A ‘Spring Shake-Out’ In The Northeast
A pair of reports provide an update on the housing bubbles in the northeast. “Home buyers in New Hampshire, the nation’s most livable state, are getting a boost from growing inventories of homes for sale. Blame higher interest rates, escalating home prices and a media feeding frenzy for scaring off buyers, leaving the market flush with homes for sale and depressing the rate of home price appreciation.”
“‘During a three-month period last fall there were articles about the bubble (bursting) and all that got people nervous and they wanted to wait and see what happened. There were a bunch of different contributing factors,’ said (broker) Patty Harpin.”
“Home sales tumbled 10 percent, the Northern New England Real Estate Network said. ‘With the amount of inventory, buyers have no choice but to take more time. It used to be they had six houses to look at in their price range and now you may have twice as much. It really does give buyers more options,’ said Harpin.”
“‘What has become evident is that there really are some significant values among the mostly overpriced listings that clutter our MLS, and those homes sell pretty fast. Where there is still a level of greed (unrealistic financial expectations left over from the last few years’ banner markets), or a lack of motivation to prepare the home for sale, or to negotiate, the homes just sit,’ said (broker) Dane Hahn in Stratham, NH.”
“Buyers who took an investor’s or more speculative approach to New Hampshire home buying in the past year or two are also beginning to sweat smaller returns. ‘The slowing of price appreciation means that sellers need to start relying on the equity they have paid into their home more than on appreciation when it comes time to sell. They need to think carefully before taking out a home equity loan. If home values don’t increase enough to cover closing costs and the mortgage is too close to market value, sellers could end up bringing money to the closing table instead of from it,’ (realtor) Linda Allen.”
“Experts say a spring shake out is in the works, but waiting may or may not be the name of the game, depending upon varied individual circumstances among buyers and sellers.”
“‘For investors who are grabbing an opportunity to sell (because the market may go lower, or their adjustable rate mortgage may go higher) their motivation to sell at almost any price could be quite strong (waiting won’t help.). For move-up buyers, who need another bedroom, or a better school system, there are some great values, but they will probably not get all the money on the resale of their existing house (waiting probably won’t help). For old-time Yankees who heard their farm might be worth a couple of million dollars, that was last year (waiting didn’t help.),’ said Hahn.”
And the Wall Street Journal has this on Long Island. “Long Island’s Nassau County boasts beautiful beaches and an easy commuting distance to Manhattan. Recently homebuyers could still find exclusive waterfront properties but bargains have been scarce. But there may be some relief on the horizon for buyers.”
“The supply of homes on the market has increased in recent months, giving potential purchasers more options. Some brokers characterize the market as balanced while others say they are seeing a complete shift in favor of buyers. (Broker) Peter Gentile says his company has ordered more for-sale signs to meet demand caused by the uptick in homes on the market.”
“He says he expects to see more home sellers sweetening the pot by reducing prices. ‘The market has completely changed,’ Mr. Gentile says.”
I hope Peter ordered an equal number of those cute “New Price!” signs to go along with them.
“If home values don’t increase enough to cover closing costs and the mortgage is too close to market value, sellers could end up bringing money to the closing table instead of from it,’ (realtor) Linda Allen.”
I was a RE agent in South Florida around 1990 when it was hard to sell a house and I remember a few closings I was at that the seller actually had to bring cash to closing. How strange that must seem today, but it could easily happen again. What a change in sentiment, huh?
I bought a townhouse in 2001, paid about 10K more than the owners had in 1988, but they had to bring cash to the table to settle the deal. I didn’t have any pity for them, the only way they could have gotten to that point was to borrow home equity along the way.
Before posting this I checked the websites for the Northern New England Real Estate Network, the Long Island realtors and the NY state realtors. None had February data available.
Data is hard to come by in the Northeast. Hear is an anecdote about Glastonbury, CT — nice town East of Hartford. A house was listed at $609,000 and a bid of $615,000 was made and rejected as a higher offer existed. Still strong in certain areas.
TheGuru
It always seems data for elsewhere in the country is easier to come by then here on Long Island. From what I can gather from MLS Long Island, current available inventory of homes for sale throughout Long Island (Nassau, Suffolk, Queens) is over 27,000. I believe this is up YOY 80%+ (last year was somewhere in the range of 14,000 to 15,000). To me, this is an as equally big a story as appears in other “frothy” areas through the country, but it doesn’t get the same press (I would love access on numbers of sales, median pricing etc). Unfortunately, the only information I get is from you. Newsday either doesn’t cover real estate very frequently or when it does it ends each article with “no bubble bursting here, they aren’t making any more land, last I checked” (BS). The editor must have his home on the market or something.
Newspapers are having a tough time getting advertsier dollars these days and some pundits have predicted their demise. Therefore, I can’t imagine they want to do anything that will raise the ire of the real estate brokerages that are a big ad category for them. This is particularly true as so much screening can be done online, meaning online ad site will happily help the brokerages spend their ad dollars.
The supposdely sacred wall between advertising and editorial is a bunch of crap. That wall is scaled all the time because of advertiser pressure. Believe it.
Besides, the editors live in the market and may not want to harm their own homes’ values.
Good point PM
The Boston Globe real estate section constantly runs articles which have you saying to yourself after reading them: What planet is this writier living on…sure isn’t earth.
I’m seeing alot of houses for sale on Long Island. Open houses on weekdays. Some houses on my route to work, have been on the market for the last year. Property taxes have been going up about 10% every year. I’m glad I sold last April.
http://www.ghvmls.com/ghv_stats.htm
Will give you february stats for the Hudson Valley. Orange, Ulster, Sullivan and Rockland. These only came out a week or so ago.
