1) Late socialite Brooke Astor's legendary duplex at 778 Park Avenue has been slashed a whopping $12 million, to a new asking price of $34 million. It's only been listed since the spring, so why the massive drop? Corcoran broker Leighton Candler explains that it's a "double discount." The estate wants a quick sale, so instead of chopping the price a bit now and again in the spring if the co-op doesn't sell, they just decided on a 2-in-1 PriceChopper—the world's first? [Big Deal/'Astor Co-op: Priced Right to Move?']
2) A Brooklyn couple cash out on their Boerum Hill row house at the height of the market (bought for $380,000 in '97, sold for $2.075 million in '06) and head to suburban New Jersey with their new adopted baby in tow. But they hate the suburbs, so they sell their house at a loss and eye a return to Brooklyn, but the houses are crappy and overpriced...except for one. [The Hunt/'Happy to Be Back in Brooklyn']
3) Back in the day, artists moved into lofts because they needed huge cheap spaces and because no one else wanted them, due to spotty services and questionable legality. Today, loft-livers are all too quick to call on the super when an apartment springs a leak. Or something like that. We're pretty sure the only purpose of this story is to find yet another way to cover Bushwick's hipsteriffic McKibbin Lofts. ['The Primal Loft']
4) Hal Wilkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens, would really rather not have commercial wind turbines placed anywhere near his 70-acre estate in the Catskills, and if he has to fight for the rights of every weekend homeowner in New York State in the process, then so be it. [Big Deal/'Weekenders Win a Round']
5) Manhattan has entered the Dark Ages: "Gone are the days when cheap electricity, primitive lighting technology and landlords’ desire to showcase their skyscrapers kept floor after floor of the city’s highest towers glowing into the night. Now, rising energy costs, conservationism, stricter building codes and sophisticated lighting systems have conspired to slowly, often imperceptibly, transform Manhattan’s venerable nightscape into one with a gentler glow." ['Efficiency’s Mark: City Glitters a Little Less']
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