According to today’s Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index, US home prices remain unsteady with more declines expected in some areas. Of the 20 areas examined, almost half experienced falling prices, including New York. While this is not good news, it is news and should be interpreted by our profession (and trade organizations) without rose colored glasses. You can read the NY Times article on the report here. 

We shouldn’t be surprised. The economy remains very slow, unemployment has probably not peaked, and the flood of foreclosures clogging the inventory will suppress prices for years to come.

Have you ever solved a problem without acknowledging that it exists? I never have, so the NAR should humor us with some all-too-rare candor. Just once, I would like to see the NAR announce something that isn’t Pollyanna about the crisis we are in. Is it a good time to buy? No, it is a great time to buy. Agreed. But it is a down market, and any suggestion that it is getting better anytime soon is not only disingenuous, it is seen as a credibility buster by the public. 

So if you are going to buy, buy and hold. You aren’t going sell again in 12 months and make $100,000 unless you hit 1 in a million circumstances. This is not 2005, and anyone who says those times are coming back anytime soon is selling a bridge, not a home. Yes. Buy. By all means, by because you should buy low. But buy for the long term, not the short term. And remember, unlike other investments, you will get utility from your home. You will live in it. 

Welcome to 40 Somethings, the group for anyone in their 40’s in body or mind. Feel free to post anything a Forty Something can relate to. It can be content that is business or life related, so your thoughts on your aching back, unpredictable teenager or curmudgeonly in-laws are as topical as your latest buyer, seller or listing experience. You don’t have to be 40-49 to subscribe. 

Please refrain from contributing hyper local market statistics or purely self promotional pieces. We can get that elsewhere. Other than that, please share liberally. It is my hope that this group becomes one of your favorites on Active Rain. Moreover, if you like it, please invite a friend; they don’t post ages on Active Rain profiles, so I really don’t know who to invite!

In between Gatorade and Geritol, there is a s strange in-between world that isn’t young but sure isn’t old. Being 40 something puts you in a multi tasking generation, in between your own kids and your aging parents, all while building your career in real estate.

Remember when forty was old? Can’t get your mind around the fact that high school was more than half your life ago? Some of us are already on our second career, grandchildren, and dealing with our own health issues. Others are coming to terms with mortality, surviving loved ones, dealing with infertility, grown children and other adult issues we never considered when we were 30. 

People our age have a unique perspective, because we are often parents to our parents, our kids, and of course, our clients. All this while still coming to grips with mastering ourselves, for all we are and all we aren’t. You hit 40 and all of a sudden the buck stops there. Like every other age there is no manual, but we can still share and support each other.

It is a little awkward to invite people because then I start having to guess ages (about as nice as guessing weight) so if you are 40-49 or close enough, feel free to jump in.

We often give clients a subscription to Westchester Magazine after they close on their home. The publication comes out monthly and does a good job of selling the county (and a great job of selling cosmetic surgery).

52 Reasons to Love Westchester is this month’s cover story, and here are a few of my favorites. My yapping is in italics:

4. Because we’re not New Jersey or Long Island. Many a  truth was spoken in jest.

7. Because Carvel started here. Yum, right on Central Avenue!

40. Because the Drapers live here. Boy Howdy!

There are plenty of good ones in the other 49, but I don’t want to give them away. Suffice to say that there is far more to Westchester than subdivisions, good schools and plastic surgeons.

I spent 15 years finding my way in life after leaving for college. I lived in Philadelphia, New Orleans, Boston, Maryland, New Jersey, Texas and Rochester. When it came down to choosing where I wanted to live out my years I came home.

I have listed two houses in a day before, but in 13 years I have never seen such contrast in a day.

10am: Listed a double wide mobile home in Middletown, NY for $39,900.

4pm: Listed a 3,500 square foot 6 bedroom English Tudor in New Rochelle for $975,000.

Two different counties, two altogether different communities, and two radically different homes on opposite ends of the pricing spectrum. We serve everyone.  

