Homeownership Slips Into Unaffordable Territory Across Majority of U.S. in Q4 '20

 ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of the nation’s premier property database and first property data provider of Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), today released its fourth-quarter 2020 U.S. Home Affordability Report, showing that median home prices of single-family homes and condos in the fourth quarter of 2020 were less affordable than historical averages in 55 percent of counties with enough data to analyze, up from 43 percent a year ago and 33 percent three years ago. Yet rising wages and falling mortgage rates still helped keep median home prices close to affordable for average wage earners across the country.

The report determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed to make monthly house payments — including mortgage, property taxes and insurance — on a median-priced home, assuming a $100,000 loan and a 28 percent maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio. That required income was then compared to annualized average weekly wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see full methodology below, which has changed from earlier reports to account for higher down payments and two-worker households).

Compared to historical levels, 275 of the 499 counties analyzed in the fourth quarter of 2020, or 55 percent, were less affordable than past averages, up from 217 of the same group of counties in the fourth quarter of 2019 and 164 in the fourth quarter of 2017. The fallback came as continued spikes in median home prices of at least 10 percent over the past year in most of the country outpaced the impact of increasing wages and declining mortgage rates to historic lows. Those price increases occurred as the U.S. housing market kept booming despite economic troubles related to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

With prices rising faster than earnings, major home-ownership expenses consumed 29.6 percent of the average wage across the nation during the fourth quarter of 2020. That figure was up from 26.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2019 and was above the 28 percent benchmark lenders prefer for how much homeowners should spend on those major expenses – mortgage payments, insurance and property taxes. Those costs exceeded the benchmark in 59 percent of the counties included in the fourth-quarter 2020 report.

“Owning a home in the United States slipped into the unaffordable zone for average workers across the nation in the fourth quarter as the numbers continued a year-long slide in the wrong direction. The latest housing market data shows the average worker unable to meet the 28 percent affordability guideline used by lenders,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions. “That’s happened as home prices have continued rising throughout 2020 and the housing market has remained remarkably resilient in the face of the brutal economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic. The future remains wholly uncertain and affordability could swing back into positive territory. But for now, things are going in the wrong direction for buyers.”

Among the 499 counties in the report, 203 (41 percent) had major home-ownership expenses on typical homes in the fourth quarter that were affordable for average local wage earners. The largest of those counties, based on the 28-percent guideline, were Cook County (Chicago), IL; Harris County (Houston), TX; Philadelphia County, PA; Hillsborough County (Tampa), FL and Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH.

The most populous of the 296 counties with unaffordable major expenses on median-priced homes for average earners in the fourth quarter of 2020 (53 percent of the counties analyzed) were Los Angeles County, CA; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ; San Diego County, CA; Orange County, (outside Los Angeles), CA, and Miami-Dade County, FL.

Home prices up at least 10 percent in more than three quarters of country

Median home prices in the fourth quarter of 2020 were up by at least 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2019 in 395, or 79 percent, of the 499 counties included in the report. Counties were included if they had a population of at least 100,000 and at least 50 single-family home and condo sales in the fourth quarter of 2020.

Among the 41 counties with a population of at least 1 million, the biggest year-over-year gains in median prices during the fourth quarter of 2020 were in Cook County (Chicago), IL (up 32 percent); Philadelphia County, PA (up 22 percent); Fulton County (Atlanta), GA (up 22 percent); Travis County (Austin), TX (up 20 percent) and Contra Costa County, CA (outside San Francisco) (up 19 percent).

Counties with a population of at least 1 million that had the smallest increases (or price declines) in the fourth quarter were Middlesex County, MA (outside Boston) (down 9 percent); New York County (Manhattan), NY (down 3 percent); Fairfax County, VA (outside Washington, DC) (up 3 percent); Queens County, NY (up 8 percent) and Montgomery County, MD (outside Washington, DC) (up 8 percent).

Price appreciation up more than wage growth in over 90 percent of markets

Home price appreciation outpaced average weekly wage growth in the fourth quarter of 2020 in 460 of the 499 counties analyzed in the report (92 percent), with the largest counties including Los Angeles County, CA; Cook County (Chicago), IL; Harris County (Houston), TX; Maricopa County (Phoenix), AZ, and San Diego County, CA.

Average annualized wage growth outpaced home price appreciation in the fourth quarter of 2020 in only 39 of the 499 counties in the report (8 percent), including New York County (Manhattan), NY; Middlesex County, MA (outside Boston); Fairfax County, VA (outside Washington, DC); Honolulu County, HI, and Hidalgo County (McAllen), TX.

Average wages needed to afford median-priced home exceed $75,000 in a quarter of markets

Annual wages of more than $75,000 were needed in the fourth quarter of 2020 to afford the typical home in 124, or 25 percent, of the 499 markets in the report.

