White Plains New York homes have been following patterns seen throughout county with Westchester county homes for sale continuing to drop in value. Sales volume was up during the period that the tax credit was in place. But like much of the county, sales volume has has dropped across the board to 2009 levels since after the expiration of that stimulus.
For Q2 2010 prices for White Plains NY homes for sale were down from the previous year. Single family homes – which took the brunt of the housing decline last year – had less of a correction this year. The good news here is that as far as single family homes in White Plains goes – we may be still trending down, but the steep declines apparent between 2008-2009 are not present. The story is different and more discouraging for condos and coops.
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The Westchester NY real estate market has been in turmoil over the past 18 months since the stock market crash of 2008. Many parts of the county are still in decline, but some areas are perking up with lower inventories and lower prices. A few areas in the county are starting to see minor price increases. Real estate in Scarsdale NY is one such area. In general, this should be no surprise since there has always been a demand for Scarsdale NY homes. Such homes also include Scarsdale coops which are also quite desirable.
Scarsdale NY Single Family Homes – Scarsdale Schools
The average price for Scarsdale homes for sale – saw an average price increase of about 14% to $1,437,000. Although prices had not truly increased in such a dramatic way. It points to health in the market because is shows that higher end homes are actually closing. The banking crisis kept the larger homes out of the market place in Q1 of 2009. So this increase reflects a broadening of the viable market and not a true price increase. The price range of solds was far broader in 2010 than in Q1 of 2009. Prices ranged from $558,000 to $3,625,000.
Looking at sold listings, the inventory on the market is considerable over 15 months. However, if you look at contracts and pendings – the picture is brighter with a little more than five months of inventory. But that assumes that everything under contract will sell. The truth lies somewhere in between. This is still a buyer’s market – but it is definitely not a fire sale.
Edgemont Single Family Homes – Edgemont Schools – Scarsdale P.O.:
Average housing prices increased in Edgemont as did sales volume which was up 200%. The average sales price at the end of the first quarter was $1,608,000 – up from $840,000 at the end of Q1 in 2009. Interestingly, the price of lower end homes was static, but the price increase reflects the fact that higher end homes are now selling again. For example the highest priced home that sold in Q1 of 2009 was $1.1 million. But in Q1 in 2010 the highest priced closing was $4.2 million. So prices haven’t risen dramatically – but the price range closed sales has increased dramatically. There is still considerable inventory on the market – so this is still very much a buyer’s market. With respect to closed sales in Q1 there is a 15 month inventory. But there are many contracts and pendings in the pipeline. If you use that as your benchmark – the inventory is a little over six months.
Scarsdale NY Cooperatives:
Cooperatives in Scarsdale – including Garth Road with a Scarsdale P.O. – showed moderate gains in prices – up 3.8% over Q1 in 2009. The average sales price in Q1 of 201 was $246,000. Sales volume was static from the previous year and inventory vs. closings indicates that there is a 9.7 month supply of active listings if you look at closed sales from Q1 2010. Looking at contracts and pendings that goes down to 6.5 months.
An Important Note About the Criteria for the Statistics:
I handle each type of housing in Scarsdale differently. I also include a special section for single family homes in “Edgemont” which is really in the town of Greenburgh with a Scarsdale post-office and zip code.
For condominiums and cooperatives, I use the Scarsdale post office and zip code as my criteria. Many of these complexes are actually located in Greenburgh and Eastchester.
This reflects the way most buyer’s shop for housing. Coop and condo buyers work by address whereas those looking for single-family homes are often shopping municipality and school districts.
Further Reading:
Scarsdale NY Housing Market Statistics – Fourth Quarter 2009:
Scarsdale NY – Housing and Market Statistics for Third Quarter 2009:
Housing and Market Statistics for Scarsdale NY – Second Quarter 2009:
Scarsdale Coops – Pet-Friendly Scarsdale Country Estates
Scarsdale Manor Cooperative – Garth Road -Scarsdale NY
The Chauteaux Cooperative – Scarsdale NY
© Ruthmarie G. Hicks – http://thewestchesterview.com – All rights reserved.
The Westchester real estate market is now truly a buyer’s market. In most communities, the number of westchester ny homes for sale is in excess of six months inventory. This is not universal throughout the county. But for the most part, the county is in a buyer’s market. A few days ago, I wrote a blog about seller’s stuck on unrealistic prices (Dear Seller, About that number in your head…) But this is one of those markets where unrealistic expectations are not limited to one side of the transaction. Fueled in part by media reports filled with sturm und drang (storm and stress) many buyers have confused a buyer’s market with a fire sale.