Ben that is scary — why is there such a big black hole about inventory/price stats for NYC and surrounding areas? And why is data that is provided so often tardy? Nysar and REBNY are very slow to release info - you have to sometimes get insight from individual RE companies, but I think they have even more of an incentive to spin –though Nysar and Rebny do their share too.
everybody uses such sweet and polite words to dance around this. do we speak in soundbites now? is that the new language? what happened to the truth?
i’d love to hear one of these yahoos say something like ” we hope things work out, but it could get really ugly. only time will tell”
We need more usage of bloodbath in real estate reporting.
crazyOC
but FL keep creeping up in the 90’s wow, is it different this time
my relatives in FL can’t give em away
Patty Harpin. An RE name for the books.
“waiting probably won’t help”…. Keep on saying that. Lets all list at the same time, and see what happens!!!!
“Some brokers characterize the market as balanced while others say they are seeing a complete shift in favor of buyers”.
In the last two months, inventory has gone up, with some towns in the NY tri-sate area up by close to double. For example, Bedford, NY, in Westchester is up 80% since mid-January.
First people left Manhattan for the suburbs, the Hamptons and the Jersey Shore. Now they are leaving these places. The exodus from the whole NYC area has started.
Who in their right mind buys a home when prices are finally decreasing?
Where are you finding this information about Bedford inventory? I’ve been looking for inventory information for the Westchester area with no luck.
These particular stats are from Realtor.com for Bedford Village, Bedford Hills and Katonah. They include SFH, condos and multi-family.
Here is 10536 by date:
1/15/06 51
1/30/06 58
2/7/06 62
2/16/06 69
2/25/06 77
3/8/06 85
3/22/06 96
3/30/06 101
I’ll bet the brokers don’t give you these stats unless you request with specificity. What I recommend is everyone make all requests of agents via email and request the data by email, preferable in Excel so you can really understand it. They will be less likely to be evasive.
I would never sell a house without first hiring my own independent appraiser to give me a marketing appraisal based on cost to build, cost to rent, recent true comps and a sense of how the market is trending. There are just too many agents out there who will “buy your listing” with a ridiculously inflated feel good price. The same agents who will be encouraging you to drop your price almost as soon as they have you under contract.
The $200 or so you pay for the appraiser is money well spent. Far less costly than chasing a plummeting market with your too late/too little sales price reduction.
I’d also seriously consider hiring an appraiser if I were about to make an offer. That would be in addition to reading this blog of course.
As Yogi Berra said, “this place is so crowded they don’t come here any more”.
New York’s traffic has become suffocating and nice little drives to the Hamptons can take five hours each way if you time it wrong. The NY city subways are claustrophobic and NYC’s dreadfully hot and humid summers have been getting worse and worse. Such “playgrounds” like the Hamptons are hardly pristine - the Hamptons have one of the highest breast cancer rates in the world - probably due to Strontium 90 that leached from the n ucler reactor at nearby Brookhaven National Laboratories. Something the brokers don’t tell you, but the Evian salesmen know all about.
The whole area is becoming more and more for the super wealthy and the poor. Many suburbs that were built on “white flight” more than 30 years ago have become today’s hotbeds of white flight as the whole area becomes less white and less English speaking. The middle class people in such areas can’t afford the most affluent towns so they are leaving the area en masse - particularly boomers as well as young people who are simply priced out.
‘the Hamptons have one of the highest breast cancer rates in the world ‘
Acually, the ‘high’ breast cancer rates found in places like the Hamptons (and in Marin County, CA) are most likely due to demographics, not Strontium 90. Such places have a higher than average number of childless older women, one of the top markers for likelyhood of BC.
Nuclink: Journal of Current Radiation and Public Health Issues
Volume 1, Number 1
September 14, 1998
Published by RPHP
PO Box 60 Unionville, NY 10988
Editor: W.L. McDonnell
http://www.radiation.org
WHY CANCER RATES IN THE HAMPTONS ARE SO HIGH
By Jay M. Gould, Director,
Radiation and Public Health Project
Residents of the affluent East End of Long Island, including the Hamptons—the summertime watering hole of the rich and famous–were recently shocked when informed by the New York Cancer Registry that they were now experiencing extremely high age-adjusted incidence rates for cancer of the female breast and male prostate. The rates were in fact about 20 percent above the Suffolk county average.
Why were these rates so high? One very logical explanation is that Long Island had nearly a half-century of exposure to both toxic pesticides and documented emissions of strontium-90 from reactors at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Suffolk county and from three troubled Millstone reactors located on the Connecticut shore across the Long Island Sound 11 miles north of the town of Orient on the eastern tip of Suffolk County.
Back in 1990, the New York State Cancer Registry was pressed by Suffolk county legislators Michael Tully and Thomas DiNapoli to publish age-adjusted breast cancer incidence rates for the years 1978-87 for every one of 62 communities which make up the county. These figures revealed that there was a cancer cluster just south of the BNL reactors made up by the five adjoining towns of Brookhaven, Bellport, Shirley, Medford and Yaphank.
The combined cancer rate for these towns was 30 percent higher than the county average, and could not be dismissed as a chance result. In fact its significance was heightened by another statistic: Age-adjusted breast cancer mortality rates in the files of the National Cancer Institute for Suffolk county had registered an extraordinary increase of 40 percent since 1950, when the BNL reactors began operating. The corresponding national increase was only one percent.
Residents of these above-mentioned five towns are now suing BNL for one billion dollars, following an admission in 1995 that groundwater flows from the Lab had contaminated private water wells in these towns. Subsequent revelations of high levels of strontium-90 found within the 25 square mile area occupied by the Lab led to denunciation of the BNL managers by Senator D’Amato. The managers were dismissed early in 1998, amid widespread fears that Long Island drinking water may have been contaminated.
In the summer of 1997, Dr. Helen Caldicott and I– with the help of Suffolk county legislators George Guldi and Fred Thiele–asked Dr. Mark Babtiste, head of the New York State Cancer Registry, to update the breast cancer incidence rates for small areas in the county previously published in 1990, as a necessary first step in confirming the cancer cluster found near BNL.