The highest annual wages required to afford the typical home were in San Mateo County (outside San Francisco), CA ($282,117); New York County (Manhattan), NY ($297,010); San Francisco County, CA ($277,757); Marin County (outside San Francisco), CA ($270,893) and Santa Clara County (San Jose), CA ($250,700).

The lowest annual wages required to afford a median-priced home in the fourth quarter of 2020 were in Bibb County (Macon), GA ($19,188); St. Lawrence County, NY (north of Syracuse) ($23,742); Trumbull County, OH (outside Youngstown) ($24,023); Calhoun County, AL (east of Birmingham) ($24,151) and Allen County (Lima), OH ($24,285).

Majority of housing markets less affordable than historic averages

Among the 499 counties analyzed in the report, 275 (55 percent) were less affordable in the fourth quarter of 2020 than their historic affordability averages, up from 43 percent of the same group of counties in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Counties with at least 1 million people that were less affordable than their historic averages (indexes below 100 are considered less affordable compared to their historic averages) included Dallas County, TX (index of 83); Travis County (Austin), TX (84); Tarrant County (Fort Worth), TX (85); Oakland County, MI (outside Detroit) (85) and Philadelphia County, PA (86).

Among counties with at least 1 million people, those where the affordability indexes declined the most from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 were Cook County (Chicago), IL (index down 16 percent); Philadelphia County, PA (down 9 percent); Fulton County (Atlanta), GA (down 8 percent); Travis County (Austin), TX (down 7 percent) and Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH (down 7 percent).

Number of markets more affordable than historic averages declines

Among the 499 counties in the report, 224 (45 percent) were more affordable than their historic affordability averages in the fourth quarter of 2020, down from 57 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.

Counties with a population greater than 1 million that were more affordable than their historic averages (indexes of more than 100 are considered more affordable compared to their historic averages) include Middlesex County, MA (outside Boston) (index of 138); New York County (Manhattan), NY (130); Montgomery County, MD (outside Washington, D.C.) (121); Fairfax County, VA (outside Washington, D.C.) (117) and King County (Seattle), WA (107).

Counties with the best affordability indexes in the fourth quarter of 2020 were Richmond County (Staten Island), NY (index of 143); Bristol County, MA (outside Providence, RI) (142); Onslow County (Jacksonville), NC (141) and Middlesex County, MA (outside Boston) (138).

The largest improvements in affordability indexes from the fourth quarter of 2019 to the fourth quarter of 2020 were in Richmond County (Staten Island), NY (up 35 percent); Terrebonne Parish (Houma), LA (up 29 percent); Middlesex County, MA (outside Boston) (up 23 percent); Essex County, MA (outside Boston) (up 18 percent) and New York County (Manhattan), NY (up 17 percent).

Report Methodology

The ATTOM Data Solutions U.S. Home Affordability Index analyzes median home prices derived from publicly recorded sales deed data collected by ATTOM Data Solutions and average wage data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in 499 U.S. counties with a combined population of 232.4 million. The affordability index is based on the percentage of average wages needed to pay for major expenses on a median-priced home with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage and a $100,000 loan. Those expenses include property taxes, home insurance, mortgage payments and mortgage insurance. Average 30-year fixed interest rates from the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey were used to calculate the monthly house payments.

The report determined affordability for average wage earners by calculating the amount of income needed for major home ownership expenses on a median-priced home, assuming a $100,000 loan and a 28 percent maximum “front-end” debt-to-income ratio. For instance, the nationwide median home price of $297,200 in the fourth quarter of 2020 required an annual gross income of $64,447, based on a $100,000 loan and monthly expenses not exceeding the 28 percent barrier — meaning households would not be spending more than 28 percent of their income on mortgage payments, property taxes and insurance. That required income is more than the $64,447 average wage nationwide based on the most recent average weekly wage data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, making a median-priced home nationwide unaffordable for an average household with two wage earners.

https://www.attomdata.com/news/market-trends/home-sales-prices/attom-data-solutions-q4-2020-u-s-home-affordability-report

Sky's the limit for new Moynihan Train Hall at Penn Station

The new Moynihan Train Hall, unveiled on Wednesday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is a sight to behold — a monumentally scaled waiting room for Amtrak and LIRR riders who might blink twice. Crowned with an eye-popping, 92-foot-high skylight, it’s a vision from heaven for passengers inured to the underground Penn Station that’s the Western world’s most hated place to catch a train. 

The Hall, an airy doughnut hole inside the James A. Farley Post Office building, is the centerpiece of a larger, $1.6 billion planned complex inside the Farley building between Eighth and Ninth avenues and West 31st and 33rd streets. It will eventually include a gaggle of entrances, passageways between the avenues, subway links, waiting areas, lounges, stores and restaurants. The Hall and Penn Station one block east, together called the Pennsylvania Station-Farley Complex, will have 50 percent more concourse space than the Penn portion alone. 

