The Hunt: A Pied-à-Terre for East Coast Sojourns

To her, however, a cabin was a small apartment. Her idea of woods was towering high-rises. Her idea of a getaway was New York City.

Ms. Baiz, who owns a jewelry and diamond wholesaler called Big Sky Gold and Diamond Brokers, has lived her whole life in Great Falls, Mont. Nearly 20 years ago, when she and her husband were having the kitchen of their century-old house remodeled, they hired a contractor who had a gem brokerage on the side. Ms. Baiz, formerly a radio reporter, seized the chance to learn the business, and later branched out on her own.

She had never been to New York until she came for a trade show a dozen years ago. After that, every time she returned for business, she liked the city more. “I had a knot in my stomach getting back on the airplane, because there was so much more that I didn’t do,” she said. “It felt like going to your favorite restaurant, ordering an appetizer and then leaving. I had too much of an appetite for New York.”

So she began visiting for weeks at a time, staying in hotels or taking sublets. Her longest stretch was last year — a 10-week stay in a Chelsea high-rise while she took a writers’ workshop. Ms. Baiz, who blogs at wedgeblog.net, writes for jewelry magazines and Signature Montana magazine.

Her husband, Tom, a lawyer who also works for her, came to visit. Over breakfast at the Aroma Espresso Bar on West 72nd Street, he suggested that she avoid the expense of hotels and the hassles of sublets by buying a small place. With their son and daughter out of college, the time was right.

“While he was in the mood for something,” Ms. Baiz said, they ran across the street to an open house for a sunny studio co-op.

“I stood outside that building and asked people, ‘What is the best thing and the worst thing about living here?’ ” Ms. Baiz said. Location was the best thing, residents told her. High maintenance was the worst. The studio’s monthly maintenance was more than $900.

The Baizes made an offer in the low $300,000s. It was declined. That was when Ms. Baiz, who ended up making four trips from Montana in the course of a year, began the hunt in earnest. Her budget maximum was $400,000, and she was determined to keep the monthly outlay under $2,000.

Her many sublets had taught her what to avoid. After staying in a high-rise, she knew she wanted a prewar building with thick walls and less risk of neighbor noise. After staying near a firehouse, “even though my dad was a fireman,” she said, “I didn’t want to live across from sirens.”

At one Upper West Side place, the seller rejected her offer in favor of a lower one from a colleague. She was disappointed, but “this did give me faith that money isn’t everything, even in New York real estate.”

Near Union Square, the selling agent guaranteed that she could move a wall to create a sleeping nook, but a contractor informed her the wall was immovable. That undermined her faith.

At the Orienta on West 79th Street, the seller accepted her offer of $353,000. Maintenance was in the $800s. She had been told that the co-op allowed pieds-à-terre on a case-by-case basis, but her case was declined.

“I was devastated,” she said. “They had a willing seller and a willing buyer.” Knowing she needed guidance from someone with expertise in Manhattan co-ops, she e-mailed three agents she found online, and chose Robyn Frank-Pedersen, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group.

Ms. Baiz told Ms. Frank-Pedersen that she didn’t mind a studio, as long as the layout allowed for some kind of sleeping spot, eating area and writing nook. She wanted a diverse neighborhood, one that provided the “yang to Montana’s yin,” she said. “I wanted to walk down my hall at dinnertime and smell at least three continents.”

Ms. Baiz liked the bachelor-pad aura of a place on West 15th Street, even though she originally mistook the Pullman kitchen, behind folding doors, for a closet. The price was around $410,000, maintenance a reasonable $560.

But the building had no doorman. She decided she needed one, primarily to keep houseguests at bay when she was back in Montana. “I didn’t want friends and relatives to look at my apartment as a key exchange, like, ‘Oh, well, just get the keys from Claire and use her apartment,’ ” she said.

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Dusting Off the Maid’s Room

The Laureate, a new 20-story building at the corner of Broadway and 76th Street, has four such apartments — each has four or more bedrooms and is priced at about $11 million. The maid’s room is listed simply as another bedroom, but it is away from the others, closer to the front door and living areas. Two of the building’s penthouse units even have separate entrances that lead directly to the servant’s rooms.

“When we designed this building,” said Shlomi Reuveni, a broker at Brown Harris Stevens Select, which is handling sales, “we felt that the traditional layout with a full dining room, an entry gallery and separate quarters for live-in help was missing from the market. Combining that in a building with modern amenities was even harder to find.”

Other new developments with maid’s rooms in some of their units include condominium conversions of prewar buildings at 845 West End Avenue and 905 West End Avenue, as well as the Sheffield, a postwar tower at 322 West 57th Street.

Demand for family-sized apartments with separate quarters for live-in help has been so marked at the Laureate that the Stahl Organization, the developer, has decided to combine some smaller apartments to create more units that fit the bill, Mr. Reuveni said. Many of the interested buyers are coming from abroad, but others, he said, already live on the Upper West Side and are looking for homes that mirror the classic apartments in nearby prewar buildings. While the rooms could also be used as guest rooms or offices, most prospective buyers have said they will use theirs either for a live-in nanny or a housekeeper.

The Sheffield has four large apartments that come with a dining room, a playroom/family room, a library, and a fourth bedroom that has been labeled a maid’s room. “We were trying to play off the vernacular of the Classic 7,” said Jacqueline Urgo, the president of the Marketing Directors, which is handling sales at the Sheffield.

The apartments, listed for about $7.5 million each, are designed to feel like “a single-family home in the sky,” Ms. Urgo said. “More and more parents are choosing to raise their children in Manhattan, and we have seen a need for these very large spaces.” Many potential buyers have live-in nannies, “because people have full lifestyles and maybe you have two working parents,” she added. “This type of apartment does fit a need.”

Maid’s rooms built in the 1910s and 1920s tended to be barely six to seven feet wide. Apartments that came equipped with them have three or more family bedrooms and might originally have had more than one maid’s room. At 905 West End, the developer Samson Management took a Classic 8 — which had three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and two maid’s rooms off of the kitchen — and shifted and expanded the bathroom that had been shared by the maid’s rooms, combining the remaining space to create one larger room.

“This way, for people who can have live-in help, they don’t need to fit them in a tiny box; they can have a proper bedroom,” said Louise Phillips Forbes, an executive vice president at Halstead Property who is heading up sales for the building. Listed as four-bedroom apartments, they range from $2.74 million to $2.925 million.

“People like it for the long-term play,” she said. “They can use it for an au pair or live-in nanny while their kids are young, and when a child gets old enough, he or she can have that space, or it can become an office.”

Traditional maid’s rooms get no light, said Iva Spitzer, an executive vice president the Corcoran Group, who has helped convert many prewar buildings and is helping to sell 845 West End. “They have a closet that you could fit a pair of sneakers and jacket in, and they have a sliver of a bathroom that is so small they couldn’t fit the sink in the space, so the sink is in the bedroom.”

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Currents | Deals: Sales at Ligne Roset, John Robshaw and Others

Floor samples are on sale at the Ligne Roset store in SoHo through Sunday (the leather Harry armchair, originally $3,750, is $2,195; the Eaton 63-inch table, regularly $3,540, is $2,479); 155 Wooster Street (Houston Street), (212) 253-5629, ligne-roset-usa.com.

During the John Robshaw sample sale, May 3 to 6, bedding, pillows, table linens and robes will be sold at deep discounts (Jade pattern quilts, originally $325 to $435, will be $80 to $100; Diggi Coral duvets, regularly $375 to $525, will be $80 to $100; Walnut Running Stitch coverlets, above, originally $410 to $525, will be $80 to $100; Dervish bean bags, regularly $200, will be $75); 245 West 29th Street, (212) 594-6006, johnrobshaw.com.

Outdoor patio furniture is marked down as much as 70 percent during the spring sale at Modani Furniture, through May 15 (the Coronado patio set, which includes two armless chairs, three corner chairs and a coffee table, was originally $3,740 and is now $1,490; an outdoor bar and six stools, regularly $3,490, is $1,290); 40 East 19th Street, (212) 796-6926, modani.com.

At Doris Leslie Blau’s spring sale, May 3 to 22, some 80 custom and antique carpets will be discounted as much as 50 percent (a pair of Art Deco rugs by Paule Leleu, originally $15,000, will be $7,500; a 14-foot-9-inch by 9-foot-10-inch Art Deco area rug also by Paule Leleu, regularly $65,000, will be $32,500); 306 East 61st Street, (212) 586-5511, dorisleslieblau.com.

Good deals may be reported to deals@nytimes.com

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International Real Estate: House Hunting in ... Prague

$1,056,890 (17,600,000 Czech koruna)

This two-bedroom rooftop apartment in a restored neo-Classical building is close to the center of Prague in the Vinohrady neighborhood, which is named for its 19th-century vineyards. The unit has 1,345 square feet over three levels; it is entered on the sixth floor of the building, which has an elevator. The terrace commands views of Prague’s red-tiled rooftops.

The entry foyer is on the second level, the site of the main living space, which has wood floors, a high ceiling, and walls of concrete and exposed brick, as well as a horizontal gas fireplace recessed in the wall. The kitchen, a contemporary room on a raised platform of old pine, is adjacent to the living space. Countertops and table surface are made of polished black granite; cabinets and table base are of cherry wood. A bath off the kitchen has a radiant-heated floor, copper-tone metallic wall tiles, a glass rain-head shower by the German designer Hansgrohe, and a basin by the Italian designer Ceramica Globo.

The second level has its own terrace, of nearly 100 square feet; it is reached through custom doors framed in dark meranti wood from Southeast Asia, which slide and fold like an accordion.

