Articles from The Roebling Report.
Manhattan real estate analysis, market commentary, and deep-dive coverage of taxes, transactions, buildings, and policy. Published regularly by Corey Cohen.
Can Your Neighbors Decide to Sell Your Home?
At the Pierre, a $2 billion sale needed two-thirds of the co-op's shares and would have moved every resident out; it collapsed with at least $182 million in repairs still to fund. At Biscayne 21 in Miami, holdouts defended a unanimity rule in court, then sold after nearly three years out of their homes. Four questions to answer before calling an apartment in an older building a bargain.
$21,300 or $97,700: The Property Tax on the Same $3 Million House
Across 52 suburban and second-home towns NYC buyers weigh against an apartment, the estimated property tax on a $3 million house runs from $21,300 a year in Greenwich to $97,700 in Edgemont. Fourteen of the 16 highest bills are in Westchester; Connecticut and Bergen County estate towns carry the lowest; Boca Raton and Delray Beach land mid-pack even with a homestead exemption. In New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, the buyer inherits the seller’s bill.
Same Apartment, Two Values
Across ten Manhattan luxury condominiums, the pied-à-terre surcharge costs a median of 1.18 months of rent — 9.8% of a year's gross — and at one Upper West Side apartment it runs to 5.45 months. The charge turns on who lives there on January 5, which makes the tenant's residency a term of the lease and a question at every renewal and resale.
How One Tower Shaped Central Park's Quarter
The Central Park market recorded 137 apartment sales totaling $672 million in the second quarter — and seven sponsor closings at 50 West 66th Street produced $137 million of it, one-fifth of the dollar volume from a single building. Beneath that concentration, four corridors traded on very different terms, and three of the quarter's largest resales ran in three different directions.
A Judge Paused the Pied-à-Terre Tax — for About a Day
A Staten Island judge halted the city's pied-à-terre surcharge rollout on August 10 — then the city appealed and the pause itself went on hold. The case attacks the rollout (a 900,000-property public roll, and a burden of proof shifted onto owners), not the tax. What it changes for owners before the August 31 hearing: less than the headlines suggest.
Why Dumbo Got a Private Golf Club
Gowanus Golf Club has leased about 6,000 square feet at 215 Water Street in Dumbo for its third Brooklyn club — a deal I represented on both sides as principal of The Roebling Team at Compass. Why there? A private, membership-driven club needs density across the whole day, and Dumbo now has both a luxury residential base and one of Brooklyn's densest daytime workforces.
At the $5 Million Line
Manhattan's sales mix moved upmarket just as the pied-à-terre tax took effect — and $5 million became the line the market now organizes around. Above it: roughly 8% of deals, but about a third of the dollars.
When Prestige Depreciates
Of 128 trophy-corridor apartments bought on Park, Fifth, and Central Park West in 2015–2019 and resold in 2025–2026, 47% sold below cost and 81% failed to keep pace with inflation — a median real decline of 22%. Drawn from a broader review of 2,735 verified same-unit resales, the pattern is clear: best-known is not best store of value.
What the Pied-à-Terre Tax Does to Manhattan Prices
Four structural effects on aggregate Manhattan pricing from the enacted surcharge — including a Phase 2 cliff at trophy buildings the early reporting hasn't flagged.
Building profiles, closing comps, and the editorial frame on Manhattan luxury residential.
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