It comes after three decades of ever-changing plans since the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the 1980s first dreamed of a magnificent replacement for the original Penn Station, which was disgracefully demolished in the 1960s. Cuomo deserves credit for kick-starting it and seeing through construction this year, despite COVID-19. 

The Train Hall, which opens Friday, is supposed to reduce rats-nest congestion at the detested Penn Station beneath Madison Square Garden, where 650,000 souls squeeze into a space built in the 1960s for just 250,000. LIRR riders may now board and exit trains at either facility while Amtrak users will use only the new Train Hall. 

How well it works has yet to be seen until the first, pandemic-thinned crush of riders descends next week. But the Hall’s mighty roof is sure to be a hit with the public. 

The Hall at first sight looks smaller than renderings suggested. It’s also relatively mundane, despite lots of expensive marble and wood — except for the great ceiling. 

Three monumental steel trusses, remnants of the post office’s mail-sorting room, divide the roof’s acre of glass into four “parabolic” vaults, each comprising 500 glass and steel panels with a web-like design. 

It lets in more light than the skylight roofs at the World Trade Center Oculus and the Fulton Transit Center. It’s ravishing when the sun comes out and imparts a golden glow to the entire Hall. 

But the Hall’s unfinished appendages are a confusing maze of escalators, stairs, lounges and corridors. It’s hard to find the quickest way to Eighth Avenue, despite a sea of signs. If the old Penn Station held “the sound of time,” as worshipful writers called it, the Moynihan might hold the sounds of people trying to figure out which way is up. 

Project architects SOM and politicians do the Moynihan a disservice by constantly likening it to the impossible-to-replicate original Penn Station. Sorry, guys, it isn’t even close, despite a superficial resemblance. The Moynihan Hall should be enjoyed for what it is — less than a masterpiece, but a fine example of “adaptive re-use” architecture and a huge improvement over the Penn Station we all love to hate.

https://nypost.com/2020/12/30/skys-the-limit-for-new-moynihan-train-hall-at-penn-station/

Vaccines for office workers are struggling landlords’ best shot

 Landlords are praying that the launch of COVID-19 vaccines will finally send more employees back to their desks after the turn of the year. But there’s little movement so far, and some big tenants have hit the pause button on previously planned returns as they await the vaccines’ full-scale rollout.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently said it “seems likely” that most staff won’t be back before June. That return date, if it holds up, would actually please landlords, who’ve seen company after company balk at calling employees back to their desks — among them, Google, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.

The city’s 440 million square feet of office towers remain stubbornly near-empty 10 months after the pandemic started here, according to market tracker Kastle Systems’ closely followed Back to Work Barometer.

Most real-estate insiders agree with work-from-home skeptic Ruth Colp-Haber, a Wharton Property Advisors principal, that “self-isolation is a dead end and human beings need to gather together.” Yet New York metro-area occupancy dipped to 12 percent the week before Christmas, Kastle reported, compared with a weekly average between 14 and 17 percent in previous weeks.

Work-from-home hasn’t yet sunk any landlords, as most tenants continue to make lease payments. But if WFH lasts indefinitely, it would be a calamity — and not just for New York.

One industry insider unwilling to be named said, “Take it to the extreme. Not just Manhattan but cities around the world turn into white-elephant ghost towns. What happens to all those buildings which prop up whole economies?”

The vast majority of landlords, brokers and analysts dismiss such a worst-case scenario. But with each passing month, the near-empty state of Midtown, Midtown South and downtown ratchets up the tension.

On the reassuring side, real-estate research and consulting firm CREtech reports that nearly 60 percent of US employees expect to return to their offices, at least part-time, by the end of the first quarter.

Less comforting, a Fortune survey found that one-third of all employees would prefer never to go back to their desks. The wish to work from home permanently was most pronounced among older workers ages 55 to 64.

The snail’s-pace return has exasperated major landlords.

SL Green CEO Marc Holliday said in a third-quarter earnings call that “80 percent, 85 percent of the people that work in office buildings are still home, and that’s frustrating.”
CBRE Chief Executive Bob Sulentic said on CNBC that the vaccine launch will be “crucial” and lead to “much more activity” in office buildings by mid-2021.

Landlords attribute the slow return pace partly to employees’ fear of contracting the virus on mass transit and lack of amenities that are a main reason why people enjoy working in dense commercial districts. Theaters are dark and restaurants are closed for indoor service.

They also blame chief executives for not pushing their staffs hard enough to reclaim their offices.

“The CEOs themselves are willing to go back, and many have,” one executive of a privately held property firm told The Post. “But they’re leery of getting sued if someone catches COVID-19. They say they want to bring their teams back, but they don’t do enough to make it happen,” he said.