Unfortunately, unrealistic expectations can set buyers up for unnecessary disappointment and frustration. There are several flavors of unrealistic buyers out there.
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Yesterday I showed a foreclosure. Until fairly recently, Westchester hasn’t witnessed much in the way of “underwater” home ownership. We’ve always had our share of foreclosures, but they were far from commonplace. The house was a mess. The walls contained broken dreams of home ownership and you have to wonder about the people who lived there.
There have been a lot of blogs written lately about who is to “blame” for the housing bubble and its disastrous aftermath. Some bloggers blame lenders, some blame agents, brokers, NAR, the Fed, home owners…the list goes on and on.
But one common thread I find very discouraging are blogs which lay blame on the homeowner who was underwater. They should have KNOWN better. They were GREEDY. They were IRRESPONSIBLE, they were this, they were that…
In truth, the housing debacle is as much a result of the decimation of the middle class as it is about a housing bubble itself. Families have found the ground shifting under them faster than they could ever have imagined. Many homeowners have found themselves into the horns of a dilemma. This is the story of my generation. As a forty-something I’ve felt the sands shifting under my feet ever faster. I have found myself scrambling to earn those ever elusive extra dollars that will allow me to keep my own home – even as I help my clients sell theirs.
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You know that your real estate market is expereincing a shake-up when an article about it in Inman News. The post was actually a reposting of an original article written by “The Real Deal” by Amy Tennery called Westchester real estate shake-up: Brokerage world sees shuffling of agents as firms shutter and consolidate during downturn.
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Back in the bull market days of 2005-2006 the notion of needing to “stage” your home for a faster sale was nearly laughable. But home sales in the Westchester market are not what they once were. As most seller’s are painfully aware – this is not 2006. There is ample inventory on the market, prices are down and buyers are increasingly picky. Things once deemed insignificant now become major stumbling blocks to a successful sale.
Increasingly, listing agents, myself included, are encouraging sellers to stage their homes prior to putting them on the market. That includes, but is not limited to painting, pointing up and arranging furniture in a way that maximizes the potential of the space and creates a neutral atmosphere. We ask that seller’s depersonalize the space so that buyers can “mentally move in.”
Although I am not one to spend a homeowners money needlessly, there are times when I feel staging is essential. Staging is most beneficial in the following cases:
An Empty Home:
When the sellers have moved out – they tend to leave an empty shell of a house that used to be a home. That house can tend to lack personality and be all too forgettable to a prospective buyer. Right now there is an excess of inventory that is completely unfurnished and after a while they can all start to look the same to buyers. If a house is in danger of becoming that forgettable – it needs staging in order to stand out in the eyes of buyers.
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It is very interesting that just as consumers are demanding ever more hyper-local content and knowledge from agents that we are also seeing another distinct trend in the opposite direction: the tendency to list and sell to larger and larger geographic areas.
The contrast between old-school hyper-local agents and the newer nomad agnet was driven home to me while I was working with two listing agents who still work exclusively in small niche markets. I was at a closing with one of them and she implied that since I had the entire city of White Plains to cover, why didn’t I simply refer out the client who finally bought in Scarsdale?
Can a real estate agent be too local?
I knew that the attitude about staying hyper-local is alive and well though it appears to be a staple of old-school real estate. Still, I was more than a tad surprised. Scarsdale is not the moon. It is the town directly adjacent to the west side of White Plains and about a whopping six miles from my front door to the center of the village. If we followed this line of thinking to its most extreme would mean that a buyer potentially moving from New York City to Westchester NY would have to have as many as five or six agents to explore all the possibilities open to them that were within about 30 minute commute. For the consumer this seems most unwieldy if not highly impractical. Could you imagine the mountain of agents all crawling over each other for the buyer’s attention? What a mess. Not to mention a monster of coordination.
From the agent’s perspective, there could also be a danger to being too local. What if something happens to that small segment of the market you represent? If your geography/price range are razor thin – you are setting yourself up for trouble. This was clearly seen this year when agents who specialized in small high-end markets got creamed because jumbo loan issues bit them in the backside. Another listing agent I encountered was used to selling about 10 major properties a year – but this year had only managed a single sale.
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