Babtiste refused, on the absurd ground that he had no funds for such an undertaking. We then wrote an op-ed piece asking why the Cancer Registry was so reluctant to do the right thing. The article was rejected by the Long Island Newsday but was printed by the Suffolk Life weekly, mailed to every Suffolk county resident.
Legislator Thiele then succeeded in getting a million dollar appropriation from the New York State Assembly for the update, but which Governor Pataki immediately eliminated from the New York State budget. At this point, Babtiste said that local cancer incidence data would soon be released for the years 1988-93.
In the Fall of 1998, the Cancer Registry announced that their analysis of the updated age-adjusted cancer incidence for all small areas for this six year period found no cancer cluster near BNL but that the East End, more than 70 miles east of BNL, was now the only significant cancer cluster in the county.
But again, no data were provided for the various towns in the county to check this surprising finding.
It is at this point that, with a small grant of $5000 from the STAR board, I found that there was indeed an alternative source of information on current cancer rates for each of the more than 100 Zip code areas in Suffolk county.
The New York Health Department administers a dataset of computerized admissions records for every hospital in New York State called SPARCS, (Statewide Planning and Research Coordinating System). This dataset enabled me to secure the annual number of women with a Suffolk county Zip code who were treated for breast cancer for the years 1990-96.
My analysis of these rates, adjusted for differences in age, for each Zip code area in the North and South Forks–making up the East End and along the north shore of the county–did confirm that there was indeed a malignant force affecting these areas, but that it was clearly directly correlated with distance from the troubled Millstone reactors on the Connecticut side of the Long Island Sound.
Thus for the recent seven year period, the annual age-adjusted breast cancer hospitalization rate in these 33 areas, all within 11 to 40 miles of the reactors, was 253 cases per 100,000 women, significantly higher than the corresponding rate of 231 cases for the remaining areas in the county, which are generally more than 60 miles southwest of the Millstone reactors.
There may remain other cancer clusters elsewhere in the county. For example the five towns south of the BNL reported a disproportionate and rapidly increasing number of cases in the past seven years, but may no longer be as bad as the Zip code area defining the North Fork town of Orient, closest to the Millstone reactors, with a current breast cancer rate of 314 cases per 100000 women.
We have estimated that from 1990 to 1996, 40 percent of the 330 women in Orient over the age of 15 may have been hospitalized for all types of cancer. And for all areas with significantly elevated rates, the excess is wholly concentrated among younger women under the age of 65.
Dr. Ed Nadel, biostatistician of the Suffolk County Health Commission, has reviewed my methodology, and reported that his analysis of the breast cancer incidence rates of the East End zip code areas for the years 1989-1993 produced similar results with far fewer cases.
However, Dr. Nadel could not release the incidence data for each area without the permission of the New York State Cancer Registry.
Assemblyman Fred Thiele (Rep) has since petitioned Dr. Mark Babtiste to release these figures, pointing out that each year the Connecticut Cancer Registry routinely publishes age-adjusted cancer rates for each town in Connecticut. These figures show that the highest female cancer rates in the state are concentrated in the 12 towns within 15 miles of the Millstone reactors.
Eventually, the full truth of the situation will be known, because it is becoming increasingly possible to acquire the data necessary for an accurate analysis.
Up until now State departments of Health and federal agencies have had a monopoly control over access to sensitive local vital statistics, whose publication could presumably upset property values.
But online access to privatized databases like SPARCS, which are used for marketing purposes by the hospitals, have effectively broken that monopoly, not only in New York but in all states.
For example, the Atlanta Center for Disease Control has an annual report on hospital admissions. This report indicates that the Suffolk county age-adjusted breast cancer hospitalization rate for the years 1990-96 is 17 percent above the national rate.
As another example, this website (www.radiation.org) now offers access to increasing numbers of epidemiological and clinical demonstrations of the connections between low-level radiation and cancer. We will also increasingly link to various official databases of vital statistics necessary to expose these connections.
Should you know of particular databases available on-line, please let us know by email.
The Internet coupled with advances in information technology have made it possible to reveal the true health effects of nuclear fission products to citizens everywhere in the world seeking the truth about radiation. This information has previously been withheld from the public since the birth of the Nuclear Age.
——————————————————————————–
An Interview with Dr. Gould
Q. How did you get involved in examining the cancer situation in The Hamptons?
A. As a former member of the EPA Science Advisory Board in the Carter administration, and now a resident of East Hampton, I was a logical choice. A new East End non-profit organization called STAR (Standing for the Truth About Radiation) asked me to seek an explanation for the high cancer rates.
Q. Can you tell us a little more about STAR?
A. STAR was organized by local citizens worried about contamination from Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The Board of STAR includes such notables as Alec Baldwin, Dr. Helen Caldicott and Jan Schlictmann, the protagonist of the best selling A Civil Action. STAR is headed by David Friedson, CEO of a $600 million dollar NY Stock Exchange company.
Q. Let’s hope they are able to discover the extent of the contamination that has taken place as a result of BNL. Could you describe a little further how you got involved in this study?
A. I was asked to do this because my previous experience at the EPA made me privy to the fact that while public health officials are required by law to publish cancer rates at the county level, they are extremely reluctant to reveal cancer rates for small areas within the county, because of the political sensitivity of such data.
Q. Could you say more about your time with the EPA?
During my service on the EPA Science Advisory Board, the EPA–founded by President Nixon in 1970 as part of his war on cancer–had published colored county cancer mortality rate maps. These maps revealed that counties in New Jersey and Louisiana with high concentrations of petrochemical plants had significantly elevated male cancer mortality rates.
I had developed a database of petrochemical manufacturing plants that contained each plant’s five digit Zip code, which enabled EPA to discover which local areas below the county level generated the largest volumes of chemical wastes. But at that time use of such information by a federal agency was violently opposed by large petrochemical companies as an invasion of their privacy.