“Meanwhile, every month they stay home further cements the idea of working at home.”
Colp-Haber wrote in a newsletter, “The decision on when and how to return to the office will be made by senior management, not the rank-and-file employees.”

She added, “Smart landlords will play their part with more flexible lease terms, pandemic-protection clauses and lower rents.”

https://nypost.com/2020/12/27/landlords-need-vaccines-to-get-employees-back-to-offices/

Bezos, Katzenberg, Geffen led 2020's Biggest Real Estate Deals

 Many U.S. billionaires got richer during the pandemic, thanks in part to the recovery of global stock markets. It's perhaps unsurprising then that, while individual markets were impacted to dramatically different degrees, the ultra-high end of the real-estate market didn't crash in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.

While the New York City market took a gut punch as wealthy Manhattanites fled the city, markets such as the Hamptons, Greenwich, Conn., Palm Beach and Los Angeles boomed. Local realtors attributed that uptick in part to the increasing fortunes of the wealthiest Americans, a desire by the rich to get out of densely populated environments and a rise in the number of people who wanted to upsize to larger homes with space for work-from-home friendly amenities like offices and gyms.

In the third quarter, sales of Manhattan luxury homes -- defined as the top 10% of transactions -- were down by 46.7% compared to the same period in 2019, according to a report by Douglas Elliman. Just 3.6% of transactions followed a bidding war, the lowest level in more than 11 years, the report shows. By contrast, sales of luxury homes in Palm Beach and high-end single family homes in Los Angeles were up by 87.5% and 33.5%, respectively, Elliman's numbers show. In Greenwich, luxury sales were up 68.2%, marking the end to a more-than-decade-long slump in the affluent Connecticut city.

"It's the strongest luxury market in the history of Palm Beach, record prices in every single category" said Danny Hertzberg, a luxury agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in South Florida. "We can barely catch our breath. It's nonstop. Basically everything that was on the market has been sold so we're calling people to ask whether they would consider selling."

Of the top 10 deals closed in 2020 nationwide, two topped $100 million, down from a record six in 2019, according to data from appraiser Jonathan Miller and research by The Wall Street Journal. Five were recorded in California, in the Los Angeles area or in the celebrity-studded Montecito enclave in Santa Barbara County. Two were recorded in Palm Beach, and two in the Hamptons. The one remaining deal, recorded in New York City, was the result of a closing at the new Billionaires' Row mega-tower 220 Central Park South. The deal was not actually signed this year--the nature of the new development market provides that the time from contract to closing can often take years --and does not reflect the current performance of the local market.

Read on for a closer look at the year's biggest deals.

1. The Warner Estate in Los Angeles, Calif. | $165 million

In many ways, Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has been a key figure during the pandemic, as his company's stock price skyrocketed amid increased demand for online shopping. In April, he closed on a deal to buy the Warner Estate, the glamorous 1930s-era mansion designed for the late Warner Bros. president Jack Warner, from David Geffen for $165 million, setting a price record for a Los Angeles home. It was a direct, off-market deal with no agents involved, The Wall Street Journal reported. Neither Mr. Bezos nor Mr. Geffen commented on the deal.

Sitting on 9 acres, the property, located in the Benedict Canyon area, has its own 9-hole golf course, several guest houses, a tennis court and sprawling gardens. "No studio czar's residence, before or since, has ever surpassed in size, grandeur, or sheer glamour the Jack Warner Estate on Angelo Drive in Benedict Canyon," wrote veteran Los Angeles real-estate agent Jeff Hyland in his book, "The Legendary Estates of Beverly Hills."

Jade Mills of Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, who was not involved with the deal, said the gargantuan transaction inspired others to get out their checkbooks. "It helps our market to have those very high sales," she said. "People feel if the billionaires are buying then it's a good time."

2. Jeffrey Katzenberg Estate in Beverly Hills, Calif. | $125 million

In August, entertainment executive Jeffrey Katzenberg sold his Beverly Hills home for $125 million in an off-market deal to Jan Koum, one of the founders of the messaging service WhatsApp, according to people familiar with the deal.

At the time, a spokesman for Mr. Katzenberg said the sale was a move to downsize and that the buyer had submitted an offer that Mr. Katzenberg and his wife Marilyn Katzenberg couldn't refuse. They had bought the site of the property for $35 million in 2009, records show. Mr. Koum could not be reached for comment.

Property records show the home spans about 26,000 square feet, and sits on almost 7 acres. Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency brokered both sides of the transaction.

3. 220 Central Park South #PH76 in New York, N.Y. | $99.9 million

A $99.9 million deal for a penthouse at 220 Central Park South, the new limestone tower designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects on Billionaire's Row, closed in July, more than three years after the contract was initially signed. Together with a smaller unit on a lower floor of the building, which is designated in offering plans as a guest or staff space, the total price came to close to $102 million.