Now is a great time to buy real estate. I was quoted 3.75% on a 7/1 ARM today (great if you are putting a lot down and plan to move in 5 years or less), and 30 year fixed are getting deliciously close to 5%. The high inventory and low prices are all in the buyer’s favor. I see homes off 25-30% from their peak in some very nice areas, and even more in some parts. Sellers want to make a deal too, and I am seeing them do things they never would have done even 2 years ago: include furniture, help with closing costs, eating the difference in low appraisals, and even agree to significant repairs. All this points to a strong buyer’s market. 

Yet some buyers are frustrated. Why? Because all this talk in the media has them thinking that if they offer $400,000 on a gorgeous $500,000 home in a prime location that the seller will fall down and kiss their feet! Worse, when someone outbids them for that gorgeous, well appointed home in a prime location they are perplexed! Prices are down 50% in Shamokin! I should be able to get something in White Plains or Scarsdale for 25% off! Isn’t a buyer’s market a license to steal?

Of course it isn’t. A buyer’s market isn’t a flea market. That $500,000 house was selling for $650,000 4 years ago. That’s your discount. If I am your buyer agent, you might get it for $460,000 or $475,000. And the seller may throw in the deck furniture, the snow blower and the breakfront you liked. But a market, by its very definition, is not where theft occurs. It is only a good deal if the seller goes for it. And until we are able to hypnotize the seller, their agent, their lawyer and Uncle Vinny, you aren’t gonna raid the neighborhood like an invading Visigoth. 

Moreover, in those perplexing cases where you are outbid, you have to understand that if you adore a fantastic place that is aggressively priced, then someone else will probably love it too! Hot properties still have a larger audience. So happy househunting for you brave, smart people out there actually looking in earnest, and do remember that a buyer’s market is distinct from a hold up.  

A home buyer found me on google and wanted to pick my brain about a short sale she was purchasing. She already had an accepted offer with her sister representing her as her buyer agent and wanted the opinion of a 3rd party with knowledge of the subject, and she found my blog.

Evidently, the listing agent told her that since her relative was representing her in the purchase of the short sale, that she was not entitled to the commission.

This is 24 karat nonsense. The agent did the right thing in disclosing the relationship. She has no ownership interest in the property, so how could she not qualify for the commission? Moreover, what sort of moral degenerate or dumb bell would utter such malarkey? To another agent’s client, no less?

I set the lady straight, but I am disturbed that there is a rogue agent out there with such a deficit of ethics. If you are buying a short sale and are represented by a relative, there is nothing that disqualifies your agent from getting paid like any other agent.  

I may be in New York, but I know the exact Philadelphia neighborhood where the guy in this article in today’s NY Times lives. He’s in Frankford, off Roosevelt Boulevard, and about 10 blocks east of St Martin of Tours Catholic School. The City of Philadelphia has instituted a program that, while not perfect, is making a difference for people facing foreclosure. Basically, the city is forcing lenders to sit down with the borrowers, who are represented by volunteer lawyers, and work out any deal possible short of foreclosure. It isn’t always successful, but according to the piece it also results in a more dignified exit in the cases where the people can’t stay. 

I always considered myself a free market capitalist who abhorred government meddling in commerce. That is true in most cases. However, capitalism and free enterprise are not a suicide pact. This isn’t a day at the office, this is triage on a national scale. We can’t allow people like Chris Hall (and the millions like him) to go down the drain out of loyalty to a philosophy. We have to do something collectively, and as much as I dislike many of the Administrations policies, I have to admit that the climate of aid for struggling homeowners would not exist otherwise. Philadelphia is an overwhelmingly democratic town, so this initiative isn’t surprising to me. I give the democrats (and republicans who support it) credit.

I’d rather aid Chris Hall and other honest, hard working regular people than watch the big banks take my tax money and then thumb their nose at me. Call me crazy.