With the election of President Reagan in 1980, EPA lost interest in exploring localized links of cancer to toxic wastes, and I resigned in that year.
After retiring in 1983, I established a non-profit research agency to seek an explanation for the following epidemiological puzzle I had encountered while at EPA. Male cancer rates were high in Louisiana for obvious occupational reasons, but female cancer rates there were among the lowest in the nation and remain low still today. Many years later, I found the explanation, along with the reason for the high breast cancer rates in Long Island.
Q. Could you tell our readers in a few words what that explanation is?
A. Yes. This is an important point. I discovered an important truth about the health effects of nuclear fallout first articulated so eloquently by Rachel Carson in the opening page of the second chapter of Silent Spring: In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and little recognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of life.
Q. Could you explain a little more about how this partnership works?
A. Strontium-90, released through nuclear explosions and reactors into the air, comes to earth in rain or drifts down as fallout, lodges in soil, enters into the grass or corn or wheat grown there, and in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being: There to remain until his/her death.
Q. In conclusion, is there anything else you would like to tell our readers?
A. The point I would like to leave our readers with is simply that the Long Island breast cancer epidemic offers a good example of the validity of Rachel Carson’s prediction of the deadly capability of strontium-90 to interact with DDT and other industrial chemicals.
Q. Thank you for taking the time for this interview. We look forward to your next article.
http://www.radiation.org/journal/nuclink_sept14.html
I agree. Also much of the LI population is Jewish, and are known to have a significantly higher rate of breast cancer. I worked at BNL for several years as a physicist, and I believe that the amount of tritium (NOT Sr 90) that leaked out of the reactor was quite minimal. That said, I think it is just foolish to have a nuclear facility anywhere near residential areas. If this had been policy from the beginning of the nuclear era, we might already have that energy independence we seem to want so badly.
There may be a number of different things at work here. There is also a very high concentration of breast cancer in wealthy Marin County, California, but studies consistently find high levels of saturated fats in local diets–especially among the very rich–seems to be the cause of locally high breast cancer levels there. It is important to be very cautious with data and causality when talking about cancer hot spots.
Your welcome to your opinion, whether you live in NY or not.
I live in NY and plan to buy here when the bubble burst.
The summers are hot in most of the country (Ever been to Kansas or Florida or Arizona?)
There are plenty of place to go for recreation that are not “The Hamptons”. I can get to Jones Beach in a little over an hour. And having a great Mass Transit system means I am not a slave to my car. I love the subways.
NY is not for everyone, but there are many who love it and WANT to live here.
Look at the in migrant and out mirant stats. There are more people who DON’T want to live there. You love the subways?
There’s nothing like the smell of rotting garbage on the subway in the morning.
When was the last time you were here in NYC?!?
The subways are not rotting garbage dumps. They run 24 hours a day for the city that does not sleep.
Crime is down big ever since Rudy and Bloomberg has get that going too.
Patty Harpin,”“‘During a three-month period last fall there were articles about the bubble (bursting) and all that got people nervous and they wanted to wait and see what happened.”
Anybody go back to the three-month period last fall to see what realtors in that area were telling potential buyers? Not what she wrote here I’ll bet.
““Home buyers in New Hampshire, the nation’s most livable state”
And just what is the state tax and property tax rate in this most livable state? And wasn’t it in NH where they just started a view tax? I remember reading something about property owners who had a view were being taxed at a much, much higher rate.
NH has no sales or income tax. RE tax is very high though.
There is no state income tax in New Hampshire. Nor, I think, are there any sales taxes. Property taxes, however, are very high. That is where the vig comes from to pay for services.
I grew up in NH but now live in NY….I’d take the NH taxes.
The courts are threatening to impose sales taxes to help fix the public schools which in some areas are okay but in other areas are terrible because of local lows in property values and taxes.
If you think that’s bad earlier this week our local paper reported the state has told towns it could up appraisals based on the amount of trees on the property. I’m preparing for our “dirty air” state to become clear-cut !
To give you an idea of NH taxes, property taxes are around $25/thousand. Most people pay $5,000+, many pay close to $10,000. The well off ($750K is a bigger home in NH) are paying $15,000. That would be fine if you worked in NH, but if you work in MA (as many do) you still pay income tax. There is also real estate tranfer tax, and many small taxes you’ll also pay $700 the first year to register your car, etc.
Never forget the asterisk in the NH state motto:
“Live Free or Die”*
*as long as I have a job in MA to pay the bills.
flat
It is funny, I owned 2 homes in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach through out the 1990’s. RE was dead around 1990 , then started to move around 1992 or 1993 but it was a gradual and measured pace(3-5%/year appreciation). Then it seemed over night the market took off around 2000. From 2000-2004 my properties both doubled and I sold them both with 2 weeks when I moved to LA. Friends I keep in touch with say from 2004-2005 they went up like another 50%. But in the last 6 months it seems that the bottom has dropped out of the market and nothing is selling. I have several friends involved in RE there and it seems the two predominant themes driving this thing were 1)Rediculousy easy to get mortgages(over the internet in 30 minutes) 2)Rampant appraisal fraud(if you dont get the appraisal you want you just get another appraiser).
It doesnt seem that people have lowered prices too much yet but I can not see how long this can go on with out prices going down. I think once the first few desperate sellers blink the market will go to the downside quite rapidly. My philosophy has always been that once you remove the expectation of continually increasing prices this will remove most of the speculation and flipping going on which of course will be the death of the RE market.
One thing that gives me hope that this will correct ,is a friend of mine who is a realtor in Ft. Lauderdale told me a few months ago that alot of the new RE agents have already left the business in the last 6 months because nothing is selling.
If the masses know houses are on the decline they won’t want to buy . Its would be interesting to find out what realltors are really saying to them . I almost feel like faking out that I’m a buyer just to see what the spin is .