Though less than half the price of a nearly $240 million unit purchased by hedge-fund executive Ken Griffin at the building last year, the transaction was still the third priciest ever completed in Manhattan, according to public records. The identity of the purchaser could not be determined.

The four-bedroom apartment spans about 9,800 square feet, according to marketing materials for the property. Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group led sales at the building, which was developed by Vornado Realty Trust.

The fact that no New York deals that began in 2020 appeared on this year's list is symptomatic of how hard the local market was hit by Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions, which impacted the number of active foreign buyers, according to local agents. However, contract activity began to pick up in the final months of the year, according to a report by Olshan Realty.

"To say the luxury market is thriving would be untrue, but it's decent," said Bess Freedman, chief executive of luxury New York brokerage Brown Harris Stevens. "We've started to get back some momentum."

4. Hamptons Compound in Southampton, N.Y. | $84 million

In March, billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin closed on an $84 million deal to buy a modern Hamptons estate from designer Calvin Klein, according to public records and people familiar with the deal. The property was the latest in a long line of pieces of trophy real estate snapped up by Mr. Griffin across the country in recent years.

The roughly 7-acre property is located on coveted Meadow Lane in Southampton. Mr. Klein commissioned the modern house after buying the property in 2003. The site was previously home to an estate known as Dragon Head, which had a fortress-style design. It was formerly owned by the du Pont family, then by Jane Holzer, better known as the Andy Warhol muse "Baby Jane," The Wall Street Journal reported. Neither Mr. Griffin nor Mr. Klein commented on the deal.

5. Trousdale Estates Duo in Los Angeles, Calif. | $75.5 million

A limited-liability company tied to the family of Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, founder of iPhone assembler Foxconn Technology Group, paid $75.5 million for two neighboring homes in pricey Trousdale Estates area of Los Angeles in January, according to people familiar with the deal. The buyer could combine the properties into one of the largest private compounds in the Hollywood Hills, according to a real estate veteran familiar with the neighborhood.

The first property has six-bedrooms and is 17,000 square feet. It was asking $42.5 million and had finishes by design firm Armani/Casa, according to Zillow. It was developed by a partnership led by developer Farzin Aghaipour, records show.

The second property is a spec home built by Canadian businessman and Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini, The Wall Street Journal reported. The 16,000-square-foot home has an L-shaped infinity pool, a golf simulator and a roof deck.

Neither Mr. Gou nor the developers could be reached for comment.

Branden and Rayni Williams, then of Hilton & Hyland but now with Beverly Hills Estates, represented both sellers in the deals. Kurt Rappaport of Westside Estate Agency represented the family of Mr. Gou as well as the seller of the Armani/Casa house.

6. Waterfront Florida Estate in Palm Beach, Fla. | $71.85 million

Financier and energy entrepreneur Robb E. Turner and his wife, Lydia Turner sold their more than 2-acre lakefront estate on S. Lake Trail in Palm Beach for $71.85 million in June, property records show.

The 1930s-era, Neo-classical property was designed by the late John L. Volk, a prominent architect whose work helped popularize the British Colonial, Georgian, and Bermuda architectural style in South Florida.

The identity of the buyer, who bought through a limited-liability company, could not be determined. The Turners had paid $27 million for the property more than three years earlier, records show. Mr. Turner could not be reached for comment.

7. Kennedy Winter White House in Palm Beach, Fla. | $70 million

A Palm Beach mansion formerly owned by the Kennedy family, and used by President John F. Kennedy as a winter retreat, sold for $70 million in June to a real estate developer, who filed plans to upgrade it.

The seller was the New York real estate billionaire Jane Goldman, who bought the property in 2015 for $31 million, records show. The Kennedys owned the property starting in the 1930s when it was purchased by John F. Kennedy's father, Joseph P. Kennedy, according to the book "The Kennedy Curse: Why Tragedy Has Haunted America's First Family for 150 Years," by Edward Klein. The family sold it in the 1990s, records show.

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https://www.marketscreener.com/business-leaders/Jeff-Bezos-211/news/Jeff-Bezos-Jeffrey-Katzenberg-and-David-Geffen-led-2020-s-Biggest-Real-Estate-Deals--32093147/

9/11 brought Broadway to a standstill — until NYC’s mayor revived it two days later

 Like the coronavirus pandemic, 9/11 brought Broadway to a standstill — until NYC’s mayor took incredible steps to save it. The New York Post’s Broadway columnist MICHAEL RIEDEL recounts the inspiring tale in this excerpt from his upcoming book “Singular Sensation: The Triumph of Broadway.”