I only wish I saw more of this. I know nothing of this on a local level in New York, and that is a shame. So I tip my cap to Philadelphia, my former home of almost 10 years. New York may have the better baseball team (sorry. I had to get that in), but in helping homeowners, Philly is the true champion.

Did you hear? It was actually signed into law by President Bush but hasn’t been publicized much. However, I’m sure you’ve had buyers invoke their rights recently. A few highlights of the law:

• Buyers are allowed to refer to any kitchen or bathroom renovated prior to 2003 as “outdated.”
• In accordance with findings of the Food and Drug Administration as well as the Surgeon General, granite counter tops are the only acceptable surface for food preparation. Corian is acceptable only with a variance.
• Also, no kitchen appliance can be anything other than stainless steel.  
• The only acceptable storage for clothing is a walk in closet. 
• No US citizen can relieve them self in a bathroom that does not have ceramic tile and a column sink. 
• No home is habitable without a “Master Suite.” “Master” must comprise of a master bath with jet bath, walk in closet, vaulted ceiling, and be updated on or after January 2, 2003. 
• Any basement with a hint of humidity, a dehumidifier, or both, shall be referred to as a “Wet flooded disaster.” A basement that is actually musty shall be hereby referred to as a “pond.” 
• Any driveway with a slope of more than 8 degrees shall be referred to as an insurmountable winter deathtrap, but only after the ceremonial words “what the hell are we going to do when it snows?” are uttered.
• No driveway or walkway will be deemed completed unless it has pavers, cobblestone, or some other exquisitely expensive element.
• A house built prior to 1995 and not extensively updated to the above standards will be referred to as a “fixer upper.” 
• A home that is not in compliance is only allowed if the sellers are above the age of 70 (or dead. Or both.), but only if they bought the house prior to 1980 and they agree to utilize the “warning odor” of mothballs. 
• When a home that is termed to be “in compliance” with the above criteria, and the seller has not accepted the $50,000 off-price offer from the buyer in favor of a full priced bid, the buyers are allowed to piss and moan for a month that they thought this was a buyer’s market, the sellers are unfair and that their agent is an out of touch, lazy, misinformed gnu.

By and large I am pretty convinced that most Active Rainers are a sensitive, compassionate crowd. I have read posts from REO brokers lamenting that they have to evict people around the holidays. I have read posts wringing their hands over ethical dilemmas because they wanted to do the right thing without a word spoken about “commission.” Even some of the posters and commenters who sort of annoy me usually place a premium on ethics. 

So imagine my surprise when I see that there is a relatively new member who has created his own niche: making fun of foreclosures. A 70’s kitchen or bath? Hilarious. Jury rigged plumbing because they probably had no money? A riot. He even started a group devoted to posts on the subject of goofing on REOs where they see “funny” things. Yeah. Funny. 

Maybe I’m a stick in the mud but I don’t see the humor in other people’s misfortune. And anyone who knows me knows I am a supreme wise guy. I bust on lame decor plenty, but laughing about the appearance of an REO, especially if the offence is they didn’t update, strikes me as about as tasteful as laughing at a cleft palate. 

I have posted before on the tragedy of REO homes improved to the hilt where the owner sadly ran out of money. There is nothing funny about improving the home and not being able to enjoy your efforts. There is even less humor in a home where someone obviously lived a long time and wasn’t able to improve it to this agent’s lofty standards, only to eventually lose it anyway, perhaps due to illness, the economy or worse. Their children crawled on those floors just like yours or mine. They had Thanksgiving dinner in that home the same as you or I.

Oh, and here’s the kicker- most of the posts aren’t even Members Only, so the public can stumble upon some licensees laughing it up at foreclosure victims’ expense. HA HA. Way to elevate the industry, pal. What a PR nightmare.  

So I have to ask, what is so funny about rummaging through the most personal part of a person’s life, their home, after they’ve been thrown out? I guess we can’t all be cool. 

Oh, I’ve just been told by the poster to “lighten up.” Lighten up. That is often the calling card of a deficit of empathy.