Hollander and Company

NYC Coop Sales Price Now Public Information

Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:23:01 GMT

It's an old axiom that, despite increasing numbers of condos, coops still account for around 80% of NYC's apartment inventory. Yet, until recently, the sales figures were shrowded in mystery. No more. A recently passed law allows access to these figures through use of the City's ACRIS system. While the link may not be up for long, you can find a pdf guide to how the system works at NYC.gov/html/dof/html/jump/acris.shtm.

Noah's Ark 2006

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 14:15:38 GMT

In the year 2006, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United States, and said, "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a Few good humans." He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, "You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights." Six months later, the Lord looked down and...

Commercial Rent Prices Up - Square Footage Down?

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 13:02:13 GMT

A recent article in Business Week suggests that the open space model of the dot com era may, actually be a paradigm to enable businesses to reduce one of their largest expenses, namely, commercial office rent. Yet, the position of the author is hardly universally shared, eliciting a number of rejections and criticisms in the posted comments following the article. From my own experience, there is no doubt that, technologically, more and more things can be done in more and more places....

Bubble Metrics

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:59:19 GMT

I came across a very interesting website, that of the Center for Economic Policy Research, an organization that's done alot of looking into the housing bubble issue and that has alot of articles that you'll find interesting and informative. What's really noteworthy, though, is a unique bubble calculator that seeks to measure whether you'd be better off renting or buying by plugging in the price, mortgage terms, location and projected hold time into the fields, which then takes into...

Expected Report of Year Over Year 2nd Qtr Condo Price Declines

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 13:48:52 GMT

Today's NY Sun reports that an expected industry report on condo prices will show softening on a year over year basis for the second quarter. As the article recites, industry analysts opine on whether they foresee a repeat of the coop collapse of the late 1980's when oversupply combined with softening demand and tax reform to cause a sharp drop in prices. Some, according to the article, feel the City's overall healthy economy will prevent this recurrence in the case of...

New York's Highest Court Upholds Ban on Gay Marriage

Fri, 07 Jul 2006 12:21:28 GMT

In a decision that, in the short term, is bound to have wide ranging repercussions, the New York State Court of Appeals, the State's highest Court, rejected the constitutional claims of a "right" to marry. As the Court opined in a 4-2 ruling: "We conclude . . . that there are at least two grounds that rationally support the limitation on marriage that the Legislature has enacted . . . First, the Legislature could rationally decide that, for the welfare of children, it...

Copyright Filing Fee Increase

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 17:13:55 GMT

The below link announces changes to the fee structure for copyright registration at the U.S. Copyright Office. http://www.copyright.gov/reports/fees2006.html

Confessions of an Identity Thief

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 13:06:03 GMT

Today's NY Times has an interesting interview with a captured identity thief, barely out of his teens, who is estimated to have stolen as much as $150,000 through identity theft. Seeing the ease with which he did it is a real eye opener. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/us/04identity.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all

Microsoft Spyware?

Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:53:12 GMT

For those of you too lazy or scared to sign up for automatic Windows updates, you may have had a point all along. Two separate lawsuits recently challened Microsoft's automatic download of its Windows Genuine Advantage applet, as a "high priority" download. The first suit, the Complaint for which can be found at...

New Hollander article on Legal Risks of Blogs

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 21:18:01 GMT

I've posted a new article on the website relating to the legal risks of publishing blogs. You can check it out at http://www.hollanderco.com/articles/blog-intro.php