The summer of 2001 was a heady time for “The Producers.” The show was sold out for the duration of co-stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick’s contracts. Scalpers had tickets, but the price was now $1,500 and climbing. Producers Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan and Susan Stroman frequently stopped by the theater, sat on a flight of stairs at the back of the orchestra, and watched 1,700 people split their sides laughing. Broderick and Lane were on the covers of magazines and newspapers and in constant demand on the talk show circuit. Whenever Brooks came into restaurants like Angus McIndoe, Orso or Joe Allen, he hopped from table to table, accepting praise for his show. His wife Anne Bancroft, waiting patiently at their table, would let him lap it up for a bit and then yell, “Mel — eat!”

Though “The Producers” was the undisputed king of Times Square that summer, it helped all the other shows by putting Broadway squarely in the mainstream of American popular culture. The total box office gross for the 2000–01 theater season hit an all-time high of $665 million, a 10.3 percent jump from the previous season. Paid attendance soared 500,000 to set another record — 11.9 million. It was the tenth year in a row that Broadway had smashed its own records.

Attendance dipped slightly during the summer as the economy began to sag. Jed Bernstein, the head of the League of American Theatres and Producers, said, “We are far from a panic situation, but it certainly bears watching. It means keeping the marketing pressure on.” Nobody was too concerned, especially since another blockbuster was around the corner — “Mamma Mia!” the ABBA musical from London, set to open Oct. 18, 2001, at the Winter Garden. It already had an advance of $20 million.

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After Sept. 11, Mayor Giuliani said he took inspiration from Churchill, who insisted the theater go on as usual during the Battle of Britain “to show the Germans … can’t defeat our spirit.”Getty Images

On Sunday, Sept. 9, Broadway kicked off the fall theater season with “Broadway on Broadway,” an annual free concert in Times Square featuring performances from all the current shows.

“You know what the No. 1 attraction in the city of New York is?” then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani asked the crowd. “Broadway!”

Bernstein thought the mayor looked tired. He was coming to the end of his term — and his marriage to Donna Hanover. The tabloids had relished the news of his affair with Judith Nathan. He’d battled cancer and ended a lackluster bid for the United States Senate.

“It was obvious he wasn’t having any fun,” Bernstein said.

Everybody else was, however. Joe Bologna, starring on Broadway with his wife Renée Taylor in “If you ever leave me … I’m going with you!,” summed up the afternoon: “On this beautiful, perfect New York September day to be on Broadway … there is nothing more exciting.”

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The devastating events of 9/11 led many to fear Broadway would also be a target.Getty Images

On Tuesday — another “beautiful, perfect September day” — Bernstein was having breakfast with Paige Price, the star of the musical version of “Saturday Night Fever,” at the Polish Tea Room.

Price was thinking of becoming a producer, and Bernstein was giving her advice. Harry Edelstein, the owner of the Edison, came over to their table and said, “A plane just hit one of the World Trade Center towers.” Bernstein thought, as so many people did, it must be a small plane. He remembered that in 1945 a plane crashed into the Empire State Building. He finished breakfast and went to his office at the League.

Everybody was in the conference room watching television. The South Tower had just collapsed. Bernstein sent all but a few people home and then arranged a conference call with theater owners the Shuberts, the Nederlanders, and Jujamcyn Theaters to consider the threat to Times Square. Some planes were still unaccounted for. They also had to decide if the shows would go on that night, and what they should tell the press. As events unfolded, it became clear Broadway would have to shut down. The city was cordoned off, all bridges and tunnels closed, the Manhattan sky ringed by fighter jets.

I spoke to Gerald Schoenfeld, then chairman of The Shubert Organization, that morning. “Broadway is world famous and as much a target as any other landmark,” he said, adding that he and the other theater owners would talk to city officials before deciding when — or if — to reopen.

All through that day, Giuliani kept thinking, Where can I go for guidance on this? Two places came to mind: Israel and London during the Battle of Britain. After the Jaffa Road bus bombings in 1996, Giuliani went to Israel to ride the bus with Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert.

“They got that bus running as quickly as possible to show the terrorists you can’t deter the Israelis,” Giuliani said. When the attack on New York occurred, Giuliani was reading Roy Jenkins’ new biography of Winston Churchill. He tried to get an hour or so of sleep in the early morning of Sept. 12, but couldn’t. He picked up the Churchill biography and read that, during the Battle of Britain, Churchill insisted the theater, the opera, the ballet and the orchestra go on as usual “to show the Germans that you can’t defeat our spirit,” Giuliani said.

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People line up in April 2001 for the hottest show on Broadway, “The Producers.”New York Post

The next morning Bernstein got a call from Cristyne Nicholas, the head of NYC & Company, the city’s tourism office. She summoned him to a meeting with the mayor at the Police Academy on East Twentieth Street. Richard Grasso, the head of the New York Stock Exchange, was there, along with officials from the Metropolitan Museum and the hotel industry.

A grim Giuliani said, “We have to put our emotions aside for a moment and figure out how we are going to save New York.” He turned to Grasso. “When can you get the stock market reopened?”

