Real Estate New York
Market Update May 2010
Real Estate New York continues 10% of our commission rebate up to $1,000 details
Real Estate New York continues REBATE while Fed program ends
After much soul searching, the sales associates and brokers of Real Estate New York have agreed to extend our 10% commission rebate (details) at least until September. For while this is a direct cut in our income at a time when we are all coming out of a touch year, the real estate market in New York is still struggling toward recovery. We believe our aid in helping New Yorkers will benefit our community for years to come. We are all in this together.
Also see our 5% Full Service Seller Commission
If you were fortunate enough to write a contract before April 30, 2010 you can cash in now and not as a tax deduction next year. read more
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Home Sales Rise Fastest in 47 years
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- New home sales improved in March at the fastest single-month rate in 47 years, according to a government report released Friday, as buyers snatched up properties ahead of the tax credit that's set to expire.
New-home sales rose 26.9% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 411,000 last month, compared to an upwardly revised annual rate of 324,000 in February, the Census Bureau said. The gain snapped a four-month streak of declines.
A consensus of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected March sales to rise to an annual rate of 330,000.
The March sales were the strongest since last July, and the percentage gain was the biggest on a month-over-month basis since a 31% gain in March 1963.
New-home sales spiked in every region of the United States. The South saw the biggest jump in new home sales, up 43.5%, while the Northeast region saw sales climb 35.7%. The West and Midwest regions both saw single-digit percentage growth, with the West up 6% and the Midwest up 4%.
Read more from CNN Money
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Dirty Wood Boilers Facing the Scrap Heap
Smoky outdoor units made obsolete by tougher state rules
Thousands of polluting outdoor wood-fired boilers, used mainly by people who live in the country as a way to trim energy bills, will have to be scrapped over the next decade under proposed state rules announced Thursday, April 22, 2010.
"This proposal will ensure that new outdoor wood boilers are cleaner, and that existing boilers be used in the most environmentally sound way possible," state Environmental Conservation Commissioner Pete Grannis said.
Under the rules, boilers in use since before September 2005 must be taken out by August 2015. Newer models installed through April 2011 will have to be gone no later than August 2020.
Some boiler models currently sold in New York meet the proposed new emissions requirements, while others do not, DEC spokeswoman Lori Severino said.
The dirtiest versions of obsolete boilers can emit the same amount of air pollution as 1,000 oil furnaces, the agency says. The state Attorney General's Office estimates more than 14,500 boilers were installed in the state between 1999 and 2007.
Read more from The Albany Times Union By BRIAN NEARING, Staff writer
Real Estate New York Launches iRENY.mobi
You can now use your smartphone: Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Blazer, Nokia, Opera Mobile, Palm, Pocket PC, Samsung Windows CE, Zune, Motorola Browser, and more to search the MLS, request showings, set up automatic cell phone alert listing notifications(as noted below), and First Look auto emailed listings at: http://iRENY.mobi (beta)
In addition, you can just visit the main Real Estate New York website at http://RENY.net with a smart phone and you should be taken to the mobile site.
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Home Tweat Home
Get Best Home of the Day Tweets FREE* at: http://twitter.com/HomeTweatHome
formerly: myReny, which is now the user name for
Capital Region Real Estate News
Each day Real Estate New York staffers pick the best
new listings based on condition, price, location, size,
and esthetics. Previous days Tweets are also available for a fast overview of the best
and most recent new listings.
Also, receive instant free* cell phone alerts when a home that
meets your requirements on First Look comes on the market.
Alerts are sent as voice or text messages.
Click to register for cell phone for alerts.
Privacy statement: your phone number is never given out for any reason.
Nor will anyone call uninvited.
*Your cell phone carrier may charge for the text message or voice notification.
Not Getting First Look Listings?
A number of people have told us that our First Look listings have stopped arriving in their email box.
Most often this is caused by the clients spam filter stopping the email listing from arriving.
Usually this can be remedied by including: Email@ParagonMessaging.com as a Safe Sender or white listing the above email address as safe. If help is needed to do this you may contact:
Dennis Maier 518-312-4030 extension #1 or 888-749-3384 toll free
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__________________________________________________________Archives
We've been asked to again include links to past market updates. But since our stories link to other web sites over which we have no control we only want to link to our most recent issues. Otherwise, the article links may fail to work as they once did.
