shaun Donovan, the agency’s secretary, said in a statement late Wednesday.

The move comes after an article in The New York Times on Tuesday, which reported that lenders were taking a harder look at prospective borrowers, like parents of new babies, whose income has temporarily fallen.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two mortgage financing giants, have always required that borrowers have enough income to pay for the loan on closing day and that lenders document that the income is likely to continue for at least three years.

But since disability payments typically do not continue for that long, some lenders will not count it as qualifying income, several mortgage brokers have said. Some lenders may require new mothers, or others on short-term disability, to reapply for the mortgage once they return to work.

“Denying a mortgage to people just because they’re having a baby is flat wrong,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said in the statement.

If a borrower is on leave at the time of closing, the housing agency said that “lenders must document the borrower’s intent to return to work, that the borrower has the right to return to work, and that the borrower qualifies for the loan taking into account any reduction of income due to their leave.”

The department said it was also reviewing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s underwriting guidelines to ensure that they do not violate the Fair Housing Act

The NYTimes ran an article about how the tides have turned in favor of buyers....and they are getting picky with their new found power!

Before the recession, people simply looked for a house to buy. Later they got squeamish just thinking about buying. Now they are on a quest for perfection at the perfect price.

George Frey/Bloomberg News

A house being built in St. George, Utah. Home construction fell more than 17 percent in May compared with April.

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Exacting buyers are upending the battered real estate market, agents and other experts say, leading to last-minute demands for multiple concessions, bruised feelings on all sides and many more collapsed deals than usual.

Read the full article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/business/economy/17slump.html

Harlem's Wild Olive Market on 125th Street just east of Fifth Avenue is open. My wife and I walked over to the new market after brunch at Cafe Latte on Lenox Avenue. (love the spicy black bean burger!) The market has a really nice selection and is clean and well priced. It has the feel of of a gourmet market and many of its items are organic.

Those that argue that gentrification is bad for Harlem will have a tough time denying the merits of new additions like Wild Olive Market and Best Yet Market on 8th Avenue; two new markets that bring fresh produce and healthy choices to the Harlem community, and both offer reasonable prices to boot!

The new restaurant on Frederick Douglass and 120th Street in Harlem, named Chocolat, is getting closer to opening. It is owned by the same folks who have Mocha across the street close to 118th Street. Many new and good choices coming to Harlem!

FHA Mortgages in New York City City have become very popular with new condo developments.  Many of my deals this spring are a direct result of FHA. My clients have good credit and income, but they are short on downpayment.  FHA allows buyers to put down as little as 3.5% to purchase a new condo or home.

The New York Time published an article about FHA demand picking up in New York City, especially for condos. Would you feel comfortable buying a home with 3.5% down?  Let me know.

New York Times

By ELIZABETH A. HARRIS

THE government program that allows qualified people to buy homes with very little money down is gaining traction in New York.

The loans, offered through the Federal Housing Administration and available since 1934, provided 1 percent of the home loans in the region in 2007, but the number jumped to around 18 percent in 2009.

As credit tightened, developers also got on board when they realized their new apartments weren’t selling.

“When we started the process, nobody was familiar with F.H.A.,” said David Behin, an executive vice president of the Developers Group, whose recent projects include the Edge condominiums in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “And to be frank, I wasn’t that familiar with it either. But we had problems with our buyers’ being able to get loans. The world was in flux, and new development faced its own special set of problems.”

Mortgage brokers, he said, suggested the F.H.A.

The agency does not actually make loans but insures them. The mortgages can then be given to people with scant credit history — like young first-time buyers — or even tarnished credit, and the down payments can be as low as 3.5 percent. The F.H.A. vets buyers to determine whether they’ll be able to pay the loan back.

“F.H.A. has stuck to the basics through the years,” said Vicki Bott, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. “We always documented income, we always evaluated credit. We want to be sure that the underserved market can still obtain a home, as long as they can make the payments.”

According to Ms. Bott, the F.H.A’s goals are threefold: to serve underserved markets, to give the housing market a boost when loans are hard to come by, and to protect itself to make sure it can keep doing business.

In the national market, “F.H.A. has always played a countercyclical role,” Ms. Bott said. According to HUD data, the percentage of F.H.A. loans in the mortgage market fell to just below 5 percent in 2005 and 2006. “Now it’s grown to 30-plus percent as capital has withdrawn from the market,” Ms. Bott said.