“If you can give us power, we can reopen,” Grasso said. (The stock market opened one week later.)

Giuliani turned to Bernstein and Nicholas. “When can Broadway reopen?” Bernstein and Nicholas hesitated and then outlined the problem. Many people who work on Broadway live in the suburbs. With the bridges and tunnels closed they would not be able to get to work.

“If you can get our employees over the bridges we can reopen,” Bernstein said.

“Thursday,” Giuliani said.

“This isn’t going to be as easy as Rudy thinks,” Bernstein told Nicholas as they were leaving the meeting. “I don’t know if we can just flip the switch, turn on the lights, and have a Broadway show.”

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“The Producers” writers Thomas Meehan (left) and Mel Brooks accept the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical on June 3, 2001 — just months before the world changed forever.Reuters

Bernstein convened a meeting of producers, union heads and press agents — over a hundred people stuffed into the League’s conference room. He told them the mayor wanted Broadway open on Thursday, Sept. 13. There were questions about safety, logistics, economics, whether there would even be an audience.

But in the end, everyone agreed to light the lights of Broadway Thursday night.

Someone mentioned that on Tuesday night all the members of Congress had gathered on the steps of the Capitol and sang Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” Why not have the casts of every show sing the song during the curtain call, the person suggested.

Nicholas met with over two hundred actors, musicians, stagehands, stage managers, and press agents that afternoon in a Broadway theater to tell them the mayor wanted them at work Thursday night. There was resistance — concerns, again, about safety and getting into the city. An actor stood up and said, “You’re not the one who has to get up there and perform. You have no idea how hard it is. We’re human beings. We’re hurting, we’re suffering.”

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“The Producers” stars Nathan Lane (left) and Matthew Broderick got back on stage on Sept. 13 — just two days after the attacks.Getty Images

Nicholas understood, but said, “Please do your best, for the city.” She relayed concerns about safety and being able to get into the city to Giuliani. He had already stepped up the police presence in Times Square as it was on his list of the city’s top ten potential targets.

As for getting into the city, he said, “Tell them to show their union card at the bridges and tunnels and I guarantee they will get in.”

“I want Broadway open on Thursday,” he said.

“The focus was on New Jersey,” Giuliani recalled years later, “because that’s where the terrorists came from that did the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. But I thought if people say they’re working on Broadway and we examine them a little bit, we could let them in without too much of a risk.”

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With Broadway shuttered till 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the story of its return 19 years ago after 9/11 offers a glimmer of hope.Taidgh Barron/NY Post

Giuliani called the big three theater owners — Gerald Schoenfeld, James L. Nederlander Jr., and Rocco Landesman — to enlist their help in getting Broadway up and running on Thursday night. He told Landesman, “Get ‘The Producers’ back up because then everybody will follow suit.” Landesman said he would.

It was clear by the end of the day on Wednesday that Broadway could reopen. But would there be an audience? As he was dealing with the untold horrors of the attack, Giuliani, surrounded by media wherever he went, said several times, “If you want to help the city — if you want to show the terrorists that we can handle this — come to the city. Come to a play. Go to a movie. Go to a restaurant. Spend some money here. We need the money.”

Matthew Broderick made his way to the St. James from his Soho apartment Thursday afternoon. There were checkpoints everywhere, but he showed his ID and got through. Is it OK to be in Times Square, he thought as he headed to the theater. Is this still going on? And yet “we had something to do,” he said. “The world was going to go forward in some way, maybe.”

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The cast gathered backstage to prepare for the show. The stage manager told them the sound effects of the bombs falling during “Springtime for Hitler” would be cut.

The cast rehearsed “God Bless America.” Broderick didn’t know all the lyrics, but he was determined to learn them.

Giuliani went to “The Lion King” for the start of the show that night. Nicholas attended “The Full Monty.” The majority of the press covering the reopening of Broadway attended the hottest show in town, “The Producers.” The house, to everyone’s surprise, was about two-thirds full. But it was quiet. The buzz of excitement at a hit musical before the curtain goes up was missing. Rocco Landesman walked out on stage and told the audience, “You have permission to laugh tonight. That’s the best approach. We’ve come together and we will laugh together.”

Lane got muted laughs during the number “The King of Broadway.” “The big laughs weren’t there,” Jeffrey Denman recalled. “We had to gradually pull people in. It was, ‘We can do this, we can do this together.’ ” By the time the number “Keep It Gay” was off and running, the laughs came. They also came for “Little Old Lady Land.” And they came for “Springtime for Hitler.” At the curtain call Lane and Broderick joined hands with the cast and led fifteen hundred people in tears through “God Bless America.”