A curved staircase of cast concrete unwinds like a ribbon to the third level, which has an exposed brick wall and a large skylight that can be opened electronically. This level — which mimics a balcony, looking down onto the living room — houses one of the bedrooms.

The first level has the other bedroom and the bath, which has a heated floor and is equipped with a wall of white cabinets and a ceramic bathtub with chrome claw feet by Roca, a Spanish company. A round mirror with an ornate gilt frame hangs over a pedestal sink by the German designer Keramag.

The apartment has central air-conditioning and is being sold furnished except for the chairs, said Jiri Eyberger, a broker with Home Sweet Home, the Prague brokerage that has the listing. A flat-screen television is also included (satellite TV service costs $35 a month; Internet and telephone fees are $20 a month).

The immediate area is quiet and abuts a large park, Riegrovy Sady, which has a beer garden. The Vinohrady neighborhood is popular with young professionals and international residents for its numerous pubs and cafes, shopping centers and restaurants. The area is within easy walking distance of Wenceslas Square in central Prague and has convenient bus and Metro service. Ruzyne-Prague Airport is about half an hour by car, 40 minutes by public transportation, Mr. Eyberger said.

MARKET OVERVIEW

Home sale transactions in general dropped 40 to 60 percent after the economic downturn in 2008, and the market has been largely stagnant since then, Mr. Eyberger said.

However, the apartment inventory most popular with foreigners — in neighborhoods in the historic center of Prague or close to it — has not been as hard hit. This is because owners of renovated apartments are typically not selling, said Michal Bukovecky, a co-owner of the brokerage iReality.

“They’re trying to keep the prices very high, and that’s why they don’t sell,” Mr. Bukovecky said. “They’re expecting the market will get better, but so far the market is very slow.”

This apartment costs about $786 per square foot and has been on the market since February; it would be more likely to appeal to foreign buyers than Czech natives, Mr. Eyberger said.

“The price is quite high,” he added, “but it’s due to the unique character of the apartment, the materials used and the location in the city center. This is more for expatriates, because Czech buyers would prefer a house and garden for this price.”

From a foreign investor’s point of view, the price would be about right. Mr. Bukovecky says that homes bought by expatriates typically range in price from about $335 to $1,115 a square foot, with some in more expensive areas like the Old Town selling for as much as $1,725 a square foot.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: April 28, 2011

An earlier version of this article misstated a market statistic. It was home sales transactions in Prague that fell off 40 to 60 percent after the global economic downturn in 2008, not real estate prices.

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In the Region | Westchester: Board Scales Down Plan for Reader’s Digest Site in Chappaqua

CHAPPAQUA

ALMOST seven years after developers paid $59 million for the 114-acre Reader’s Digest property in this affluent hamlet, drafting plans for 348 condominiums and town houses next to the publisher’s former headquarters, the town board of New Castle has finally ruled on the application.

The board did not reject Summit Development and Greenfield Partners’ plans for residences on the property — since renamed Chappaqua Crossing — out of hand. But it strictly limited the number of units that may be built and the part of the property where development may occur.

The developers were aware of the town’s resistance to the scale they had in mind, twice reducing the size and scope of their plans, most recently seeking 199 units. But that was still too many for the board, which early this month announced that it would allow 111 condos and town houses, on just 31 of the 114 acres.

The reason, according to Barbara S. Gerrard, New Castle’s supervisor, is not that the board opposes affordable multifamily housing in Chappaqua, a hamlet of mostly single-family homes — though that is what the developer, known as SG Chappaqua, alleges in two lawsuits. Nor is it that neighbors at public hearings vehemently opposed the plans, citing concerns about increased traffic and overcrowded schools.

Ms. Gerrard said residential development was reined in to leave sufficient land for commercial development in a town where businesses — mostly the small shops in downtown Chappaqua and in Millwood, another hamlet — contribute less than 3 percent to the tax base.

With an eye toward generating more commercial revenue to support the town’s $36 million annual budget, the board also lifted restrictions on how many commercial tenants SG Chappaqua may house in the property’s central structure, a three-story red brick office building with a towering white cupola.

Occupied mostly by Reader’s Digest from 1939 until it declared bankruptcy in 2009 and broke its lease with SG Chappaqua, the structure now has only three tenants in 95,000 of the 700,000 available square feet. Town zoning had limited occupancy to a maximum of four tenants in no more than about 470,000 square feet of the building.

Clearly, the departure of the Digest, a major taxpayer for 71 years, has had a profound effect. Ms. Gerrard described the decision to allow 111 multifamily homes as “difficult but necessary.” Many residents had wanted the property to remain as rolling hills and manicured lawns.

“As a former tax attorney,” Ms. Gerrard said, “I know how hard it is to make everyone happy. I also know that if the two ends of the spectrum walk away from the table not really satisfied, then you probably did a fair job, and if one end is ecstatic, then you should review your decision.”

SG Chappaqua, which has refused to comment on the case, is dealing with its unhappiness in Federal District Court in Manhattan and State Supreme Court in White Plains. Both suits were filed in February, months before the board reached its decision.

Among other things, the state lawsuit accuses New Castle of discrimination for violating a settlement reached last year by Westchester County with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to create fair and affordable housing in 31 Westchester communities that have few black or Hispanic residents.

The settlement was designed to prevent the further concentration of affordable housing in cities like Mount Vernon and Yonkers, which already have a preponderance of low-income blacks and Hispanics. New Castle is almost 90 percent white, and its median household income is $193,866, among the highest in the county.

Also, SG Chappaqua, thwarted in its attempt to build upscale residences, is demanding that the town buy the property. In addition to the $59 million it paid Reader’s Digest for the acreage and the buildings, SG Chappaqua says it has spent $10 million on architects’ and lawyers’ fees and environmental reviews, among other things.

The other lawsuit charges the town with violating the federal Fair Housing Act.

New Castle is preparing its rebuttal and “expects to vigorously defend the action,” said Clinton B. Smith, a lawyer with Wormser, Kiely, Galef & Jacobs in Manhattan and White Plains.

Victor Siber, a longtime Chappaqua resident, called the developer’s accusations of discrimination a “red herring,” noting that 20 percent of the residences approved for Chappaqua Crossing are to be sold below market rate.

Robert Greenstein, a Chappaqua homeowner and a Manhattan lawyer who collected 900 signatures on a petition opposing the developers’ plan, approved the board’s decision. “This is not about a town being elitist,” he said. “I don’t buy the developer’s argument that we’re against affordable housing.” He noted that the hamlet also planned to build affordable units outside the Digest site.

Mr. Greenstein said commercial development would relieve the tax burden on homeowners.

A resident of Chappaqua for seven years, he said, he pays about $35,000 a year on his five-bedroom colonial, built in 2004. “Compared to other communities, our taxes are very high,” he said. For example, in Armonk, home to the corporate headquarters of I.B.M., the taxes on a comparable seven-year-old colonial are about $27,000.

“What we need is an I.B.M.- type company of our own,” Mr. Greenstein said.

But for now, as the legal actions work their way through the courts, most residents would like to see the property’s rolling hills and gardens better maintained, said Mr. Siber, who lives on nearby Cowdin Lane. “It’s not a wasteland, but it’s not maintained anymore like it was,” he said.

Geoff Thompson, a spokesman for SG Chappaqua, says the company employs four workers full time to maintain the grounds.

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Square Feet : Evan Stein

J.D. Carlisle manages about 600,000 square feet of commercial space and nearly 2,000 apartments citywide. Its developments include Morton Square, the Cielo, Gramercy Green, and the Beatrice.

Q Are you the de facto C.E.O.?

A Yes, absolutely. There’s no C.E.O. The chairman is my partner, Jules Demchick. Our chairman is responsible for assemblage of the property, financing, and usually the initial plan. Once the acquisition is done, he moves on to the marketing and we move to the development. M.D. Carlisle Construction is the vehicle that physically builds the projects. With buildings like the Beatrice you almost need to know the end of the movie before you begin.

Q Will the Beatrice, your newest and biggest project, have a happy ending?

A I hope so. I put my grandmother’s name on the building.

Q Was this your most difficult development?

A It’s by far the most expensive, and this was the most complicated. We have several uses in this building, so that takes a tremendous amount of management to understand how all the pieces work together: how the restaurant is working with our hotel, how the residential building complements the hotel. And we have a garage.

We’re certainly not in the black yet, because the building is in its infancy, but from an economic view we’re pleased with the results.

Q What is the occupancy?

A We are 99 percent. Of 300 rental apartments, we have left four penthouses that we are just allowing for occupancy May 1. All the penthouses start at $20,000, up to $23,500 monthly. We’re already getting a lot of activity on them. And the hotel’s doing well; it’s exceeding our expectations.

Q Why rentals and not condos?

A We cut our teeth on rentals. In the ’60s and the ’70s, we built probably 60- or 70-plus rental projects. The rentals are scattered all over Manhattan. Our recent history was condominiums — we had three or four projects that were a function of the times.

It’s hard to put your heart and soul into something where at the end of the day you don’t have a tangible asset anymore.

Q Would you ever consider converting the Beatrice, if, say the market soared again?

A I hope not. I’d be lying to you if I told you I haven’t been asked that before. We have several rental buildings that have gone through four or five real estate booms, but we like rentals.

Q What’s your assessment of the New York market now?

A In the long-term perspective we’re very bullish, but you’re going to have short-term challenges — whether they be economic, political or availability. There are still tremendous opportunities here, and we’re seeking them out.

Q Do you have any other projects in the works?

A We do have three or four projects that we’re excited about. Unfortunately, we can’t talk about them because we’re under confidentiality agreements.

