Virginia K. Smith

Wood-burning fireplaces (and the havoc they wreak on the environment) are possibly on the way out in NYC (NYT)

A little relief from that no-mortgage peer pressure: only 45 percent of recent Manhattan home sales were all cash affairs, not 80 percent as previously reported (Matrix Blog)

A Lower East Side building using facial recognition technology instead of keys--ingenious or invasion of privacy? (NYT)

It's harsh, but here's one way of recouping money from co-op owners who've stopped paying (Habitat Magazine)

Rental site Zumper did us all a favor and mapped out the cheap(er) parts of the city's most expensive neighobrhoods (Curbed NY)

No, the buying-houses-with-cash trend isn't going away: 8 out of 10 Manhattan buyers now do it (Washington Post)

We often receive emails from readers asking for help in navigating their own real estate crises. In this new column, we try to get them answers.

The problem:

When tenants have a legal dispute with their landlords, do they have to pay for the legal fees?

Summer house slackers are in luck: waiting til the last minute might actually help your negotiations on a rental (NYP)

And if the Hamptons are out, you could spring for this fairy tale cottage (well, mansion) in Bay Ridge (Curbed NY)