“It’s currently a buyer’s market for approximately the next 67 days, to be followed by a seller’s market for the next 7 years. So obviously you had better buy now.”
yep, that’s pretty much what I hear from my realtor lol!
I think it’s time I asked for an update on market conditions..
my feeling is that here in Ann Arbor MI the realtors are starting to secretly hope the “buyers” get the idea that the sellers are asking ridiculous prices. Now, of course, some of those sellers are people who bought in the last couple of years having been assured by said realtors that they could expect appreciation levels to continue ad infinitum…
Recently my realtor actually admitted that a listing she thought we might like but was above our price range was overpriced and we should take a look at it. Also gave us the headsup on another listing that I think was maybe even *hers* that she thought we ought to check out despite its being outside our pricerange. They’re perhaps starting to fish for low offers now…
maybe ahead of the looming GM picketlines they’d like to get things sold even in autocrash-proof Ann Arbor!
At the coffee shop yesterday some chick who didn’t hear me say excuse me 4 times as I tried to get past her to lid my latte (they’re on special on wednesdays!) was talking about her dual career as a UPS driver and real estate agent….poor hearing and attention is maybe useful for RE but no so much for UPS?
My realtor just sends me listings and points out certain ones she thinks are a great buy for me. “…check out the adorable, 50 year old, 2BR, 900 sq. ft. rancher on less than 1/10th of an acre for only $198,000!…” Sure, that same house might have been listed in the low $200s a few months ago, but it is no way a bargain…yet.
However, I like my realtor and know she’s just trying to be helpful so I simply thank her for sending it on.
“What has become evident is that there are some significant values among the mostly overpriced listings that clutter our MLS”
“Where there is still a level of greed …left over from last years banner market, those homes just sit”
“For investors grabbing an opportunity to sell, waiting won’t help”
“Move up buyers will not get all the money on the resale of their house, waiting won’t help”
“For old time Yankees who heard their farm was worth 2 M last year, waiting didn’t help”
This guy Hahn is telling it like it is. I wish he’d he’d move to Seattle and give the realtors here an ethics lesson.
Same for Linda Stratton, giving buyers the straight talk on house appreciation and HELOCS.
Nice to know there’s an area of the country left where honesty reigns.
New England (excepting maybe Boston metro) hasnt been as frothy as some other parts of the US. Maybe there is a connection. The buy2rent ratio is overextended, so there will be a correction in any case.
i took a ride from Nashua Nh to Keene in the western end of
NH yesterday.Though most of the ride was boondock territory there were many,many for sale signs. I don’t remember that many the last time I drove out that way.Maybe the cost of gas has something to do with it.
Saw the same thing this weekend in Bridgton, Maine, right near Shawnee Peak. There was literally one for sale sign after another. Most were new developments with empty lots. I’ll bet if you go to a broker they’ll show you a map of the development with 15 of the 20 lots sold. What they don’t tell you is 14 of the 15 have been bought by just a couple of flippers. Yes, technically they have been sold. HIDDDEN INVENTORY abounds in these places.
PM-Telegram just ran a story a couple weeks ago that Bridgeton was experiencing an outright building boom, with a record number of new construction permits taken out.
Needless to say that story got all the anti-growth sprawl crowd on the East Prom, CapeE, and Falmouth all worked up.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I took a jaunt to Old Fort No. 6 for a French & Indian War Re-enactment in Charlestown last summer. Talk about an economically depressed region. All the light mfg. plants which supported the communties have all gone over overseas. Minimum wage service sector and welfare now. Once the Greatest Generation passes on and the price of transport spikes, this area will consist of nothing more than ghost towns.
Aha, I found it (
N.H. Puts a Price on Panoramas
Property Taxes Soar Based on Scenery
Wilder’s view has actually been valued right down to the dollar: According to the town of Plainfield, it is worth $237,265. In 2003, town officials deemed it a bonus feature of his home, like a third bathroom or marble countertops, and ordered him to pay about $4,700 in property taxes for it.
Which left Wilder with a lot of questions.
Chief among them: How do you value a view?
That is the strange conundrum that is captivating New Hampshire at the moment, as town officials have embarked on an controversial quest to quantify — and then tax — the beauty of their residents’ vistas.
Add external storage tanks and outbuildings and maybe some cars on blocks? This seems to give owners an incentive to mess up the views for everyone. This looks like just another example of how the high property taxes in this low taxes just aren’t quite enough to satisfy all of the perceived needs of schools and government. If there were only a better way of deciding what is worth collecting taxes for and what is not then clever rate advancing techniques like this might not be necessary.
I’m a New Hampshire resident. Some of these new taxes are popping up because we’re getting refugees from Massachusetts. They leave MA because it’s too expensive.. and then they try to enact the same policies that made Massachusetts too expensive in the first place.
Now you’ve done it…
Watch out, here come’s Lingus!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ya know what Tesla? Start hammering the scum. Get involved locally. Building moratoriums, min. acreage limits. Anything to drive the Massholes out. Although they’ll leave on their own eventually, less time with NYC/CT/NJ scum is a good thing.
Links don’t work
OTOH. I just found out that troll is building in my town. That must mean that the bubble has popped here. At no time in history has a large builder built here as we are 40 minutes from Boston, and around 30 minutes from Providence. Jobs around here are service oriented, and those who work in Boston take the train for 45 minutes int Boston. If I worked in Boston, I would definitively live closer. Who is going to spend 1.5 hours in traffic or 45 minutes in the train, each way, to go to work each day, just to get home to a 9′ ceiling house (heating in NE is a big concern!), and a 5k mortgage? I can rent in the boston common for about that….
they do it in detroit constantly…is Toll gonna be building on big lots? If say you want to spend 600-800K and have some lawn to go with those shiny new appliances and a 3car garage for your toys that’s the only solution, to get far away from the commons, right? At least Boston has decent public transport to get you into downtown…there is *nothing* here, believe it or not. No commuter train at all…perhaps not surprising in the motor city, but nobody lives downtown and everyone drives the suspension-killing roads from about an hour away, one ass to each SUV typically.
cheers!