They’re going to be some rental, some condo; three are ground-up and one is a gut renovation. We’re looking at a couple in the outer boroughs at this point in time, and certainly in Manhattan.

Q So why doesn’t J.D. Carlisle have a Web site?

A We get asked that a lot. We’re low-profile people; we don’t usually have to advertise who we are.

Q You knew at an early age that you wanted to be involved in real estate, didn’t you?

A Yes, because my hero was my grandfather, who founded this business — my maternal grandfather, Beatrice’s husband.

He has been my hero since the minute I could understand who he was, and I would have done anything to be with him — to be him. When I was graduating from college, he asked if I would consider coming to work with him. I jumped at the opportunity and 17, 18 years later, here’s where we are. He’s since retired.

Q What was your first job there?

A I went to school for accounting so I started off computerizing their accounting systems, and I got bored very, very quickly. I made the request for an assistant superintendent’s job. I went to work with a hard hat climbing into the demolition. Just being on a construction site every single day helps me to understand how things wind up working, all the nuances that you need to understand.

Q Do you live in any of your buildings?

A I live in Morton Square. One of the advantages of developing is you get a good price.

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At Home With Moby: A Castle for the King of Techno

THERE are a number of things that delight Moby, once the ultimate downtown New York musician, about his castle in the Hollywood Hills: the gatehouse turret, from which the original owner’s pet monkey screamed across the canyons when the house was built in 1920s; the lore, both rock ’n’ roll and literary and decadent, that has the Rolling Stones living here for a spell, Aldous Huxley residing across the street and porno films shot around the pool; and the hidden room — a former tiki bar — that at one time had a fake grass ceiling and pictures of Hawaiian dancing girls, which he cannot show you, because this house is so new to him that he can’t find the key.

There is also what he calls the “penultimate” Hollywood view, for which you have to go up the stairs to the master bedroom. Be careful: Moby’s one rule is no shoes on the rug. O.K., now plop down on the rumpled bed. Looking through the window straight ahead, you can see the canyon fall to the Hollywood Reservoir; to your right and up the hill is the famous Hollywood sign. If he were a Hollywood producer and wanted to impress some actress, Moby says, he’d use that view.

Has he had the opportunity to impress anyone here so far?

“I had a date, which ended up making out under the view of the Hollywood sign, but nothing too crazy,” says Moby, who is so slight as to be almost as much of a caricature as the drawing on his gray T-shirt. Make that a caricature in pencil. I don’t fit in here? No problem. Rub me out. I work alone a lot of the time anyway. In appearance, Moby is either Jules Feiffer’s illegitimate son, or he was drawn by him.

But back to the view from the bed and that date. How’s that relationship going?

“At present, it’s ambiguous. Back in my drinking days, I used to be a little more promiscuous, but now in sobriety, I’m like a nun.” A quick correction: “A monk.”

It is a heck of an impressive view, he is told; it should have had some effect.

“She came from a very wealthy background,” Moby says. (Anyway, what fellow wishes his appeal to be property based?) “Hopefully she was impressed by my wit and character.”

Not so long ago, Moby, a musician and composer Billboard once named “The King of Techno,” was the hippest of downtown guys, running a teahouse/vegetarian cafe on his Lower East Side home turf, where he sometimes stopped in to wait tables, headlining at the Bowery Ballroom and going on about soy milk (well, he still talks about soy milk).

But now, while he keeps a small apartment in Little Italy, he has moved to Los Angeles, to a castle on three acres with a stone wall, a Disney-esque gatehouse and a kidney-shaped pool.

Called Wolf’s Lair after its first owner, L. Milton Wolf, a real estate developer, it is a house with old Hollywood flourishes that Norma Desmond would embrace. On the hill overlooking the castle, mounted on a tall pole, is a lamp shaped like a crescent moon, so there will always be the reflection of a moon in the pool, a perfect example of 1920s Hollywood romance. I’ll buy you the moon, baby.

Moby paid just under $4 million for the house last year and estimates he has put another $2 million into its restoration.

For an alternative-music guy, Moby, 45, has been doing very well. He has sold 5 million albums and 2 million digital tracks, according to Nielsen SoundScan (his music has been used extensively in soundtracks and commercials), and he has a new album, “Destroyed,” out next month. Written while he was touring, “Destroyed” is “broken-down electronic music for empty cities at 2 a.m.,” he says, and indeed the music has an echoing, futuristic loneliness.

Moby decided to move to Los Angeles for a number of reasons: New York is so expensive that many of his interesting, creative friends have had to leave; the winters; and that more difficult thing from which to remove oneself, the winter of the soul. The techno musician turns out to have a more debauched past than his persona suggests.

“I stopped drinking a few years ago, and I got to say that the cold and nastiness of New York in February was a lot easier to handle when I was a crazy drunk,” he says. “If you’re hung over when it’s sleeting outside and 40 degrees, it doesn’t seem so bad.”

Are we talking alcoholism here, A.A. kind of stuff?

“A.A. we’re not allowed to talk about, but yeah,” Moby says.

What made him stop?

“Simply the consequence of being hung over 48 hours after being drunk for six hours,” he says. “It didn’t used to be that way when I was in my 20s. I could stay up till 7 being drunk, and the hangover lasted for two hours. In my 40s, the hangovers lasted for days, and they were debilitating and soul-destroying. I simply had to stop.”

IF one were to tell a life story through the houses one has lived in, Moby’s would be particularly rich. A descendant of Herman Melville whose real name is Richard Melville-Hall, he was born in Harlem, when his father was a graduate student at Columbia.

Moby and his mother moved into her prosperous family’s Connecticut home when his father, whom she was divorcing, died driving drunk. His mother, who died of lung cancer 13 years ago, was a sometime secretary and devoted hippie. In 1969, she took him to live in San Francisco.

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Off the Charts: A Reversal for Real Estate After Some Mild Gains

Indexes of the two markets showed this week that the latest declines had almost wiped out the mild gains the two markets had shown after prices appeared to have hit bottom.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices ended February 3.3 percent below where it was a year earlier, and just 0.5 percent above the low reached in May 2009. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index was reported to be down 4.9 percent over the last 12 months, but still 0.8 percent above its low, reached last August.

In both cases, sales volumes are far below what they were when the markets were booming, and a large proportion of the properties that are being sold were in trouble before the sale. The National Association of Realtors estimates that about 40 percent of existing homes that changed hands in March were either in foreclosure or were so-called short sales in which the house was sold for less than was owed on the existing mortgage.

The commercial property index, which is based on data collected by Real Capital Analytics, shows that 29 percent of transactions in February involved distressed properties — including those already in foreclosure or default, as well as those whose owners had filed for bankruptcy.

“Only when the share of distressed sales meaningfully drops off will we be able to enter the recovery phase,” said Tad Philipp, Moody’s director of commercial real estate research.

As can be seen from the accompanying charts, home prices nationally peaked in 2006 but did not begin to plunge until 2007.

At first, that was widely viewed as a result of problems in the subprime mortgage market. Commercial real estate prices rose until early 2008, but then declined rapidly. The latest values for the indexes show national home prices down 31 percent from peak levels, while the commercial real estate index shows a fall of 45 percent.

The charts show the trend of prices since December 2000. Home prices are about 27 percent higher than they were then, but commercial real estate is up just 6 percent. Meanwhile, in a tortoise-versus-hare tale, home rental rates are higher than they ever were even though they failed to boom when real estate prices soared.

Both indexes are based on repeat sales of the same property, and the relative lack of commercial property transactions — the index counted only 107 in February for more than $2.5 million each — means that the figures are far from exact. But they do show trends.

According to data from Moody’s, hotels and apartments are in the most distress, with about 16 percent of loans in each category classified as delinquent. About 10 percent of loans on industrial property are in trouble, while the figures for offices and retail properties are lower, at around 7 percent.

Over all, the proportion of commercial loans in distress climbed from under 1 percent at the end of 2008 to over 9 percent now. But it has been stable in recent months, providing some hope that the market is no longer deteriorating.

On a regional basis, the same markets tend to have problems in both commercial and residential real estate. The three states with the highest proportion of commercial loans in distress, according to Moody’s, are Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. In Nevada, more than 30 percent of loans are classified as being in trouble, nearly double Arizona’s 16 percent figure.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy on his blog at nytimes.com/norris.

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Mortgages: Financing a Vacation Home

There is loan money available for second-home purchases, but expect bigger down payments, higher interest rates and other standards tighter than on a principal residence — and those standards are tight already. In addition, there are quirks specific to vacation markets.

Vacation-home purchases accounted for 10 percent of home sales last year, according to a National Association of Realtors survey released this spring. Investment purchases accounted for 17 percent — but sometimes the line between the two is a bit blurry. That’s down sharply from the height of the real estate boom in 2005, when vacation and investment sales accounted for 40 percent combined.

Then, “there was virtually no difference in underwriting for vacation homes versus owner-occupied homes,” said Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “That’s something that’s changed dramatically. The days of being able to buy a vacation home with little or no money down are over.”

Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration with down payments of as little as 3.5 percent aren’t available to vacation-home buyers. That means 20 percent for deals that meet stringent requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For loans that don’t fit — for instance, that are bigger than the government ceilings, which vary by county — down payments can be higher. Kevin Santacroce, an executive vice president and the chief lending officer of Bridgehampton National Bank on Long Island, said that for the jumbo loans his bank writes, down payments are “closer to 25 percent, maybe 30 percent.” In Suffolk County, a jumbo loan is more than $729,750, among the nation’s highest. (As Mr. Santacroce points out, that’s the loan amount, not the purchase amount; still, it’s a rare house in the Hamptons that would fall into the non-jumbo category.)