To qualify for an F.H.A. loan, the home as well as the buyer must be approved. If the home is in a condominium building, the entire structure must be submitted as a whole. (The F.H.A. does not insure loans made in co-op buildings.)

During the credit boom, developers did not often see the need to submit to the application process — and even now, condo boards can be tough to convince.

Another quirk that helped minimize F.H.A’s presence in the New York City market was price. Until 2008, the maximum loan amount for F.H.A. financing was $362,790, far lower than the price of most apartments.

But two years ago, as the government tried to prop up the sputtering housing market, the limit in expensive areas like New York shot up to $729,750.

Suddenly, apartments in buildings with lap pools and gyms could qualify. Trendy complexes like the Toren in downtown Brooklyn and the Edge in Williamsburg started publicizing their F.H.A.-approved status. And companies like National Condo Advisors have sprung up to help developers and boards navigate the paperwork.

And as the loans have become more prevalent, the stigma that once trailed the F.H.A. has begun to melt away.

“I think some buyers might have thought it was only for people who couldn’t obtain regular financing when credit was easier,” said Stephen G. Kliegerman, the executive director of development marketing at Halstead Property. “But that’s really not the truth. It’s an alternative for anyone who wants a lower cash-down alternative.”

Meanwhile, as the F.H.A has taken on a bigger role in the mortgage industry, it has seen its default rate rise and its reserve fall below levels mandated by Congress. And its responsibilities are about to increase. Later this year, some homeowners whose houses are worth less than their mortgages can begin the process of refinancing through F.H.A. loans as part of the Obama administration’s effort to deal with the foreclosure crisis.

Some on Capitol Hill have expressed concern. Last year, Representative Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican, introduced legislation that would have raised the minimum F.H.A. down payment to 5 percent. H.U.D. itself has decided to raise the down payment to 10 percent for buyers with credit scores below 580.

But according to Ms. Bott, the F.H.A.’s presence in the market is so pronounced that any pullback could hurt housing as a whole.

“F.H.A. is in a tough place,” said Ingrid Gould Ellen, co-director of the New York University Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. “Its role is to provide credit to the market at times when private lenders withdraw because they see it as too risky. On the one hand, we get upset if it isn’t lending enough, but by definition they’re coming in at risky times. It’s a little bit of a Catch-22.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Demand for loans to buy U.S. homes shriveled to a 13-year low last week, following the expiration of federal tax credits, while near-record low mortgage rates stoked refinancing, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

Mortgage purchase applications sank 27.1 percent to the lowest level since May 1997 in the absence of the popular government support, the group said. U.S. housing groped for footing after more than a year of homebuyer tax credits worth up to $8,000 expired on April 30.

Requests for home purchase loans have fallen almost 20 percent over the past month despite low borrowing costs.

"The data continue to suggest that the tax credit pulled sales into April at the expense of the remainder of the spring buying season," Michael Fratantoni, the industry group's vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.

Overall loan requests were down 1.5 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis, in the week ended May 14, cushioned by a 14.5 percent jump in mortgage refinancing applications as home loan rates neared historic lows.

Average 30-year mortgage rates fell 0.13 percentage point last week to 4.83 percent, the lowest since last November, the MBA said. The record low was 4.61 percent in March 2009, based on the group's survey, which has been conducted since 1990.

Refinancing applications jumped to a nine-week high and accounted for about 68 percent of all applications last week. But buyers took a low profile after rushing en masse to take advantage of the tax incentive.

"People that were serious about buying worked very hard and spent a lot of time and effort to find the right house to get in for April 30," when the tax credit expired, said Marc Demetriou, branch manager/mortgage consultant Residential Home Funding Corp. in Bloomingdale, New Jersey.

"You're going to see a trail-off now" in purchase demand, he said.

U.S. borrowers have gotten a hand from Europe, on worry that roughly $1 trillion in emergency funding might not be enough to stabilize euro zone debt markets. Investors have fled for the safest securities, slicing the U.S. Treasury yields that are used as a peg for mortgage rates.

Low borrowing costs and stabilizing home prices are being offset by near double-digit U.S. unemployment and a looming supply of foreclosed properties yet to hit the market. The worst of the housing crisis is over but recovery will be long and slow, most economists agree.

With the tax credits gone, home shoppers will take more time to find the right property, said Demetriou. "Unemployment is definitely still an issue and inventory is still an issue, but it's definitely a buyer's market."

(Editing by Leslie Adler)