That doesn’t sound so bad to me. I have a 45-minute each-way commute by foot/subway to get from my small, crappy Brooklyn apartment to my job in midtown Manhattan. Your point is well-taken, though. That’s not a tradeoff I’d be willing to make just to live in the ‘burbs. When I move back up to eastern MA next year I’m definitely shooting for something closer to town.
>Who is going to spend 1.5 hours in traffic or 45 minutes in
>the train, each way, to go to work each day, just to get home to a 9′
>ceiling house (heating in NE is a big concern!), and a 5k mortgage?
Someone in SoCal…1.5 hours each way? Luxury!
45min each way is nothing. In Washington DC, most spend at least an hour each way, many more.
Agreed. My commute to DC is a 10 minute walk to the train station, then a 35 minute train ride to my office. I don’t know anyone with a quicker commute among MD/VA residents, and even the ones who live in DC spend almost as much time with the metro, when you count in wait times.
I work with some people who have a 2 hour commute, each way, from DC to West Virginia. Houses are even expensive in the Eastern Panhandle of WV, though not as bad as closer to the city.
I get so tired of hearing about how the “trade-up” buyer has no reason to wait in a declining market. If house prices are declining the difference in price between the new bigger house and the older house keeps getting smaller in real dollars (like the ones we have to borrow and pay interest on). The other consideration is that the cost basis in the “old” house is usually a lot less than current market prices, but the moment you “trade-up” you tack on all those newly spent dollars into your basis. By merely waiting (and paying off your current obligations) you can reduce your cost basis in the new house as prices decline.
Even better, you can sell, and rent while your money makes interest and the house prices continue to decline. Once the market begins to decline in earnest there is just no need for anyone to hurry to buy.
Tell that to my coworkers who foolishly bought their upgrades thinking they can easily sell their old homes within minutes it’s on the listings. Now they are stuck with two mortgages with no hope of selling the homes at prices they “planed”. Those are homes in some of the hottest SoCal markets and yet they have been listed for over 6 months.
I love the phrase
“Where there is still a level of greed (unrealistic financial expectations left over from the last few years’ banner markets), … , the homes just sit,’ said (broker) Dane Hahn in Stratham, NH
Notice the broker said “greed”, which the wirter was quick to explain away. hehe
Simmsays…
AmericanInventorSpot.com
http://www.AmericanInventoSpot.com
I get a sense that in the NorthEast the market will slowly unwind so that only patient buyers will be rewarded. Wait till 2007 summer!
I think it would be wise for many to be looking farther along in this cycle than that.
A friend of mine put his home in MA (1 hr west of Boston) on the market 12 weeks ago to relocate. It’s a beautiful place in a great neighborhood; in fact, it’s going to be featured on one of those home-oriented cable shows. Unfortunately, he hasn’t had a single offer, even though he priced it slightly below what he paid for it two years ago. One couple is considering making an offer, but they have to sell their own place first. My friend looked their place up and he said it’s a dump and way overpriced, so he’s not optimistic. He may have to lower the price another 10-15K and he’s not sure that will move it. He expects to take a loss of at least $40-50K when it’s all said and done.
I have posted this before, but I think that the older, more established, and less heloced neighborhoods will be able to sell much better as they have a much higher equity cushion to play with. Look at properties bought in 1996-2000.
Properties bought in the last 2 years are going to have a very hard time selling at what was purchased. Most likely they will get stuck either living in an 800 Square foot overpriced cape, or in a converted apartment, AKA Condo. Those of us who wait, will be able to get a much better deal in the older neighborhoods, when baby boomers want to downsize, or there is a relocation going on.
Life happens, and people need to sell property even in a down market, That is where the best prices are going to happen. Those who bought recently have to sell at least at what they bought in order to stay afloat. I feel really bad for your friend, as he seems to have missed the timing of the market, although, contrary to the rest of the country, I believe that NE is heading down first. After all we were the first ones to post YOY declines in price…
Clarification: When I say that “Most likely they will get stuck either living in an 800 Square foot overpriced cape, or in a converted apartment, AKA Condo” I am not refering to your friend. I am refering to those who bought an overpriced cape, around here they go for around 350K, or a condo 250K, and are first time buyers. I have nothing but the best of wishes for your friend.
Blame higher interest rates, escalating home prices and a media feeding frenzy for scaring off buyers
Yeah it’s the “feeding frenzy” of simply reporting what’s happening in the market. Just like NASDAQ going from 5000 to 2000, that was probably from all the negative publicity too.
test
……..NH has no income tax……. yet…. Property taxes are oppressive.
But NH is “livable”? HAHAHAHAHA. Here is a reality. Just a plain truth. Most of the RE activity in NH/VT has been created by the influx of CT/NJ/NYC scum and MassHoles who have this idealized image of Shangri-La in their greedy little minds. When the full burden and weight of brutal winters bear down on these moneygrubbers, they fold.
Why does this matter?
They invariably end up liquidating and fleeing to warm weather, adding further pressure to the inventory. I’ve seen it happen before. The hybrid model also throws in the “want to be near grandchildren” scenario. These weak willed whiners always buy at a premium and sell at a discount.
Good riddance to them.
I don’t think you know what you are talking about. Also your tone is offensive. The “plain truth” is that if you are a northern New England native you are no moral superiority over anyone.
Oh really? Jee wizz…. Massholes and NJ/CT/NYC scum don’t vacate after getting battered for a few years?
My tone is no more offensive that the slimers that decide to come here.
And who comes to defend the slugs? The truth is offensive to you? The label fits and everyone knows it. Wear it.
Hey douchebag, do you stinky ass hippies convict child molesters yet in that pachouli smelling state?