Thirty percent also seems to be the “comfort zone” this year for down payments in the Jersey Shore towns where Michael Loundy, a broker at Seaside Realty, works. “You can get 20 percent down,” he said, “but the buyer has to look very strong with income-debt ratios.”

Pinning down the details of a loan is challenging, Mr. Loundy said. For instance, during the loan approval process, exact terms may shift — a rate can go up one-eighth or one-quarter of a percentage point for any deal that isn’t exactly “pristine,” he says — and pristine means a free-standing single-family house instead of a condo, a credit score of 725 or more, and full documentation of income.

Even when all else is equal, a vacation-home loan is pricier. Mr. Cecala just refinanced his own primary and secondary homes on the same day, and the interest on the vacation place was one-quarter percentage point higher.

Some vacation areas offer distinct challenges. David Knudsen of Catskills Buyer Agency in Sullivan County says appraisals can be dicey in an area like his, because big banks may, for instance, require that sales be in the same school district to be comparable — which is not so easy with tiny school districts and spread-out sales. Local banks, he said, are better able to assess the worth of, say, a house on one lake versus one on another.

Banks aren’t the only places to get financing. Some sellers will carry loans. “That’s a question some buyers forget to ask sellers,” Mr. Loundy said. “Not everybody is in trouble.”

And what about cash, after all? Vacation-home buyers tend to be older and more affluent than other buyers, so all-cash deals are common. According to the Realtors’ survey, 36 percent paid cash, as did 59 percent of investment buyers.

Mr. Knudsen said that half his sales in the last year were all cash. These buyers don’t need to have appraisals; they can close in 30 days instead of 60 or more; and they can consider houses in less-than-perfect physical condition, like foreclosures.

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Living In | East Amwell, N.J.: Altitude’s a Variable, Roominess a Constant

In recent years the preservation of farmlands and open space has become a top priority for towns throughout densely populated New Jersey. But East Amwell in southeastern Hunterdon County was well ahead of the curve, laying the groundwork in the early 1980s for what has remained a largely rural community. At a time when other towns were “chasing ratables” in the form of housing developments and commercial growth, Mayor Larry Tatsch said, East Amwell was creating a master plan that “promoted agriculture and recognized the unique and delicate nature of the Sourlands.”

Through restrictive zoning more than a third of the 28-square-mile township is now preserved. Another third remains as open space, consisting in part of 296 farms — some are home to alpacas, others to retired horses — that range in size from half an acre to 261 acres. The open space also includes a 350-acre golf course, and swaths of privately owned mountainous land too rocky for development.

“We could well have gone the way of neighboring townships if we hadn’t had the visionary perspective way back when,” Mayor Tatsch said.

The township became a case study in farmland preservation 12 years ago when it increased minimum building lots to 10 acres from 3. A group of farmers sued, saying the ordinance would reduce the value of their properties and create a patchwork of 10-acre gentleman farms. In 2005 an appellate court upheld the new zoning. It was about that time that minimum building lots in the mountain region were increased to 15 acres, from 5. The current plan allows for “cluster development” — combining smaller building lots with contiguous open land — but no developers have built in the last decade or so.

The emphasis on preservation has altered life for the 4,013 residents of East Amwell, who have a single schoolhouse and limited public services, and who often rely on volunteers. The town has no water or sewer service; all houses use wells and septic tanks. There is no police force; public safety is provided by state troopers. Two weeks ago, roadways were cleared of litter by dozens of families taking part in the 24th annual roadside clean-up.

It was this slower lifestyle that appealed to James Rizza and his family when they moved here from Franklin Township five years ago. And though moving at that time meant “paying high and selling low,” Mr. Rizza said, he doesn’t regret the $565,000 he paid for his four-bedroom house on two acres.

“My 13-year-old son now leases a cow that he’s going to show at the county fair,” said Mr. Rizza, a landscape contractor. “He wouldn’t be doing that in Franklin.”

When Joanne Hall and her husband paid $175,000 for their four-bedroom colonial in 1986, Ms. Hall recalled, they predicted that in 5 to 10 years the township would be built up. “And here we are, 25 years later, and it’s the exact same as when we moved in,” said Ms. Hall, a broker with Weidel Realtors. Her husband, a computer software consultant, regularly travels into New York City via buses that Ms. Hall describes as crowded with commuters.

“Everybody’s relaxed,” she said. “They’ve got their iPads and laptops, and they’re there in an hour and a half.”

WHAT YOU’LL FIND

Most visitors are struck by the stunning vistas, particularly when coming from more congested neighboring areas like Flemington or Raritan, or from Princeton, which is also nearby.

“People are astounded when they see there’s this much open space in this part of New Jersey,” said Cynthia Bruning, an agent with Weichert Realtors who has lived in East Amwell for 13 years. “If you’re interested in rural living, but still want to be close enough to everything, it’s feasible here.”

The housing stock is as varied as the terrain. In the valley section of the township, where farms dominate the landscape, older farmhouses with two or more outbuildings crop up here and there. In recent years, horse farming has grown in popularity, and there are several large farms where one can board a horse, ride or take lessons. The Amwell Valley Trail Association has pieced together 75 miles of private trails where East Amwell residents can ride or hike for a nominal annual fee.

Smaller farms come on the market fairly regularly, as do houses on 10 to 15 acres. A 12-acre horse farm with a four-bedroom house and stables is on the market for $599,000, as well as a 1998 four-bedroom colonial on 15 acres, listed at $649,900. Scattered throughout the valley are a handful of small developments of 20 to 30 houses, mostly built in the 1980s before new zoning laws took effect; each is on 1.5 to 2 acres.

The Sourland Mountain section, on a ridge 500 feet up, offers a mix of modern architecture, older farmhouses and contemporary log cabins. The former Lindbergh estate, now a boys’ home, is in this area. (In 1932, the 20-month-old son of the aviator Charles Lindbergh was taken from the house by kidnappers. The child’s body was found in the woods two months later.)

The township’s more historic houses can be found at intersections in some of the four or five hamlets that fall within its boundaries — Wertsville, Hamilton’s Corner and Reaville, for instance — and in the village of Ringoes, an unincorporated section of East Amwell with a few stores and about 250 residences. Historic markers note the house on Old York Road where during the Revolution Lafayette convalesced from an illness, as well as the site of the 19th-century Black River and Western Railroad station, which still runs tourist rides on the weekends. There are no rental or multi-unit properties.

WHAT YOU’LL PAY

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Habitats | Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn: The Reconstituted Row House

A friend suggested Brendan Coburn, a former boyfriend whom she described as a “brilliant architect.” Ms. Ceccarelli was impressed by such a glowing recommendation of an old flame, and even more impressed by what Mr. Coburn envisioned.

“He sketched everything out perfectly, to a T,” said Ms. Ceccarelli, now an executive vice president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is headquartered at the Bronx Zoo. “Originally, I just wanted to redo the kitchen. But Brendan suggested things like staining the floors black to emphasize the horizontality and make the space seem larger. I was bowled over.”

At the time Mr. Coburn was working from his parents’ apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and at night, he and his client, then in their mid-30s, often studied drawings and examined samples of cabinetry and countertops over drinks.

Once his work was done, Mr. Coburn called Ms. Ceccarelli with a proposal. “Could we have dinner and talk about something other than your apartment?” he asked. The dinner turned out to be a bona fide date — no samples of kitchen tile or wood veneers this time. The next day Ms. Ceccarelli broke up with the man she had been seeing, and by March 2001 she and Mr. Coburn were engaged.

But their wedding, which took place five months later, occurred during a tumultuous period. Mr. Coburn’s father had died in May. His brother had divorced. Then came Sept. 11.

“It had been an intense year, with lots of untethering in the world,” Mr. Coburn said. “All these things made us feel that we needed to build a home.” Weeks after the attacks, they began house hunting.

The couple had two criteria. As Mr. Coburn summed them up: “The place had to be a dump, so we could redo it. And there had to be a garden on the south side of the house.” He loved row houses, the defining architecture of his Cobble Hill childhood, but having grown up in one that faced east and west, he knew they could be dark.

The house they settled on, a two-story structure on Sackett Street in Carroll Gardens, had been built in 1847 and according to Mr. Coburn, “had been getting worse for 150 years.” Ms. Ceccarelli agreed. “During the open house,” she said, “people were literally rolling their eyes.”

They bought the building for $575,000 in March 2002, and over the next nine months spent $550,000 to transform it, a cost that would have been far higher had Mr. Coburn not served as both architect and general troubleshooter, working closely with Marty McKenna, his general contractor. They moved into the house in March 2003, three months after the birth of their son, John.

Few people strolling along Sackett Street would guess that behind the worn red brick facade with the weeping cherry out front there sits a sleek modern structure in which everything — walls, floors, the top-floor extension — is brand-new. The parlor floor seems as open as a loft, and even on the darkest days, the rooms are unexpectedly bright.

“The big design idea,” Mr. Coburn said, “was to make the house into a light box, one that captures different light all day long and all year round.” To achieve this, he used two major elements.

One involved building a switchback staircase in the middle of the house, punctuated with landings made of slabs of glass and topped by a skylight that lets sunlight flood the room. The other involved constructing huge windows facing the rear garden. “One of the most compelling architectural qualities of row house neighborhoods is the relationship between the house and the garden,” Mr. Coburn said. “And Brooklyn is particularly blessed when it comes to finding and exploiting this relationship.”

For some couples, allowing one member to design an entire building would be a sure-fire recipe for disaster. Marriages have teetered over the choice of doorknobs. Yet Ms. Ceccarelli struggles to remember something about which the two of them disagreed.

