Active Rain

I thought I’d do something different and compare the 3rd quarter of 2010 with the previous years going back to 2005 to see if there was anything helpful that could be concluded. This is for single family homes sold in Westchester, and all data is taken from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.  Two things jump […]

I wrote this as a comment on a post on defaulted mortgages, and I deemed my thoughts worth posting on their own.  There is a difference between strategic defaults and true distress. Buy and bail strategic defaults, in other words, people who move from their $300,000 home to an identical one for $180k, say they […]

When will we wake up and realize that cutting the banks slack is cutting our own throats?  Inman News published a column today entitled “Robo Scandal” Lacks Substance, Victims. Craig Swan at Bloodhound Blog opines Foreclosuregate? A scandal? If you want to sue for damages, it behooves you to have suffered a real, actual, material injury. And […]

I cannot imagine being self employed and never reading Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I first read it when I was about 22 and it is one of about half a dozen books (most of which have been in print longer than I have been alive) that I consider to be Rosetta Stones of […]

  (Si prega di perdonare il mio italiano) Dopo il 1900, mio nonno Salvatore Faranda è venuto negli Stati Uniti d’America alla ricerca di una vita migliore. Egli è venuto a Ellis Island, come molti italiani e si stabilì a New York. Aveva solo circa 16, e non avrebbe mai vedere i suoi genitori. Ma […]

This is for single family home activity in the Pleasantville school district for September of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. Pleasantville is right next to Briarcliff Manor and has one of the best downtowns in North Westchester bar none. It is also the home of Pace University.    Compared to September 2009, […]

Yorktown is a large town in northern Westchester County served by both the Yorktown and Lakeland School districts. It is one town over from our office and in the heart of our company coverage area. I have heard it characterized as idyllic suburbia, and I agree. We have just helped a buyer put a house under […]

  Croton on Hudson is the village directly north of Ossining. It is a very charming locale on the Hudson with parks, great neighborhoods, and a large train station hub on the Metro North Hudson Line. My older brother and his family also live there. I used to camp at Croton Point Park as a Boy Scout, and I […]

There is one rather immutable truth to real estate: if you write a commission check, you are at a closing table selling your property.  Which, I believe, is the point. Closing.  Often, when listing a For Sale By Owner (most end up listing), I am asked what happens if someone who expressed interest while the home was […]

I know I’ll hear dissent on this post, but it is my belief that the buyer agent (or listing for that matter) attending an appraisal is a waste of time in most cases. I have had situations where the borrower themselves wanted to go, and after they were ignored by the appraiser, who left 10 minutes after arrival, they […]

  This is the market data for September of 2010 for single family homes in Peekskill, and all information is sourced from the Westchester-Putnam MLS.   There was nowhere to go but up after a very poor August, and we may be looking at a “new normal” for this charming little city on the Hudson. […]

Your business IS our business if you wish to do business.  Buyers in today’s market are in many ways in the driver’s seat in the purchase of real estate. However, they answer to a lender prior to closing, and in the case of cooperatives in New York, they also have to pass the board application […]

Here’s one from the other side of the closing table, where I represented buyers on a 5-month odyssey to purchase a short sale in Yonkers. It made me appreciate the waiting game that buyers must endure, and how valuable status updates are to home purchasers of a short sale in order to stay engaged and committed to […]

Yonkers is the largest city in Westchester County with a population hovering near 200,000. It borders the Bronx to the south, Mt Vernon and Bronxville to the east, and Hastings and Scarsdale to the north. It has some fantastic Hudson waterfront all along the western border. It is also the former home of my parents, […]

I got an email this morning from a well meaning associate about a draconian tax on real estate transactions supposedly due to start in 2013, and of course the editorial message of the email decries President Obama, Speaker of the House Pelosi, Harry Reid,and the rest of the Democratic leadership. The email has an image of a […]

I still love helping buyers. I don’t do it as much as I used to because I am running the company and most buyer requests are given to my very good team of agents who give great service. Our buyers get their own Listingbook account for MLS home searches, automatic email updates when a home […]

What can you buy in different parts of Westchester County for half a million? Interesting question. I did a survey of closed transactions around the county in the past 30 days, and what I found speaks to the different characters of the many areas of our fair county. Bear in mind that these are closed […]

This is for single family home activity in the Briarcliff Manor school district for September of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.  Compared to June 2009, Briarcliff Manor sales volume is about even. Transactions are down one, and median price is down about 2%. 10 Homes are under contract, which indicates […]

This market report is for single family home activity in the Ossining school district for September of 2010. All information is derived from the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service.  In the wake of last month’s encouraging numbers, this September was way down from September of 2009. Sales are down by 40% and the median price tumbled $65,000. Not […]