Westchester View

It may be the dead of winter, but a buyer’s housing market is in full bloom in Scarsdale. Some sales statistics point to one of the best buyers markets for single family homes than has been seen in a very long time.

Cooperatives:

Coops in the coveted Scarsdale zip code (10583) showed less stress than single family homes. They were one of the bright spots in an otherwise grim quarter. Prices were down a mere 4.6% over the previous year – with an average sales price of $251,000 for the 4th quarter. There was a mild (perhaps insignificant) average price increase of $13,000 from the previous quarter. The number of units sold in 2008 was not significantly different from the 2007 numbers. But there has been a significant inventory increase of 8.4 months reflecting the season and the general weakness in the New York market.

It should be noted that for cooperatives I use the Scarsdale post office and not the municipality for these statistics. This reflects the way buyers tend to shop of for cooperatives. Buyers shop in terms location not municipality.
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Everyone is looking at this title and they are hitting the snooze button.  Home owners insurance is not likely to get buyers or sellers into a tizzy of excitement.  I know what you’re thinking.  “I’m on this blog to find out about housing prices and cool neighborhoods or to search for homes on-line!  I don’t want to read boring stuff like this!”  Yep, booooorrrring …..until something happens.

It was early December and I was driving (or TRYING to drive) to an appointment.  The traffic was something amazing. Initially I chalked it up to the holidays.  White Plains is the shopping capital of Westchester County and traffic can be an issue in December.  But this was differenet.  Something had happened because the traffic wasn’t moving at all. After zig-zagging around the problem I wended my way to the appointment and forgot about the incident.

Later that day I discovered that a residential fire in the downtown area had been the cause.  The address I found in the  Journal News didn’t ring any alarm bells, but a couple of days later The White Plains Times had a picture of the building that had been on fire.  The Journal News had reported the wrong address.  I knew that complex all too well  YIKES!!! I had  recently sold a unit in this complex!   I immediately logged on to my other source of White Plains news the wpcnr (John Bailey’s White Plains Citizen Net Reporter).  The complex was was a garden style complex  four rows of semi attached buildings. I was hoping my client’s unit was in one of the three unaffected lines.   No such luck.  I swallowed hard, John Bailey’s description confirmed that my client’s unit was near “ground zero.”

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Here is my second “Friday Fun” entry. These days we could all use some comic relief. So I’m going to try to post some humor once a week.  Since I came up with these personally – and I’m not a comic – I can only hope that its good enough to provide a few laughs.

Why do people hate real estate agents?

Could there be a reason why we are viewed as only slightly less revolting than a used car salesman?  How did we arrive at such an edifying status?  Perhaps we came by our bad reputations the old fashioned way – by EARNING THEM.

With that….ahem… hypothesis in mind – I was reading some listings from an area just outside my usual territory – trying to get an idea of pricing and condition before heading out on the road. Generally, I know about the condition of a property that I’m showing so some of the public facing comments fly over me. But this time I knew less – so I read more.  It was an eye-opening experience. Listing agents are obliged by law to represent the seller.  As such, they are required to present the property in its best light.  Of course no on can get past the fact that even if you can put lipstick on a pig – its still a pig.   While scanning the photos and comments I decided to compile a list of agent-speak descriptions and provide some likely “translations” for the benefit of those surfing listings online. Happy Hunting!

“Just steps from the train“ – You can parachute onto the train from your bedroom window.
“Easy access to major roads” – The house is sitting into the middle of a cloverleaf.
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Westchester has been resistant to price decreases since 2005:

Until recently, the Westchester real estate market has been very resistant to the housing recession that has been headline news in many parts of the country. Don’t get me wrong, there were signs that the market was far softer. But average and median sales prices had held up and even increased since 2005 when the housing recession began.