“The only thing we didn’t see absolutely eye to eye on was the Viking stove,” she said. “I wanted something sexier, like maybe a Gaggenau. But really, it was such a silly conversation.”

And while Mr. Coburn privately yearns for a proper dining room, as opposed to the table by the front window that seats six, there too the couple were on the same page.

“We had to be honest with ourselves,” Ms. Ceccarelli said. “We hardly ever use the dining-room table. Most of the time when we have guests, everyone sits in the living room and we serve them wine and cheese.”

The parlor floor opens onto a deck that leads down to the garden, designed as a series of outdoor rooms. John has a treehouse, with a secret door so his friend from next door can visit. The tenants in the basement apartment also have outdoor space.

The second floor is home to Mr. Coburn’s tiny office, along with what he describes as the “TV and Lego pavilion.” In the rear is John’s room, outfitted with his father’s wooden building blocks, along with a huge map of the world on which John can trace his mother’s travels — most recently a safari in Bangalore, India — and a large plush tiger. (Having a mother with an office at the Bronx Zoo has its upside.) The top floor is devoted mainly to the couple’s bedroom.

Architects invariably yearn to build something of their own, or at least to get their hands on buildings they can retrofit. Mr. Coburn is no exception. “If it were up to me,” he said, “we’d have a tiny Greek Revival farmhouse somewhere in the country and change row houses every couple of years.”

Ms. Ceccarelli looked slightly ashen at the possibility. “Um, maybe not,” she said. “I didn’t quite sign up for that.”

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What You Get for ... $650,000

WHAT: A four-bedroom, two-bath house and a one-bedroom apartment

HOW MUCH: $649,000

SIZE: 2,451 square feet

PER SQUARE FOOT: $264.79

SETTING: This house is in Hyde Park, a residential section of Austin north of the University of Texas campus. Victorians line its tree-shaded streets; some have been converted into two-family houses and bed-and-breakfasts. There’s a cluster of coffee shops, cafes and restaurants about four blocks from the house. A shopping center with larger stores is less than a mile away.

INSIDE: The house was built in 1910 and retains many original details, including hardwood floors on the main level, and windows that use counterweights. Two parlors, one with a built-in hutch, precede the kitchen and a bedroom used as a dining room. An addition is used as an office. The master bedroom, which is on the main floor, has a walk-in closet and an alcove with a secondary closet. There are two bedrooms upstairs, one with an adjoining sitting area. Over the two-car garage, there’s a carpeted one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment.

OUTDOOR SPACE: There is a concrete front porch and a larger wooden back porch and deck. The small lot is planted with oak and pecan trees.

TAXES: $12,101 annually.

CONTACT: David Haynes, Keller Williams Realty (512) 844-0940; kw.com

BEND, ORE.

WHAT: A two-bedroom, two-bath log house on the Deschutes River in Deschutes National Forest

HOW MUCH: $650,000

SIZE: 2,496 square feet

PER SQUARE FOOT: $260.41

SETTING: This house is in Oregon Water Wonderland II, a residential community on the Deschutes River in the Deschutes National Forest. The forest, which stretches for 1.6 million acres among the Cascade Mountains, offers places to fish, boat, hike and mountain-bike. The house is about 25 miles from Mount Bachelor Ski Resort. Though this house is officially in Bend, its downtown is 20 miles away. Sunriver, a neighboring community, is closer, less than 10 miles away.

INSIDE: Built in 1994, the house was built mostly of logs and tongue-in-groove pine planks. Through the entryway is a great room with living, dining and kitchen areas. One bedroom is on the main level. Upstairs, there’s a loft with the master bedroom, which has a walk-in closet, skylights and a sitting area that opens onto a small deck.

OUTDOOR SPACE: A deck off the upstairs loft, a back deck facing the river and a dock shared with neighbors.

TAXES: $3070.79 annually plus $250 a year in homeowner’s association dues.

CONTACT: Kathy Hovermale and Marilyn Stoner, Cascade Sotheby’s International Realty (541) 419-6778 / (541) 815-4757; sothebysrealty.com

BOSTON?

WHAT: A two-bedroom, two-bath condo in an 1850 carriage house

HOW MUCH: $649,900

SIZE: 950 square feet (estimated)

PER SQUARE FOOT: $684.10

SETTING: Beacon Hill is a half-mile-square neighborhood on the Charles River Basin. It’s one of Boston’s oldest (and most expensive) neighborhoods, known for its 19th-century brick row houses, brick sidewalks and short gas-lighted streets. It’s home to a long list of notable public buildings and private addresses of varying relevance, including the Massachusetts State House and the bar used in filming “Cheers.” This carriage house — up the street from one of the oldest standing black churches in America — is about three blocks from Beacon Street and the northern boundary of Boston Common.

INSIDE: This condo is one of 12 units in an 1850 carriage house, converted in 1981 and renovated piecemeal over the last few years. There is slate tile in the entryway, which has closet space. The living area retains the original beam ceilings and tall wooden carriage door, now sealed off. The kitchen has stainless-steel appliances. The master has an en-suite bathroom and a walk-in closet; in the second bedroom, there’s a custom Murphy bed.

OUTDOOR SPACE: The unit has access to a common patio.

TAXES: $5,945 annually plus $380 a month in condo fees

CONTACT: Kevin Caulfield, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage (617) 501-3685; newenglandmoves.com

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In the Region | New Jersey: Condo Market Shows Improvement

OUTSIDE a condominium tower on Prospect Avenue one recent Sunday, Robert Young was pulling hard to uproot an open-house sign he had planted earlier.

“I really had to pound it in,” said Mr. Young, an agent at Weichert Realtors, as he tugged at the metal stakes. “At first nobody was showing up, and I saw the wind was knocking the sign flat.” Once he secured it, Mr. Young said happily, several condominium shoppers did appear.

“I think we’re going to sell this puppy,” he added. “It’s got a nice price, mortgage rates are still low and it appears that people are finally recognizing this is a good time to buy.”

Of course that was just one agent wearing his happy face. But there are others marketing condos in northern New Jersey counties — Essex, Hudson and Morris, as well as Bergen — who say traffic has been surprisingly decent at open houses this spring and who see the market picture as improving, if not necessarily pulsating with good health.

Brian Morgenweck, a broker with the Power Realty Group in Hackensack, said that on average in Bergen County condos were spending 117 days on the market, which is under four months.

As of April 20, he said, 1,797 condominiums were listed in Bergen County, versus a high of 1,945 last July, shortly after the expiration of the federal tax credit for home buyers.

“So the inventory of available units is shrinking,” said Mr. Morgenweck, who is the founder of his agency, “and even more importantly sellers are finally coming around to serious reality with their prices.”

Because of the way the market is churning, said the New Jersey market analyst Jeffrey G. Otteau, it is impossible to pinpoint the average or median asking price of condos on the market in Bergen County.

But he did compute the median price for the 192 condos for sale in Hackensack: $222,000.

In two other Bergen communities with substantial numbers of condos for sale — Cliffside Park, with 160, and Edgewater, with 168 — Mr. Otteau said the median prices were $390,000 and $535,000, respectively.

In those three towns, condo prices are running well below those for single-family houses, and in Edgewater, where the median house price is $1.299 million, condos cost less than half that.

“To the extent that condos are holding their own in this market,” said Mr. Otteau, the president of the Otteau Valuation Group in New Brunswick, “the fact that they are less expensive than single-family homes has to be considered a driving factor.”

But to talk of any market’s holding its own, he added, is not to say it is healthy.

At the current rate of sales in Bergen County, for example, it would take 13.3 months for all the units now on the market to be sold — if no other condos were added to the inventory of homes for sale. In Hudson County, which had 1,781 condos on the market in April, it would take 11.8 months to sell them all.

Certain local markets are defying the norm, and performing better than their counties:

Hoboken in Hudson County has 6.2 months’ supply of condos on the market, a healthy number in the eyes of statisticians. Mahwah in Bergen has 6.1 months’ supply.

In Mahwah so far this year 14 or 15 condos have sold each month. The same number sold in Hackensack, but it also had 192 condos remaining unsold after 30 days; Mahwah’s unsold quantity was 90.

In some cases where condos are selling relatively well compared with single-family houses, Mr. Otteau said, the trend may simply reflect how poor the market is for houses. After all, in his company’s latest report to subscribing real estate professionals, he referred to the overall housing market as having a “faint pulse.”

West Orange in Essex County has 99 condos for sale, an inventory that would take an estimated 10.2 months to sell. The average unit is spending 112 days on the market. That compares with an unsold inventory of 279 single-family houses, or 12.4 months’ supply, with houses spending an average of 109 days on the market.

Ellen Oxfeld, a Coldwell Banker agent, said the condo market in West Orange had picked up over the last three months. She cited agency statistics indicating that the absorption rate for condos — meaning how long it takes them to sell — had shrunk to 6.2 months in March, from 8.3 months in February and 14.5 months in January.

“All markets are local,” she said. “And right now, condos are doing fairly well here.”

A month ago Ms. Oxfeld listed a three-bedroom town house condo at Normandie Estates for $379,000. Built in 1998, it last sold in 2003, for $432,000.

In Morristown, too, condos are selling faster than single-family houses. There is a 12.8-month supply of condos on the market, and a 14-month supply of houses. Condos spend an average of 81 days on the market; houses spend 115 days.

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New-Home Sales Increased in March, but Stayed Low

Buyers signed contracts in March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, an 11 percent increase from the month before but down from 384,000 in March 2010, the Census Bureau said Monday.

In March 2005, when a lack of income or savings was no deterrent to getting a dream home with granite countertops and a walk-in pantry, families and investors flocked to new homes at an annual rate of 1.43 million houses.

