Why They Call It Morningside

What's in a name?

The area that is now Morningside park was described as "inconvenient for use" by a city surveyor in 1867, meaning difficult to build property on, so it was made into a park, which was called "Morning-side park" because its east facing slope catches the morning sun. The neighborhood that developed around the park became Morningside Heights.

For many years, the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, tried to get people to call the area Cathedral Heights, but was unsuccessful. The Cathedral, built before the impact of skyscrapers was intended to tower over the city. It does not, but West 110th Street is called Cathedral Parkway.

Morningside Heights Listings

No 7 Subway Extension to Hudson Yards

Mayor Bloomberg, City Council Speaker Quinn (Photo Credit: Edward Reed)

City officials announced the completion of the tunnel mining for the extension of the Number 7 subway from 42nd Street and 7th Avenue at Times Square to 34th Street and 11th Avenue in the Hudson Yards area in Midtown West Manhattan. 

The $2.1 billion project, funded by the City and managed by the MTA, is the first subway expansion in decades, creating nearly 500 construction jobs.

Work will soon begin on station entrances and finishes and support facilities such as ventilation and traction power substations. The new service is expected to open in December 2013 as scheduled.

The West Side Yards site is the largest undeveloped single piece of property in Manhattan. The mixed-use master-planned community will be developed by Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group and includes 12 million square feet of commercial and residential development featuring state-of-the-art sustainable design.

The master plan features approximately 5,000 affordable and market-rate residences in nine residential buildings, three world-class corporate headquarters sites, a major destination retail complex including an anchor department store, a 300 room five star and 1,000 room convention hotel, multiple cultural facilities, and a new 750-seat public school, all carefully planned around 12 acres of grand public open space. 

Manhattan Monthly Market Snapshot - June 2010

Below is Manhattan Real Estate Market Data for June 2010. Click to view in larger format.

Manhattan 2nd Quarter Corcoran Report Released

The Second Quarter Corcoran Report has been released. The report is a quarterly examination of Manhattan's residential real estate market.

The report utilizes market wide data based on deals that closed in the Second Quarter 2010 (April 1 through June 30) and compares it to closings that took place last quarter and during the same quarter one year ago.

Closings usually occur eight to twelve weeks after a contract is signed (in new development, the wait can be as long as two years); for that reason, the sales activity charted here trails actual market conditions.

The Second Quarter is typically the strongest sales period of the year. The Second Quarter 2010 brought a flurry of buyers back to the residential real estate market in Manhattan.

Approximately forty-seven percent more transactions occurred during Second Quarter 2010 than in the same quarter one year ago, making this the strongest quarter since before the market’s downturn in September 2008.

A variety of factors encouraged buyers this quarter: stabilized prices, lower inventory levels, interest rates at historic lows, increased consumer confidence, a strong lending environment with greater availability of jumbo loan financing, and the completion of many new developments.

Pricing this quarter showed further signs of stability. Market wide, the median price of all Second Quarter 2010 sales was $810,000 with an average of $1,040 per square foot. Overall, these metrics remained at levels nearly equivalent to the Second Quarter 2009 and the First Quarter 2010.

The the role of the first-time home buyer tax credit has been marginal to Manhattan sales, and that the strength of our market is attributable to other factors. New development regained some market share this quarter and accounted for twenty percent of all sales.

download the complete 2nd Quarter Corcoran Report