Hey Guru,
The stinky Vermont hippies who elect the kind of politicians who appoint the judges soft on crime are mostly originally from out-of-state.
And where do they come from? NY, NJ, CT and MA.
Hey Jack, I think I struck a nerve with Gayru….. And his anger reads remarkably similar to some of the other NJ/CT/NYC trash that post here. OOps….. Forgot the obligatory massHoles too.
that’s it I’m moving to Vermont,bringing all the boys to!
Question for you, seriously: Why aren’t there overpaid tech jobs in NH? What’s scaring them away, besides the cold weather?
If only NH had VT’s gun laws, it truly would be shangri-la…
Don’t bother. We have enough NYC/NJ braindead here.
Hey Bronx -
Don’t make me laugh. You guys wouldn’t be able to last more than a week.
At any time - summer or winter.
Global warming may actually encourage more people into northern NE, although jobs are limited. Any long time resident in this area will tell you, the winters are becoming less brutal every year.
(Many suburbs that were built on “white flight” more than 30 years ago have become today’s hotbeds of white flight as the whole area becomes less white and less English speaking. )
Ah, but the areas they fled from 30 years ago are becoming richer as the college-educated pour in from all over the world. Big shift in relative value underway, in addition to the bubble and bust cycle. These days, even a crackhouse in Brooklyn is worth more than a home on the south shore. See http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2006/03/29/real_estate_bub.php “Real Estate Bubble Reaches the $1,000,000 crackhouse phase.
I really love that line about “sweetening the pot” with lower prices. Like lower prices are secondary to ….to…what?….newly planted perennials? It’s *all* about reducing prices, and even if those non-existent buyers weren’t staying away en masse because of all the ‘media’ starting to let out the secret that the ‘pot’ smells like it needs a good johnnymoppin’, they’d stay away because the prices are *still* ridiculous.
If home values don’t increase enough to cover closing costs and the mortgage is too close to market value, sellers could end up bringing money to the closing table instead of from it,’ (realtor) Linda Allen.”
Whooooweee………’90/’91 REDEUX!!!!-
Who says it’s different this time, LMFAO…
Save for the fact seller’s will have to scratch up $80k to bring to the table instead of $20k in the previous bust.
With savings at a -2% savings rate sure gonna be interesting where and how people are going to come up with that kinda scratch.
They could always trade down their Chevy SLOBurban to a sane vehicle……..
naaaaaaah…. That’d make too much sense.
They could always trade down their Chevy SLOBurban to a sane vehicle……..
naaaaaaah…. That’d make too much sense.
They can’t-they’re upside down on the lease-LMFAO…
They are not going to come to the table with kind of scratch, Hell I wouldn’t. Your going to be buying that property from the bank. On top of that if they don’t change the lending laws the people that walked away will be buying another house in about a year with virtually no repurcussions.
John in VA,
What’s the MLS? I’ll look it up and tell you what I think. fwiw, I just bought a house in MA in December 35 miles west of Boston. My sister lives in this area as well and is looking to trade-up to a nicer town so I still check the MLS weekly. I have another friend whose trade-up deal in Bolton fell through because he couldn’t sell his house.
I sent an email to my friend to ask for it. He IM’d me before with a link to the listing, and it looked like a great place.
The following is a quote from a roundtable of real estate agents in Westchester County, NY - obviously thinking “it’s different here”:
“The public has been told that there was a bubble and that the bubble is now bursting,” said Mr. Ferguson. “But all that has really happened in Lewisboro and the rest of Westchester and Putnam is normalization. In my opinion, it is still something of a seller’s market. Real estate has become the investment of choice for many people and will continue to be so.”
If you want to read all the nonsense the link is: http://www.acorn-online.com/news/publish/lewisboro.shtml
Next to the article called “After long, ‘hot’ run,
market may be cooling”, click on the word Real Esate to read the entire article.
“It’s different here” is the big rallying cry in Westchester county. Everyone touts the great school systems and the proximity to NYC as the reason their dump of a home has miraculously tripled in value. As if Westchester didn’t have these elements going in its favor pre-bubble. No one has a clue yet around here. Prices still into the stratosphere. We went to look at a run down, bank-owned property the other day listed at $699,000– the foreclosed purchaser had just purchased it last summer for $540,000. Even a “soft landing” has not occurred to Westchesterites yet. They’re totally in denial.
After 9/11 many Manhattanites flocked to the suburbs which they once disdained. They got up there and were clueless as to values and they drove the prices up to stupid levels. So now you have cases where someone like a school teacher who paid $50,000 for his house in 1975 can now get a million for it. At a point, these folks are taking the money and heading for thge exits. What gets put in the press is usually last year’s news. The agents are pretty clueless too and on top of that, often rather dishonest.
In New England-prices have gone up- yes Boston is expensive- but less so then DC most of California and parts of Florida. Providence is a wonderful city- great culture and moderate climate- and yes median is high for SFH- around 277K- but that is after 4 years of double digit gains. The rest of New England that is ‘desired’- Parts of Vermont, southern NH, coastal Maine are still priced at 250K for a median priced SFH- which is slightly above the national mean. Connecticut is a bargain really-outside of jazzy, pricey, toney Fairfield county- so RE in New England has been less frothy or bubbly then many areas of the country.
There is a different demographic going here in VT and NH. I believe Florida has a net gain in population further pressuring price. Here we have a flat chart for population. The activity here is mostly natives taking money from the deaf, dumb, blind and braindead from NYC/NJ/CT/MASS(hole).
From: http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/index.html
Why Are Young People Leaving Vermont?
Peter Coy
My two sisters are part of the exodus of young people from Vermont that the New York Times covered recently (”Vermont Losing Prized Resource As Young Depart,” Mar. 4). I emailed them the NYT story and they had some interesting observations, which they’ve allowed me to quote.