Westchester prices are heavily influenced by its unique location:

Reasons for the resilience are many – but I will mention the most obvious one. There is this old saying: Real estate is location, location, LOCATION. Okay – I know its a cliche – but in this case it happens to be true. The primary reason Lower Westchester has remained on solid footing is its location. From most points, mid-town Manhattan is a 40 minute commute or less. The train ride is convenient and comfortable. That is a HUGE perk and people are willing to trade real money up-front in exchange for more family time, less wear and tear on their cars and gasoline. Ask anyone who has experienced the grinding commutes north and west of lower Westchester and they will tell you more than you ever wanted to know about how a long commute saps your strength, your wallet and family time. Although some of the stats ahead are not looking too pretty, this fact should be uppermost in everyone’s mind for when the market recovers – which it will.

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Sometimes agents talk amongst themselves. Share our war stories and generally discuss the market and where we think it is going. Over the past few weeks I have been hearing a similar theme being expressed in different ways by several agents and brokers. It’s something that I’ve been feeling too – but haven’t expressed verbally – until now. Yesterday, one agent finally put his finger on all the euphemisms regarding “buyer behavior” over the past year when he said he is seeing a lot of “angry buyers.”

We are in one of the best buyer’s markets that Westchester County has ever seen. So why all the hostility? Buyers are in the drivers seat. But like the angry comic, Lewis Black, there are quite a few buyers who seem almost hostile no matter how much the pot is sweetened. It’s never quite enough and they keep pushing the envelope until there is no more. Even after they’ve been offered a gooey sweet pot – they sometimes walk away convinced that they are being ripped off.

My guess is that many of these angry buyers feel that they have been denied their “market crash.” They have been patiently waiting for the market to take a blissful dive off a cliff. After all, a crash of catastrophic proportions was promised by news media. A cohort of buyers were waitin’ and hopin’ and wishin’ and prayin’ for a complete collapse in the Westchester housing market. Then they were then going to swoop in and snag a steal and live happily ever after purchasing a $600,000 home for $200,000.
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If you are in the throes of the buying process – you’ve probably been thinking the same thing. I’ve been hearing this from quite a few buyers these days and its gotten to the point where I feel compelled to write about it.

First, in order to put things in their proper perspective, let’s start by looking back in time one year. I was starting to hear a lot of this last year. I advised clients that although I didn’t have a crystal ball, I didn’t believe prices would drop like a rock – and guess what? They didn’t. I did advise buyers that they needed to be aware that tighter lending standards and higher down payments might severely impact their buying power if they chose to wait. Now the same buyers are back. Prices haven’t changed much locally – the overall effect has been a flat line (up in some areas, down in others.) But buying power is down significantly as lending has seized up and they are required to put down more money at closing. These new requirements have caused some of my buyers who opted to rent last year to be priced out of the market this year. Now they’re stuck in rentals with rates increasing 8-9% a year and madder than wet hens about it.

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Details, details! Does your agent tell you everything you need to know or does he/she withhold information that might be essential in the decision making process?

In the following clip, the agent is informing potential buyers that the house in question is “permeated by unspeakable evil.” The clip is absolutely hilarious. Apart from being a brilliant piece of comedy, the segment also brings to mind the potential pitfalls of working with a listing agent when you are buying a house. Watch, laugh, and then I will elaborate.

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The first time I was asked this question, I was quite surprised. Since that time I have been asked that question several times by real estate professionals, potential clients and friends. All questioned the time and effort involved in maintaining a successful blog and several suggested that I should simply be happy to do what “everyone else” was doing and create website.

But that’s exactly the point. Real estate is a service profession. A well thought out blog organized for ease of use providing high-quality content can be of great value to those contemplating a major real estate transaction. It is service that I offer to the public. Blogs are continually updated providing a venue that leaves most websites in the dust. Such a format permits a more in depth look at issues of specific interest to those interested in buying or selling, such as market reports, neighborhood profiles, neighborhood statistics, lending information and much more. If well organized, the archives of a well-run blog can provide hundreds of relevant posts that are at the reader’s fingertips. Websites can not hope to provide such in-depth content.

In addition to the regular posts, this blog also has many of the features that a strong website boasts, including a link to the public version of the MLS and information and local data such as reports on local school systems.

So enjoy your time on my blog. And feel free to stop lurking long enough to post some remarks. I would love to hear what you think of my site, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.