The Skinny: Video Market Update
The Greater Association of Capital Region Realtors XXXXXXXXXX If video window does not appear allow blocked content. |
In Sour Home Market, Buying Often Now Beats Renting
In much of the country, for much of the last decade, renting a home has usually been a better financial move than buying one. It’s been true in Southern California, San Francisco, Phoenix, Las Vegas and large parts of Florida, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast.
Renting required you to suffer the scorn of many real estate agents and the skepticism of friends and relatives who believed that owning a home was almost always superior. But renting also would have typically saved you thousands of dollars a year.
Now, however, the situation is getting more complicated because the housing bust has been playing out unevenly across the country.
In some once bubbly markets, prices have fallen so far that buying a home appears to be a bargain, based on a New York Times analysis of prices and rents in 54 metropolitan areas. In South Florida, Phoenix and Las Vegas, house prices — relative to rents — are as low as in places that never experienced a bubble, like Indianapolis and St. Louis.
The Times analysis is based on comparing the costs of buying and renting a similar home, using data from Moody’s Economy.com, a research firm, and from real estate agents. This kind of comparison can never tell someone for sure what the best financial move will be. But it does show whether a buyer will need a big jump in future prices to cover all the costs of owning — including the down payment, closing costs, property taxes, mortgage interest, repairs and co-op fees.
A simple way to do the comparison is to look at something called the rent ratio: the purchase price of a house divided by the annual cost of renting a similar one. The number 20 provides a useful rule of thumb. When you do the math, you discover that a ratio above 20 means you should at least consider renting, especially if you may move again in the next five years or so. When the ratio is well below 20, the case for buying becomes a lot stronger.
Read more from The New York TImes Real Economy
In the Capital Region the rent ratio is presently between 9 and 14
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Large Downtown-style Development Proposed for Glenmont
A developer is proposing to build a downtown-type development in Glenmont that would consist of 464 housing units and about 100,000 square feet of retail space.
Boswell Engineering, a New Jersey company with Albany offices, is proposing the project at the intersection of Wemple Road and Route 9W. The development -- for now unnamed -- would be built as a hamlet, with walkable neighborhoods and high residential density.
The plan for the 151 acre site calls for 136 single-family homes, 200 senior apartments, 180 additional apartments and 28 twin homes, according to a proposal submitted with the town of Bethlehem, in Albany County.
It also would include 52,500 square feet of "neighborhood" retail, 47,000 of commercial retail, as well as a drugstore, bank and convenience store.
Read more from The Albany Times Union By CHRIS CHURCHILL, Business writer
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Living it Up: Top 100 Fun Cities
Albany more fun than Las Vegas, Orlando, Honolulu, and 78 other cities?!
Portfolio.com rates the top 100 cities for dining, shopping, sports, and culture. And while New York City came in first, Albany placed well in the top percentile.
Considering how difficult and expensive it is to live in NYC, Capital Region residents have always considered themselves lucky to have affordable housing (see above), great public schools, universities, and health care. Now we know we're also great fun.
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Mortgage Rates and Trends
The link to up to the minute New York State mortgage information seems to work better than presenting the actual graph. Click for up to the minute mortgage rate information
Buyers' versus Sellers' Market Report
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The graph above shows the number of sales in a given month divided by the number of homes on the market in the four main counties of the Capital Region.
April sales figures show a continued reversal toward seller territory. This is typical of this time of year plus the additional influence of the $8,000 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit.
*This ratio can be used to determine whether we are in a buyers' or sellers' market as indicated in Dennis Maier's article on Market Timing featured in eZine Real Estate. In general, if it would (theoretically) take less than 6 1/2 months to sell the current inventory it's a sellers' market. If it would take more than 9 months to sell all the homes on the market it's a buyers' market.
Market Statistics as of May 1, 2010
Average Sale & List Prices for Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer, Saratoga Counties
The average list and sale prices for the month of April 2010 show a significant reversal of trend and a level well above March prices, and average prices for the last two years.
The average asking price to sale price has decreased from 97.67% in March to 96.72% for April. The number of sales at 436 is up from 388 last month as is typical for this time of year.
This is a strong indication that buyers are returning to the market and getting good deals, for the moment. But every indication affirms a return to an appreciating market.
a note about the Skinny video (below). The data used for our immediate update is calculated as of the first day of the month, while other sources such as the Greater Capital Region of Realtors uses final stats compiled much later. In addition, the Skinny reports data from the entire Capital Region MLS rather than the four main counties, as is reported above.
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