Thursday, October 28, 2010

Another Condo Auction. This Time Waterfront Square.



Waterfront Square is following in the footsteps of the Murano and The Pheonix with a November 21st auction of 35 units.  The Inquirer explores possible causes for the auction in today's article.  The units in this building fell victim to the economic crisis when one of the buildings investors, Lehman Brothers, went belly up in 2008.  The first two buildings in the development had sold out quickly and successfully prior to that.  The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that Sugar House was not a factor in deciding to auction the units.  The owners interviewed for the story seem happy with their views of the new casino, although I am a little suspect that a view of 30,000 parking spots can be a good thing.

The starting bids range from $195,000, for a one bedroom, to the upper 400,000's for a 2 bed plus den.  According to public records, a one bedroom unit sold for $194,500 in June, making the auction starting bid not really a steal.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Delaware Waterfront


Photo: philly.com

Photo: philly.com

The blogs and city planning websites are a buzz with the announcement that the master plan for the Delaware riverfront is nearing completion.  Brownstoner is doing an entire day of coverage on the new plan.  Plan Philly has posted video and a powerpoint presentation on the plan.  Philadelphia Inquirer's Inga Saffron published a lengthy column expressing her opinions of the new plan.  With the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation holding the meeting only last night I am sure some sleep was lost in publishing all of this coverage.  I got a good night's sleep and don't pretend to be as knowledgable as the afore mentioned people, so I will merely provide the links and pictures.  The excitement is certainly not unwarranted.  If our riverfront development can experience just a fraction of the success of cities like Baltimore, it will be fantastic for Philadelphia. 


photo: phillybrownstoner.com

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

New Restaurant Opening on Front Street in Queen Village


photo: philly.com


The Insider reports a NYC chef is opening The Village Belle in the building formerly occupied by Frederick's.  The picture is actually of the women's bathroom door.  They have blown up vintage pictures in place of the typical bathroom labels.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Basics of the Foreclosure Freeze

Trulia's Tara Nelson outlines the basics of the foreclosure freeze in her most recent blog post.


Post's main points:


1.  What is robo-signing is, and what all the fuss is about?  The phrase robo-signing refers to what we’re now realizing has been a very common practice in the banks’ foreclosure document processing divisions, where one person was essentially given the job of signing as many 10,000 foreclosure documents per month, by hand.   

2.  Will the freeze will make the banks cancel buyer contracts on REO properties? 
Currently, the freeze impacts bank-owned properties that are owned and/or serviced by Ally Financial/GMAC Mortgage, JP Morgan Chase, and some properties that were owned by Bank of America. Generally, contracts to buy these homes are being put on hold and extended for 30 days.  

3.  Is it safe to buy a foreclosed home? There's lots of talk right now about the "clouds" that this scandal will create on the titles to homes that were foreclosed by the banks' foreclosure mills. And that makes sense: if the home wasn't properly foreclosed on in the first place, then the legitimacy of the bank's resale can be called into question.

4.  How the foreclosure freeze will impact American home values, say after you buy.
  In the short term, these freezes might cause prices to stabilize, as we expect to see the supply of foreclosures for sale start to shrink.  However, if these freezes stretch out for a long period of time, they could simply be delaying many inevitable foreclosures, which could delay the recovery of the housing market and home prices, over time. 


CBS Money discusses the "winners and losers" of the foreclosure freeze in the video below.  







The silver lining is that it gives people more time to save their houses.  The fastest way to restoring home values would be some sort of solution that keeps more foreclosures from hitting the books.

Friday, October 8, 2010

19th Century rural retreats in Northeast Philly

Architect Frank Furness' mix of styles and details fit together at Knowlton.  Burholme sits atop a hill at 7370 Central Ave.
I love the "Look Up" pieces Plan Philly posts.  "Look Up" features slide shows of buildings in different areas of the city.  The most recent series features some beautiful Northeast Philly buildings.  Enjoy!

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Philly Street Art








Walking the streets of Philly it is easy to see there is an active street art scene.  I recently found a flicker group which compiles images of the found art.  The images bring up the debate over what is vandalism and what is art.  I am not well versed in the debate and would love to hear others' thoughts.  Below are some of the images that caught my eye.  Check out Philly Street Art for more.  

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

$12 Million for a Parking Lot


Ever wonder how much it would cost to buy a parking lot at 15th and Chestnut?  If so, just ask Brook Lenfest.  According to the Inquirer, an auction for the lot at 1441 Chestnut only lasted ten minutes on Tuesday and the winning bid was $12,000,000.  The Parking lot currently earns over $600,000 a month, but the spot is zoned for around 800,000 square feet of retail/residentail space.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Nominate an Endangered Philly Property

Photo: fieldnotesphilly.wordpress.com

As a transplant from the midwest where a building built in the early 1900's is considered old, I really appreciate the historical buildings Philly has to offer.  Walking the streets of Philly, it is easy to find beautiful abandoned buildings.  If you know of a building you think should be restored to its former beauty, there is a process in place for saving it.  The Preservation Alliance website has application information for nominating a building for the endangered properties list. 

Friday, October 1, 2010

Who Is Crocheting Philadelphia?

Photo: Crochet Quevara

It is difficult to walk the streets of Philadelphia without seeing yarn cozys on lightposts, bike racks, etc.  Everytime I see the bright colored street art I wonder who is behind it.  Brownstoner recently put in the googling time to find the artist.  A blog called Crochet Quevara documents the artist's work and according to Brownstoner, some digging through the site gives you an artist street name of "Slipstitch."