The millions of homes built during the boom have created a drag on the current market as the owners surrender them to foreclosure. Builders cannot compete against relatively new construction offered by banks for large discounts.

The March sales numbers modestly exceeded analysts’ expectations but nevertheless did not impress. “Still miserable,” concluded Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist for MFR Inc. While February sales were revised up to 270,000 from an initial 250,000, it was still the lowest of any month since records were first kept in 1963.

Builders told potential buyers in March that they might want to make a deal before new rates came from the Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees many loans. That probably contributed to the rebound.

In a separate report issued Monday, the HousingPulse Tracking Survey indicated that nearly half of the housing market is distressed properties. Because banks generally pulled back on foreclosures over the last six months, the survey underlined the long-term pressures facing the market.

If the banks start processing foreclosures faster, that will create further downward momentum on the housing market. A coalition of state attorneys general and the Obama administration is negotiating with the lenders to persuade them to do more loan modifications instead.

Home prices have been falling for the last six months, and the release on Tuesday of the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index for February is expected to show another decline. Before that release, Morgan Stanley lowered its forecast for prices by an additional 4 percent. Morgan Stanley analysts now say prices will drop 6 percent to 11 percent from their levels at the end of last year.

The drop in home construction and sales is in some ways good news for would-be sellers, because it means new supply is not coming to a market that already has excess inventory. But lackluster construction is a drag on the larger economy, contributing to high unemployment and weak consumer spending.

It would take about seven months to find buyers for all the new homes now on sale, a period only slightly longer than normal. Builders are clearly skittish about anything for which they do not have a contract.

No relief is in sight.

“Sales remain very low by historical standards and, considering that a number of home builders reported large drops in orders recently, there is likely more weakness ahead,” wrote Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.

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Mortgages: Financing a Vacation Home

There is loan money available for second-home purchases, but expect bigger down payments, higher interest rates and other standards tighter than on a principal residence — and those standards are tight already. In addition, there are quirks specific to vacation markets.

Vacation-home purchases accounted for 10 percent of home sales last year, according to a National Association of Realtors survey released this spring. Investment purchases accounted for 17 percent — but sometimes the line between the two is a bit blurry. That’s down sharply from the height of the real estate boom in 2005, when vacation and investment sales accounted for 40 percent combined.

Then, “there was virtually no difference in underwriting for vacation homes versus owner-occupied homes,” said Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance. “That’s something that’s changed dramatically. The days of being able to buy a vacation home with little or no money down are over.”

Loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration with down payments of as little as 3.5 percent aren’t available to vacation-home buyers. That means 20 percent for deals that meet stringent requirements of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. For loans that don’t fit — for instance, that are bigger than the government ceilings, which vary by county — down payments can be higher. Kevin Santacroce, an executive vice president and the chief lending officer of Bridgehampton National Bank on Long Island, said that for the jumbo loans his bank writes, down payments are “closer to 25 percent, maybe 30 percent.” In Suffolk County, a jumbo loan is more than $729,750, among the nation’s highest. (As Mr. Santacroce points out, that’s the loan amount, not the purchase amount; still, it’s a rare house in the Hamptons that would fall into the non-jumbo category.)

Thirty percent also seems to be the “comfort zone” this year for down payments in the Jersey Shore towns where Michael Loundy, a broker at Seaside Realty, works. “You can get 20 percent down,” he said, “but the buyer has to look very strong with income-debt ratios.”

Pinning down the details of a loan is challenging, Mr. Loundy said. For instance, during the loan approval process, exact terms may shift — a rate can go up one-eighth or one-quarter of a percentage point for any deal that isn’t exactly “pristine,” he says — and pristine means a free-standing single-family house instead of a condo, a credit score of 725 or more, and full documentation of income.

Even when all else is equal, a vacation-home loan is pricier. Mr. Cecala just refinanced his own primary and secondary homes on the same day, and the interest on the vacation place was one-quarter percentage point higher.

Some vacation areas offer distinct challenges. David Knudsen of Catskills Buyer Agency in Sullivan County says appraisals can be dicey in an area like his, because big banks may, for instance, require that sales be in the same school district to be comparable — which is not so easy with tiny school districts and spread-out sales. Local banks, he said, are better able to assess the worth of, say, a house on one lake versus one on another.

Banks aren’t the only places to get financing. Some sellers will carry loans. “That’s a question some buyers forget to ask sellers,” Mr. Loundy said. “Not everybody is in trouble.”

And what about cash, after all? Vacation-home buyers tend to be older and more affluent than other buyers, so all-cash deals are common. According to the Realtors’ survey, 36 percent paid cash, as did 59 percent of investment buyers.

Mr. Knudsen said that half his sales in the last year were all cash. These buyers don’t need to have appraisals; they can close in 30 days instead of 60 or more; and they can consider houses in less-than-perfect physical condition, like foreclosures.

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The Appraisal: A Broker Who Never Forgets

That is because Mr. Berkson, a feverishly fast-talking 36-year-old Long Island native, keeps an extensive database of the 1,200 clients he has worked with, as well as the thousands of apartments he has visited and photographed over the past eight years. Each day, he enters detailed notes about his clients and scans in every document he receives, like tax returns and financial statements for co-op board and rental applications. Then he carries this information around on a hard drive in his briefcase.

Reactions from clients, he said, ranged from “ ‘Wow, you’re really organized’ to shocked at the level of detail,” Mr. Berkson said while scrolling room by room through photographs of the many apartments he has visited. “You say toh-MAY-toh. I say toh-MAH-toh.”

Salaries, employers, birthdays and spouses’ birthdays are just the start. Plugging the hard drive into a computer at one of Citi Habitats’ offices, he pulled up the completed application of three women trying to rent a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment downtown for less than $6,000 a month, including letters of employment, bank statements and pay stubs. Mr. Berkson then pulled up the photograph of one client’s Lhasa apso, so he could quickly show landlords that the dog weighed less than 20 pounds.

He said his intention was only to help his clients beat out others in a cutthroat real estate market. “When you want to run a race, you don’t stretch when you’re running, you stretch before,” Mr. Berkson said.

He knows that losing his database would be disastrous for his clients and for his reputation of having a sterling memory. The hard drive is protected by security passwords, and if it is not with him it is locked in a desk.

Kevin Balfe, who said Mr. Berkson had helped his family rent two apartments on the Upper West Side in the past six years, was impressed that Mr. Berkson remembered that he and his wife wanted a second bathroom more than they wanted good views. “He is walking around with data that I trust is going to be kept private,” Mr. Balfe said.

Still, he said, it is no scarier than faxing personal information to landlords and brokerages, not knowing what will become of it. “To get the apartment you want,” he said, “to me there’s a tradeoff between personal privacy and ability to make a fast offer. It’s worth the trade-off.”

Mr. Berkson’s dogged collection of detail may have come from his brief career in film, which included stints working in Los Angeles for MTV and Miramax and as a production assistant for the forgettable 1996 film “Kazaam,” where his jobs included making Shaquille O’Neal a perfect vanilla milkshake. But he missed his family and felt frustrated working for other filmmakers, and returned to New York to build a real estate career.

Kristin Kilbourne, who rented three apartments through Mr. Berkson on the Upper East Side from 2004 to 2009, said that he was able to describe most of the apartments she looked at before she even stepped inside, and that he remembered the name of her puppy, Sadie. Mr. Berkson said Ms. Kilbourne sent him a dozen referrals.

When Eshai Gorshein asked Mr. Berkson, whom he had previously met, to help find him an apartment, Mr. Berkson recalled how Mr. Gorshein preferred quiet apartments because of a bad experience he had had with a noisy college roommate. And when Mr. Gorshein’s mother later sought help from Mr. Berkson, he was able to recall the job she held 30 years earlier because Mr. Gorshein had mentioned it in conversation. The referrals Mr. Gorshein made resulted in about five more deals for Mr. Berkson.

He said he realized that gathering this data made many clients uncomfortable, especially when they were coming from out of town. His father had the same concerns when Mr. Berkson was starting out in real estate and needed his father to be a guarantor on a lease, which required him to hand over his own financial information to his son’s landlord.

But Mr. Berkson’s clients need not fear that his database will go astray, he said: “I treat it like my life.”

Real Estate by Day

Scott Kreitzer, an agent for Prudential Douglas Elliman, was busy enough juggling parenting duties for his 4-year-old son and trying to rent or sell about two dozen apartments. Then, in March, Mr. Kreitzer, a saxophonist, was hired to perform in the musical “Memphis.” Now, he juggles Sunday open houses around matinees and has also picked up business from a bass player in the orchestra, whose Harlem apartment he is trying to sell, and from Lauren Kinhan, a singer, who is trying to rent out an apartment she owns in Midtown West.

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Square Feet : Evan Stein

J.D. Carlisle manages about 600,000 square feet of commercial space and nearly 2,000 apartments citywide. Its developments include Morton Square, the Cielo, Gramercy Green, and the Beatrice.

Q Are you the de facto C.E.O.?

A Yes, absolutely. There’s no C.E.O. The chairman is my partner, Jules Demchick. Our chairman is responsible for assemblage of the property, financing, and usually the initial plan. Once the acquisition is done, he moves on to the marketing and we move to the development. M.D. Carlisle Construction is the vehicle that physically builds the projects. With buildings like the Beatrice you almost need to know the end of the movie before you begin.

Q Will the Beatrice, your newest and biggest project, have a happy ending?

A I hope so. I put my grandmother’s name on the building.

Q Was this your most difficult development?