Excerpted from SINGULAR SENSATION: The Triumph of Broadway, by Michael Riedel (c) 2020. Reprinted by permission of Avid Reader Press, an Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

https://nypost.com/2020/11/07/how-9-11-brought-broadway-to-a-standstill-until-nycs-mayor-revived-it/

Illegal vendors are overtaking NYC

 Live crabs. Bras with rhinestones. Old shoes. Frayed electrical cords. Knock-off Louis Vuitton clutches. Disposable face masks. Mets caps.

Illegal street peddlers hawking such items have taken over the outer boroughs, clogging sidewalks with their second-hand wares and pulling customers from pandemic-ravaged mom-and-pop shops.

And everybody is pointing the finger at Mayor de Blasio.

From Brooklyn to the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, folding tables and mats rolled out on the ground force pedestrians to go single-file or step aside so they don’t get run over.

In the Bronx, 149^th Street and Fordham Road are hotspots. So is Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park and Flushing’s Main Street, especially the few blocks from the Post Office at Sanford Avenue to the 7 Train station at Roosevelt Avenue.

On Main, between Sanford and 41^st Avenue, The Post counted 27 street vendors – on just one side of the street. Two pulled out yellow licenses, showing they’re military veterans. Six shook their heads like they didn’t understand English. The others turned away or looked down when asked to show their licenses.

DianSong Yu of the Flushing Business Improvement District estimates 90 percent of the vendors aren’t licensed. Citywide, the number of all kinds of vendors stands at roughly 20,000, according to the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group. But legit general merchandise license-holders, not including mobile food vendors, total a few thousand.

“It’s a very tough time for everybody, we get it,” Yu told The Post. “But we need to be fair to the local merchant who are paying very high rent and taxes. And they’re hurting.”

Bobby has a yellow license for his spot on Main — and he’s mad about the infiltrators. “They’re robbing the city of taxes. They’re taking money from the veterans. They’re taking jobs,” said Bobby, who wouldn’t give his last name but told The Post he fought in Vietnam.

Licenses get doled out by the Department of Consumer Affairs. The city caps non-veteran general vendor licenses at 853 and charges a $100 or $200 fee depending on what time of year an applicant files. Any honorably discharged veteran can get a permit for free.

Sanford and Main is where you can find live blue crabs. Hawkers stack their wooden bushels three high, selling the crustaceans for a buck apiece.

Whether the crabs are legal or safe to eat is anybody’s guess. No agency could tell The Post with certainty and none took responsibility for oversight.

New York state allows crabbing in the waters around Queens, but has restrictions on the size and number of catches. It issues permits for large hauls.

But the regulating agency, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, doesn’t require a retail permit to sell the crabs. The city Health Department licenses mobile food vendors, who can’t sell raw seafood, but doesn’t monitor the street peddlers.

The wife of a licensed vendor bought a dozen several weeks ago, over the objections of her husband, who hasn’t worked during the pandemic because of chronic lung disease.

“She figured what could go wrong … well plenty,” said the husband who spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity.

That night, she nibbled on crab legs. Not long after, she started to feel sick and her husband decided to dissect the leftovers for clues. He found white worms in the bellies. The Health Department is investigating, spokesman Patrick Gallahue told The Post.

“I was an illegal vendor,” confessed the husband, who now is in his 70s. “I can understand if you can go out and sell. Why not? But the situation is out of hand – outrageously out of hand.”

At 39^th and Main, Ira Dananberg looks down on the crush of humanity from his second-floor hearing-aid business, Acousticon of Flushing.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dananberg, who has been at his location for 19 years. “People literally have no choice but to walk on top of each other.”

He worries because most of his customers are older and use a cane or a walker. And they get intimidated by the crowds.

From January through Dec. 21, illegal street vendor complaints across the five boroughs totaled 2,907 – despite the city being in lockdown for 78 days. The 2019 figure: 3,101.

For the first nine months of 2020, the NYPD wrote 28 tickets to unlicensed vendors. Last year’s tally was 173.

Dananberg, Bobby and a host of others blame de Blasio, who ordered the NYPD to stop cracking down on illegal peddlers in early June — part of a package of policy changes he announced after more than a week of violent Black Lives Matter protests.

“It’s a circus,” said Councilman Peter Koo, who introduced a bill passed two years ago that bans all vending – even food carts – on Main Street. “This falls squarely on the mayor.”

Dananberg filed a couple of 311 complaints online, which were forwarded to the NYPD’s 109^th Precinct. The responding cops told Dananberg their hands were tied because of Hizzoner’s moratorium.

NYPD spokeswoman Det. Sophia Mason told The Post cops are still handling vendor complaints.

But enforcement will switch from the NYPD to Consumer Affairs on Jan. 15, de Blasio spokeswoman Laura Feyer told The Post.

“We remain committed to a diverse commercial ecosystem, where small businesses of all kinds coexist and contribute to a vibrant street life,”  she said.

https://nypost.com/2020/12/26/mayhem-in-the-streets-illegal-vendors-are-overtaking-nyc/