One, who lived in Burlington, Vt., and lives in a semi-rural suburb in Connecticut now, wrote:
The reporter writes about VT as a monolith but it’s made up of three very different areas: Burlington, non-ski towns and ski towns. (Remember that old joke?: The best thing about Burlington is that it’s so close to Vermont…) The issues for each are completely different. I drive 20 minutes for milk in CT where I used to drive 2 minutes in Burlington. CT feels like a straitjacket to me, Burlington never did.
My other sister, who’s now in a rural part of upstate New York, wrote:
It’s an interesting article. My eye was caught by what the UVM pres said about VT not being able to afford its “anti-sprawl” policies if the population continues to shrink. It would seem environmentally positive for there to be fewer people, but I guess maybe that’s not the case. I look around my very small town and it would seem that I can count on one hand the number of educated young single adults living [here]. I’d never live here if I weren’t already married–you’d never find someone to partner with. The other thing that is starting to hit home is that choosing a rural location in which to raise children doesn’t guarantee you a rural lifestyle. It seems that popular culture is just as powerful here as anywhere. The kids may not be able to afford the ipods and x-boxes and whatever else has to be had these days, but they certainly are aware of them and covet them. And just like anywhere it seems a lot of them would rather be in front of a screen than out enjoying the beauty of the place their high-minded parents chose to raise them. …
I’m proud that my non-journalist siblings are more articulate than I am.
Things are also changing in New England. As an example, Fidelity is slowly letting leases expire on Boston buildings and moving personnel who really don’t need to be downtown to places like Providence, RI. Rent is cheaper, they can pay smaller salaries, and the general cost of living is lower than Boston and its immediate suburbs. They already have a group in Manchester, NH.
Vermont attracts many-yes NY NJ-especially- but not so many fron southern New England actually. Californians believe it or not like Vermont. Some also from DC and the gulf states shattered by Katrina (they also like eastern CT)
The ones coming from the south and west will have to adjust to winter in Vermont- which I find too cold- even from my location in moderate southern New Englan.
Transplanted maggots seldom adjust to the cold here. Even I notice that winters “seem” rougher the older I get. Even though winters have been mild here for the last 15 years or more.
Urban coastal California natives may indeed like the idealized version of what they think is “Vermont.”
But living there full-time would *not* be desirable to them. I know a few who have tried - and they have all suffered, as the days are too cloudy, dark, cold and humid.
All I can say is - “good luck!”
Boston Area is my home town. I just spoke to a friend who is looking at spending $340,000 on a 2 bed room house because it is in a desirable town (Sudbury-MA)(read high property taxes) and will always be easy to sell. Interestingly, this home was originally on the market for $400K, then marked down to $359K, and now its available at $341K. I’m confused why this home will be easy to sell it the future?? This is the insane logic that still dominates the market. It will take a true ‘Buyers Market’ similiar to the early 1990s to make people understand the downside of leverage. Sadly, my attempts to save friends from over investing in real estate are often met with ridicule/disbelief (I have great empathy for Cassandra).
“It’s different here” is the big rallying cry in Westchester county. Everyone touts the great school systems and the proximity to NYC as the reason their dump of a home has miraculously tripled in value.”
This statement is so true. Spoke to a friend last night who just bought a house and she said…it’s different here. Westchester, everyone wsnts to live in Westchester and there are so few houses. It won’t fo down.
I don’t thinkits going to lose as much as some places, but I am hoping for a 20% correction. bwahahahahah
Simmsays…
“It’s different here” is the big rallying cry in Westchester county. Everyone touts the great school systems and the proximity to NYC as the reason their dump of a home has miraculously tripled in value.
Oops…sorry for the prior gibberish. Here’s the correct version.
“It’s different here” is the big rallying cry in Westchester county. Everyone touts the great school systems and the proximity to NYC as the reason their dump of a home has miraculously tripled in value.”
This statement is so true. Spoke to a friend last night who just bought a house and she said…it’s different here. Westchester, everyone wsnts to live in Westchester and there are so few houses. It won’t fo down.
I don’t thinkits going to lose as much as some places, but I am hoping for a 20% correction. bwahahahahah
Simmsays…
http://www.AmericanInventorSpot.com
AmericanInventorSpot.com
I am plugging this website as my invention is on their inventor’s gallery. Got take a look. The cool invention is mine
I am going to stop typing her for now, as I keep making mistakes. Anyone know how to turn on the preview here or perhaps the spellchecker on these comments?
Simmssays…
http://www.AmericanInventorSpot.com
AmericanInventorSpot.com
Another interesting tidbit for you New Englanders:
http://tinyurl.com/lrpkn
A Kennedy summer home on the Cape, sold at auction for $950K:
“Edelkind was convicted last year of using phony mortgage and payroll documents to borrow $3.3 million to buy the house in 2000. He later defaulted on the loan.
Fraud to purchase, $2.35mil shave - hopefully that makes it into the local comps. Nice.
Bill,
Sudbury is a very nice town. The Lincoln-Sudbury school system is one of the best and nicest in the state. (Think well-groomed small college campus.) Unless the house is a total pos in a bad location, if he buys it and fixes it up, yes, it will be easy to sell in the future. A house in the 300’s is chump change for Sudbury - many sell for over $1mil.
I’m sorry, I don’t get how the fact that many houses in even a good-school district nice town currently sell for $1mil means that a 2BR place which has just undergone a 15% price reduction is a reasonable buy. That kind of logic is a big reason for the size of this bubble. Are you saying 2BR homes in Sudbury go for 1million? Or that there will always be people willing to pay 400K in the next bunch of years for a 2BR house far from a downtown as long as the school district is good? What would it cost to rent a place in Sudbury so that you could send your kids to the good schools there? It sounds like bubblybubblybubbly talk to me…
The home sold was not on Cape Cod- but near Boston in the town of Hull- it was the home of the Presidents paternal grandfather ‘Honey Fitzgerald’….
Last I looked everything in So. NH is 40% over priced.
There inventory will ballon.