A It’s by far the most expensive, and this was the most complicated. We have several uses in this building, so that takes a tremendous amount of management to understand how all the pieces work together: how the restaurant is working with our hotel, how the residential building complements the hotel. And we have a garage.

We’re certainly not in the black yet, because the building is in its infancy, but from an economic view we’re pleased with the results.

Q What is the occupancy?

A We are 99 percent. Of 300 rental apartments, we have left four penthouses that we are just allowing for occupancy May 1. All the penthouses start at $20,000, up to $23,500 monthly. We’re already getting a lot of activity on them. And the hotel’s doing well; it’s exceeding our expectations.

Q Why rentals and not condos?

A We cut our teeth on rentals. In the ’60s and the ’70s, we built probably 60- or 70-plus rental projects. The rentals are scattered all over Manhattan. Our recent history was condominiums — we had three or four projects that were a function of the times.

It’s hard to put your heart and soul into something where at the end of the day you don’t have a tangible asset anymore.

Q Would you ever consider converting the Beatrice, if, say the market soared again?

A I hope not. I’d be lying to you if I told you I haven’t been asked that before. We have several rental buildings that have gone through four or five real estate booms, but we like rentals.

Q What’s your assessment of the New York market now?

A In the long-term perspective we’re very bullish, but you’re going to have short-term challenges — whether they be economic, political or availability. There are still tremendous opportunities here, and we’re seeking them out.

Q Do you have any other projects in the works?

A We do have three or four projects that we’re excited about. Unfortunately, we can’t talk about them because we’re under confidentiality agreements.

They’re going to be some rental, some condo; three are ground-up and one is a gut renovation. We’re looking at a couple in the outer boroughs at this point in time, and certainly in Manhattan.

Q So why doesn’t J.D. Carlisle have a Web site?

A We get asked that a lot. We’re low-profile people; we don’t usually have to advertise who we are.

Q You knew at an early age that you wanted to be involved in real estate, didn’t you?

A Yes, because my hero was my grandfather, who founded this business — my maternal grandfather, Beatrice’s husband.

He has been my hero since the minute I could understand who he was, and I would have done anything to be with him — to be him. When I was graduating from college, he asked if I would consider coming to work with him. I jumped at the opportunity and 17, 18 years later, here’s where we are. He’s since retired.

Q What was your first job there?

A I went to school for accounting so I started off computerizing their accounting systems, and I got bored very, very quickly. I made the request for an assistant superintendent’s job. I went to work with a hard hat climbing into the demolition. Just being on a construction site every single day helps me to understand how things wind up working, all the nuances that you need to understand.

Q Do you live in any of your buildings?

A I live in Morton Square. One of the advantages of developing is you get a good price.

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Square Feet: Projects Shelved in the Downturn Spring Back to Life

The developer spent the last several years studying the engineering of a deck over the rail yards on the site, and says it has found a way to build it cheaper and quicker. It will start construction later this year, with plans to deliver a two-million-square-foot office tower designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill on the northeast corner of the parcel by 2015. There are plans to eventually construct as many as three towers.

“We will start building the deck on spec but are confident that by the time we get around to building the tower, we will have found an anchor tenant,” said Ric Clark, the president and chief executive. While he declined to give asking rents for the tower, Brookfield has begun preliminary conversations with tenants and expects to be competitively priced with the Hudson Yards buildings the Related Companies is planning a few blocks west.

As rents rebound and vacancies fall in the New York office market, some developers like Mr. Clark who shelved projects in the recession are resurrecting their plans. Several buildings are in the pipeline, and nearly 9.5 million square feet could become available over the next few years — in addition to several million more square feet at the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan and the Hudson Yards.

A number of factors are driving the trend. Commercial rents are rising in certain submarkets and have held steady in others. Builders who believe the market has turned are preparing sites now in the hopes their projects will come online when higher rents are firmly established.

The city’s aging office stock is another factor. Nearly 83 percent of the office buildings in Manhattan were built more than three decades ago, according to the real estate company Cassidy Turley, and just 6.6 percent have been built since 1990. Many tenants, particularly law firms and financial services companies, crave new space that can be more efficient and tailored to their needs. Finally, construction costs could fall as union contracts begin expiring over the next few months and contractors push to exclude costly labor rules.

“A year ago people were saying the market was so bad they wouldn’t contemplate ground-up construction,” said John F. Powers, the chairman of the New York tri-state region for CB Richard Ellis. “But now, there is upward pressure on rents in some segments of the market, and certainly there is no more downward pressure, so developers are beginning to run pro formas again,” he said, referring to the method of estimating a project’s cost.

In the first quarter of this year there were 15 office leases in Midtown at rents above $90 a square foot, compared with 23 for all of 2010, according to Cushman & Wakefield. At the same time the vacancy rate in Midtown has dropped to 10.3 percent, compared with 12.6 percent at this time last year.

Tenants considering locking in new space now, before rents rise further, include Time Warner Inc., the financial services behemoth UBS and the law firm Mayer Brown. According to Cassidy Turley there are 446 tenants in the market chasing less than 28 million square feet of space.

Particularly well-poised are those developers who had begun preparing before the recession and can resume construction now at points further along. Pacolet Milliken Enterprises, the sister company of the textile firm Milliken & Company, demolished the building at 1045 Avenue of the Americas, a full block between West 39th and West 40th Streets, in 2009. The company has completed the schematic design for a 350,000-square-foot office building at the now-vacant lot, and has hired the Houston-based real estate firm Hines as a consultant.

“We feel very confident about the market and the location,” said Richard C. Webel, Pacolet Milliken’s president. He said the company had been speaking preliminarily with tenants, though it had not yet hired a broker. As for timing, “based on who we have talked to, the market should be there by 2015 or 2016, if not sooner,” Mr. Webel said.

Timing is critical as the market starts to revive, experts said. “The first buildings to be up and running will be most successful in grabbing an anchor tenant,” said Robert Sammons, the vice president for research services at Cassidy Turley.

Boston Properties is banking on this as it revives construction on a 1-million-square-foot office tower at 250 West 55th Street; building stopped in 2008 after the foundation was poured. Since it is partially built, it will be a relatively short time — mid-2014 — until Boston Properties can deliver the building to tenants. Already, it is in lease negotiations with the law firm Morrison Foerster as an anchor tenant.

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House Tour: Millbrook, N.Y.

Jennifer May for The New York TimesTwo houses made into one.

WHAT Five-bedroom house on six acres.

WHERE Millbrook, N.Y., in Dutchess County, 82 miles from Midtown Manhattan.

WHO Though the house needed work, Kinue and her husband, Jordan Fowler, chief executive of Frontier Healthcare Holdings in Manhattan, wanted it from the first moment they saw it. Three years and some ambitious renovations later, Kinue, who goes by only one name for personal reasons, talks about embracing the home’s eccentricities to create a playful environment for their four children.

“With a growing family, we wanted more room than an apartment in the city could offer. But we didn’t want to move to the suburbs. So we decided to look for something outside the city and immediately found this house online. Two weeks later, we bought it.

“It’s actually two houses that were connected in 1910. What’s now the kitchen and boys’ bedroom are in the original farmhouse, which was built in 1750. The rest of the house is what was a Greek revival, built in 1890, that used to be across the street. So it’s definitely a meandering and quirky place. You have to twist and turn to get from one side to the other, and there are lots of secret places and mysterious closets — just the sort of thing that kids love.

“And for us, that’s what this place is all about. Spending time as a family. So we feel so happy that we found our architect, Jimmy Crisp. He really got it. When we renovated the boys’ bedroom, for example, he exposed the beams and hung swings and rings from the ceilings. The kids are quite happy now to show their appreciation for the space by showing everyone their trapezelike tricks! Then there was the kitchen, a room that gave me a heart attack at every turn. But Jimmy endured my last-minute decision to skip an island and fashion a work surface from a big dressing table instead. And he gave me something I had always dreamed of having: a raised fireplace. I love it in there and honestly, so do the kids. I’d say that we spend 80 percent of our time in the kitchen. Of course, as the weather warms up, we’ll spend more time outdoors. Part of the renovation included adding a loggia just off the kitchen, and this year we’re putting in a pool. Meanwhile, the kids are happy to run around the property or to explore the barn, which is pretty rickety, with Jordan, who joins in with them, pretending they are raccoons. Indoors, we have one of the parlors set up with electric guitars, a microphone and keyboard. There are a lot of kid concerts and dances in there! And there’s stuff everywhere. Believe me, it’s a real mission to make it look presentable. But for us, that’s O.K. That’s what we wanted: a kid-friendly house.”

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In the Region | Long Island: East End Homes Prepare for Guests

“It goes a long way to paying our taxes locally,” said Mr. Stoecker, a senior vice president of Town and Country Real Estate in East Hampton, “and it’s a positive experience all the way around.”

So goes life as summer approaches in the Hamptons. Happy for a windfall, homeowners are cleaning out kitchens and closets in anticipation of paying guests. The homeowners then decamp  for less pricey accommodations or  take vacations with their bounty. In some cases investors are sprucing  up their well-appointed houses, enticing renters willing to pay $15,000 or $50,000 or $100,000 for a month — or  more than $600,000 for a Memorial Day to Labor Day stay (and that’s not including the maid, the pool boy, the gardener or the electric bill).

“We have very few hotels,” said Gary DePersia, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group in East Hampton. “Renting a house has become a convention out here.” It is also something of a race for the most suitable property, with “people in a frenzy trying to find the right house,” whether that’s a $35,000-a-month rental, or a $300,000-a-season rental.  “Each renter has their own idea of what their Hamptons experience should be,  have a location in mind, a bedroom count in mind and a price in mind,” Mr. DePersia said.

