Westchester County Housing Market Adjusts to ‘06 Dropoff

The Westchester County, N.Y., housing market showed signs of resilience in the first quarter amid a national slowdown and indications of continued weakness elsewhere in the Lower Hudson Valley.Statistics by the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service showed that sales of housing of all kinds increased 5.7 percent over the first quarter of 2006 in all of Westchester. The increases were particularly sharp for single-family houses, up 11.3 percent, and condominiums, up 17.3 percent.In comparison, however, home buyers stayed home in Putnam County.Just 141 sales were closed in the first quarter, a drop of 21.2 percent. The number of closings in the condominium market stood at 28, virtually flat from a year ago.Putnam County owners could commiserate with the rest of the U.S.. The National Association of Realtors said that total existing home sales fell in March by 8.4 percent, the biggest month-over-month drop since 1989.Poor winter weather across the nation was blamed for dampening sales last month. Seasonally adjusted sales of 6.12 million were the lowest levels since June of 2003.Locally, the New York mortgage climate is harder to read.The differing trends among the reported data “showed a housing market that was in transition as both buyers and sellers adjusted their strategies for dealing with the slowdown that took place in 2006,” according to the MLS report.”It will take another quarter or two for clearer patterns to emerge.”Part of the puzzle is the differing direction in median home prices in both counties. The median price is the point at which half the prices of closed sales are higher and half are lower.In Westchester, the median price for houses was $635,000, down 2.3 percent from a year earlier and the second quarter in a row of year-over-year declines.Real estate agents said buyer resistance to high mortgage loan costs in the county had helped drive prices down; last quarter’s median was well below Westchester’s record of $716,126 set in the third quarter of last year.”Most of the new stuff is coming on with reasonable prices,” said J.P. Endres, president of David Endres Real Estate in New Rochelle. “We are definitely much busier.”In Putnam County, however, the median price of a house rose 6.7 percent last quarter to $400,000. Some industry observers said sales of high-end property were lifting the median in that market.Lower sales in Putnam may be affected by factors outside the county. Don Arace, vice president at Columbia Home Loans in Valhalla, said buyers tend to press into Putnam when they feel priced out of Westchester.A more balanced market in Westchester is undercutting that trend.Westchester and Putnam are seeing growing inventories of property for sale, but as a smaller market, Putnam may be feeling effects of falling New York home prices to a greater degree. The number of single family houses for sale at the end of last quarter, 942, was up 48 percent over three years earlier.The number of months of inventory in Putnam County, a measure of the amount of time it would take to sell all the homes for sale in the county, reached 20 in the first quarter. It’s the biggest first-quarter number since 1998, when it stood at 22.Michael Barile, a commercial landlord and retired home builder, said he sees a disturbing trend in the growing number of foreclosures in the county.About 90 percent of the properties are being taken over by the bank during home mortgage foreclosure sales, and at some point they’re going to wind up back on the market, he said.”When I built in the 1970s and 1980s, you never saw inventory over 500,” he said.His daughter has been trying to sell a one-bedroom house in Carmel for $209,900. It’s been on the market two months, even though she cut the price by $10,000, he said.In Yorktown, Daniel Behan put his house on the market for $575,000 three weeks ago. He’s had no offers yet but assumes the recent bout of rain kept buyers away.Despite the uptick in inventory, Behan remains optimistic he can sell for close to the price he wants.”I think there are quite a few houses on the market, but people have to have a place to live,” said Behan, 62. “People are still looking to move into the area.”Buyers are finding that getting financing is not as easy as it was a year ago. Banks are raising lending guidelines in the wake of widespread subprime (bad credit mortgage loan) failures.”To get approval is not very easy now,” said Sonia Velasco, principal broker at ERA Save Realty Corp. in Yonkers.”They have so many foreclosures coming up that they’re really making sure the buyers are really qualified and are able to keep the house.”P. Gilbert Mercurio, chief executive officer of the MLS, disputed the idea that more foreclosures would affect the regional housing market. The bad home loans are not in numbers large enough to have an impact.”I wouldn’t bet on it,” Mercurio said. “I’m not prepared to say that that’s making any dent in the market at all.”SOURCE: The Journal News