From Westhampton to Montauk, Shelter Island or the North Fork, there are 5,000 to 7,000 rental listings on the market at any given time, Mr. DePersia said, but “in any location, there are only a finite number of good houses.” With prices higher than last year’s and places renting at a faster pace, he said, the winners are houses with amenities like  flat-screen televisions, DVD players, wireless Internet access and fresh-looking furnishings. “People expect the same amenities out here as when they stay in a fine hotel,” he said.

Fifteen years ago, he recalled, most Hamptons rentals were taken for the entire summer. As the economy dipped in recent years, the two-week rental became more popular, as well as options to rent for August only, or for July through Labor Day, to coordinate with children’s day-camp schedules. People “are not going to downsize the house,” so instead they book a shorter stay, he said.

Lawrence Citarelli Jr., the president of First Hampton International Realty, has a $395,000 listing for anyone interested in spending July in a 12-bedroom 12-and-a-half-bath mansion on six acres — with pool, tennis and eight fireplaces (in case it gets chilly).

Mr. Stoecker and Jennifer Wilson, who work as a  team for Town and Country, have an inventory of 93 homes for sale and 785 summer rentals. So far, Ms. Wilson estimated, about 60 percent of rentals have been scooped up, and more than last year are being rented for the whole season.

Indeed, Mr. Stoecker said, this season seems more like the days before the market took a nose dive — with renters who started shopping on Thanksgiving weekend and trudged through the ice and snow, then “pulled the trigger” in January.  He also said that houses south of Route 27 usually rented first and that communities “with the  most inventory are the woodsy sections of East Hampton, Amagansett and Sag Harbor.”

But despite Mr. Stoecker’s enthusiasm, perusals of sites like Craigslist turn up a wealth of options for single-week stays, or even long weekends. One recent example is a historic house on a Peconic Bay inlet in Sag Harbor with “lots of lounging areas,” according to the advertisement. Weeks in May and September are $3,200, in June and July $3,800. Cleaning and utilities are included. (When stays are longer, utilities, housekeepers, swimming coaches, landscapers and pool cleaning services can add 15 percent or more to a tenant’s bill, brokers say.)

One of Mr. Stoecker’s properties, a 3,000-square-foot North Haven house on two acres with a waterfront pool and a private beach on Sag Harbor Bay, belongs to Shannon Such and Howard Deutsch. It is listed for $295,000 for the summer. For the last 25 years it has been rented out for the summer — for 23 of them to the same family.

Ms. Such, a lawyer in Manhattan, says that in the fall, winter and spring her husband spends most of the time enjoying the “almost spiritual” water views at the “light and airy and informal but fun” cottage, while she comes out to the East End on weekends.

Summer is “a beautiful time, but it is a crowded time,” Ms. Such said. “It gives us an opportunity to travel”   — this summer to Peru — and the presence of tenants easily covers the annual cost of maintaining the house. “It is a bit of an annuity.”  

Dee Kerrigan Perfido, a broker-owner of First Hampton International Realty in Westhampton Beach, said she had seen a “nice uptick” in rentals for the first time in three years. Waterfront homes for rent are “going very quickly,” partly because many that sat out the downturn as rentals have now sold. Former tenants are among the buyers. “Renters have decided they liked it here and they’ve bought,” Ms. Kerrigan Perfido said.  

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Off the Charts: A Reversal for Real Estate After Some Mild Gains

Indexes of the two markets showed this week that the latest declines had almost wiped out the mild gains the two markets had shown after prices appeared to have hit bottom.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices ended February 3.3 percent below where it was a year earlier, and just 0.5 percent above the low reached in May 2009. The Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Index was reported to be down 4.9 percent over the last 12 months, but still 0.8 percent above its low, reached last August.

In both cases, sales volumes are far below what they were when the markets were booming, and a large proportion of the properties that are being sold were in trouble before the sale. The National Association of Realtors estimates that about 40 percent of existing homes that changed hands in March were either in foreclosure or were so-called short sales in which the house was sold for less than was owed on the existing mortgage.

The commercial property index, which is based on data collected by Real Capital Analytics, shows that 29 percent of transactions in February involved distressed properties — including those already in foreclosure or default, as well as those whose owners had filed for bankruptcy.

“Only when the share of distressed sales meaningfully drops off will we be able to enter the recovery phase,” said Tad Philipp, Moody’s director of commercial real estate research.

As can be seen from the accompanying charts, home prices nationally peaked in 2006 but did not begin to plunge until 2007.

At first, that was widely viewed as a result of problems in the subprime mortgage market. Commercial real estate prices rose until early 2008, but then declined rapidly. The latest values for the indexes show national home prices down 31 percent from peak levels, while the commercial real estate index shows a fall of 45 percent.

The charts show the trend of prices since December 2000. Home prices are about 27 percent higher than they were then, but commercial real estate is up just 6 percent. Meanwhile, in a tortoise-versus-hare tale, home rental rates are higher than they ever were even though they failed to boom when real estate prices soared.

Both indexes are based on repeat sales of the same property, and the relative lack of commercial property transactions — the index counted only 107 in February for more than $2.5 million each — means that the figures are far from exact. But they do show trends.

According to data from Moody’s, hotels and apartments are in the most distress, with about 16 percent of loans in each category classified as delinquent. About 10 percent of loans on industrial property are in trouble, while the figures for offices and retail properties are lower, at around 7 percent.

Over all, the proportion of commercial loans in distress climbed from under 1 percent at the end of 2008 to over 9 percent now. But it has been stable in recent months, providing some hope that the market is no longer deteriorating.

On a regional basis, the same markets tend to have problems in both commercial and residential real estate. The three states with the highest proportion of commercial loans in distress, according to Moody’s, are Nevada, Arizona and Michigan. In Nevada, more than 30 percent of loans are classified as being in trouble, nearly double Arizona’s 16 percent figure.

Floyd Norris comments on finance and the economy on his blog at nytimes.com/norris.

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It’s Not Listed. But It’s Definitely for Sale.

On a prestigious block in the West Village in a prewar doorman building, the four-bedroom three-bath apartment has been completely renovated and is large enough for a young family.

But there is a hitch. It is not for sale. At least not officially.

Ms. Ball, who is married and has three children, is interested in selling her apartment, but she is not interested in putting it on the market.

She is one of a small group of owners, who, often working closely with brokers they know from past deals, try to avoid the hassle of showing their homes by letting it be known that for the right price, they would be ready to move on. For Ms. Ball, the right price is anywhere from $3.5 million to $4 million.

Among brokers, such a transaction — in which a seller informally engages a broker but doesn’t sign a contract — is referred to as a “pocket deal.” If the broker finds a buyer, he or she will be paid a commission, but there will be no online listings, open houses or advertising of the property.

What the seller wants from the arrangement is a buyer who can meet the asking price, ideally in cash, and be ready to act quickly. Brokers say these deals — happening all across Manhattan, on multimillion-dollar Park Avenue co-ops as well as chic TriBeCa lofts — are interesting more sellers these days.

There are many reasons a seller might take the pocket-deal route. Some are afraid that if they list the apartment and it does not sell for weeks or even months, it will be considered tarnished. Others fear that with buyers expecting bargains, they will be besieged with low-ball offers. Some do not want to keep their homes primped and primed for constant showings. Still others know that potential buyers often fail to get financing at the last minute, thus wasting months.

And, of course, there are some who are holding out for the price they were fantasizing about before the market fell.

Some brokers say pocket sales are increasing because listings for desirable inventory are low. Inventory shrank after a small boomlet last spring, when many owners accepted the reality of the market, priced their apartments accordingly and saw them sell. This spring, it seems, many of those listing their apartments believe the market has recovered more fully than it actually has, and are overpricing their properties.

“It is not that there is a lack of inventory, period,” said Jeremy V. Stein, a broker at Sotheby’s International, who, along with his wife, Robin Stein, is working with Ms. Ball to find potential buyers. “It is that there is a lack of inventory priced right.”

Yet for all the explanations that sellers may offer to justify keeping their homes off the market, pocket deals are frowned upon by many in the industry.

“I do not think this is a really good way for most people to sell their apartment,” said Pamela Liebman, the president of the Corcoran Group. Often, she said, a person who declares an interest in selling an apartment without listing it is not serious. In many cases, brokers find that these deals are not worth the trouble. Instead of using the tried-and-true tools for moving Manhattan properties, like advertising them and holding open houses, brokers are forced to play matchmaker — and in this city, where real estate passions run hot, it isn’t easy being Cupid.

 “I think ultimately the sellers hurt themselves,” Ms. Liebman said.

The term “pocket deal” usually implies that a broker is intimately involved in working with the seller, despite the lack of an official listing. But sometimes property owners just put the word out on the wind.

For instance, the owners of a mansion at 16 East 69th Street, once owned by a member of the Vanderbilt family, never signed an exclusive deal with a broker. But they let it be known that if a broker had a client who might be interested in the house, he or she could show the property. In the end, although various brokers took clients through, no broker was given a commission on the $47 million sale.

Decades ago, when co-brokering was not a common practice, not listing a property was a way of controlling the buyer pool, and often a means of racial or ethnic discrimination. Now, even those who dislike pocket deals say they find no evidence of their being used to discriminate. The Real Estate Board of New York has a set of rules that member brokers must follow when they sign a contract to sell an apartment, established in part to ensure fairness.

John Doyle, the board’s senior vice president for government affairs, said that by far the most common course was for an owner to sign an exclusive written agreement with a broker.

“If they have signed a deal giving the broker an exclusive right to sell,” Mr. Doyle said, “then the seller has to pay the broker even if they brought in the buyer.”

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