Sold Homes In Babylon Village - April 2009

June 30, 2009 – 8:08 pm

Hi everyone. It’s Case-Shiller day! The day when S&P release their housing index numbers for April. So…how are we doing?

Prices Stabilize, But Housing Trouble Still Looms [Forbes]

Home prices in 20 major cities tumbled an average of 18.1% in the last 12 months, off 33% from their 2006 peak, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday. The 10-city index fell 18% from a year earlier, with a similar decline from the peak.

Home values are now at 2003 levels.

While April was the third month in a row in which the pace of decline slowed, just 0.9% from the month before, other data point toward more housing trouble ahead.

Hmm…not so good. How about locally?

A Look at Case-Shiller Numbers, by Metro Area [Wall Street Journal]

“It is important to understand that these indices are constructed using non-seasonally adjusted sales prices, and therefore when housing activity perks up seasonally in the spring and summer months, any effect on selling prices would not be adjusted out of these data,” said economist Joshua Shapiro at MFR, Inc. “In fact, in 2008, after dropping by an average of 2.4% per month in the first quarter, the composite 20 city index than registered average month-to-month declines of 0.9% during the prime spring and summer selling season before reaccelerating to post an average 2.2% monthly decline in the final four months of the year. We continue to believe that it is unlikely that we are near a bottom in nationwide home prices.”

Check out the New York Metro area, while most places seem to be starting to level off with the price drops, NY Metro is falling more rapidly.

Home Prices In 2014? Dead Flat From Here. [IndexUniverse.Com]

…based on the early trading in UMM and DMM, investors expect home prices in August 2014 to be almost exactly where they were in April 2009. To put a needle on it, they expect prices to fall 0.76%.

That’s not to say home prices will be flat in the interim. The S&P report shows that homes lost value in April at an astonishing 18% year-over-year clip. That’s not going to arrest itself overnight. Most likely, investors expect home prices will dip further before staging a recovery as we approach the 2014 deadline.

Umm….yeah. Am I really sure I want to buy a house?

Well, how are things in Babylon Village then? Five properties sold in April, a better haul than March to be sure, but still sub-par, I think. This month’s haul includes two condos, so only three single family homes sold in April.

17 Salt Meadow Rd

  • MLS# 2135232 - Zillow Page
  • Sold: $1,075,000 - 4/2/2009
  • Prior Sales: none
  • 3 bedrooms - 3.5 bath - Condo
  • Taxes: $14,840 - Village Taxes: $1,700

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By Gary | Posted in Babylon, In The News, The Market | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Open House - 31 Greenway S

June 29, 2009 – 6:53 pm

OK, still getting caught up here. This is a house we saw two weeks ago. Apropos of nothing in particular, every wall was covered in nautical-themed items; anchors, oars, ropes, ships, sea scapes, you name it. I know that Babylon is a shore town, but you need to show a little restraint.

31 Greenway S.

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Open House Report - 78 Wampum and 78 Livingston

June 27, 2009 – 12:47 pm

We saw these houses almost a month ago, way back on My 31st. This just goes to show you what a damn slacker I’ve been.

I’ve got another old open house — 31 Greenway — to write up and we’re going to see some houses this weekend, so I hope to have more content for you soon.

78 Livingston Ave

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This One Is For Anon E Moose

June 26, 2009 – 10:41 am

Dilbert.com

By Gary | Posted in Random Stuff, The Bubble | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

Back From Hiatus

June 21, 2009 – 8:17 pm

Hi everyone.  I know that things have been a little quite here at HIB recently.  I’m sorry about that.

I’ve been a little busy of late, but I  also lost a bit of my enthusiasm for the housing game.  I’m sure that a lot of you out there have experience some similar type of “house hunting fatigue”.

However, I’ve notice a bit of movement in pricing of late. I think we may actually be seeing the ice start to break. Time will tell, but I’m feeling mildly optimistic.

Anyway, I’ve got three open houses to write up that I was over the past weeks. I hope to have that up by tomorrow or Tuesday the latest. I also have a guest post penned by HIB’s resident bubble head.  So I should have some good stuff for you this week, then I’ll be back on the treadmill.

In the mean time, check out this great post by my friend and Mortgage consigliere, Trevor Curran. It’s a quick overview of the FHA 203k Rehabilitation Loan, a program wherein the Lender provides you with the money to purchase the home (acquisition) combined with the money to improve the home (construction) in one closing and with a single 30year fixed mortgage payment. There are at least a few houses around the Village that would be perfect for this sort of loan.

By Gary | Posted in Random Stuff, Website Stuff | Tagged , , , , | Comments (7)

Sold Homes In Babylon Village - March 2009

June 7, 2009 – 12:51 pm

Two houses sold in March 2009, not a good month for the Village or for home sales in general.

New York-area home prices fall by record 11.8 percent [NJ.COM]

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller National Home Price index reported home prices tumbled by 19.1 percent in the first quarter, the most in its 21-year history. Home prices have fallen 32.2 percent since peaking in the second quarter of 2006.

Home prices in the New York area fell 11.8 percent.

Prices of US homes in March fell a sharp 18.7% [CNBC]

The S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index continues to set record declines, a trend that began in late 2007.

The index, which covers all nine U.S. census divisions, recorded a 19.1 percent decline in the first quarter of 2009 from the first quarter of 2008, the largest decline in the 21-year history of the series.

As of March 2009, average home prices across the United States were at similar levels to those in the fourth quarter of 2002. From the peak in the second quarter of 2006, average home prices are down 32.2 percent

Actually ony one house sale in the Village proper. One of the sales was up north but still in the 11702 zip code. Some mildly better news for April, though. Stay tuned.

79 Village Line Rd

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Site Updates

June 7, 2009 – 10:11 am

Hi there HIB fans.  I know it’s been a little while since my last post but never fear, I have two new ones in the queue right now.

Just a quick note here to let you know of some small changes to the site.  First, as you may have noticed, I’ve added avatars to the comment section. The avatars, called Wavatars, are generated based on a hash of your e-mail address. As long as you use the same e-mail when you comment, you should get the same picture.

I’ve also turned on registration, so if you’d like you can register here and use that when you comment. Registration has some advantages. You won’t have to type in your information every time you comment. You can change your avatar and enter in profile info. You can even have some access to the site’s back end and submit posts (subject to my approval) for the main page.

Feel free to comment on this post and let me know if there’s anything about the site you’d like to see changed, added or upgraded or if you have any questions about how it works.

By Gary | Posted in Website Stuff | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Open House Report - 155 Cooper and 19 Nehring

May 28, 2009 – 8:15 pm

Debra did her house report, so here’s mine. Better late than never.

155 Cooper Street

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House Report - 2 Edward Ave

May 24, 2009 – 1:49 pm

2 Edward Ave

  • MLS# 2185361 - Zillow Page
  • Ask $419,000
  • Previous Sales:
    02/25/2003 - $280,000
  • 3 bedrooms - 2 bath
  • Taxes: $7,431 - Village Taxes: $761.62

I was really excited about this house, first posted on MLS last week, as it’s in our price range and the photos on MLS looked good. I didn’t want to wait for an open house because I was afraid it might sell quickly, so I arranged to view the house last weekend. And in the end, I liked the house a lot, but the bedrooms were just too small for us. The house listing read to me as a three bedroom two bath, with office. Which sounded perfect to me, other than I’d like a family room or den as well, but in our price range that’s becoming a bit of a pipe dream. However, the third bedroom IS the office. It’s a typical cape floor plan, but people expand houses all the time, so I was hoping there really was a third bedroom plus separate office. In reality, the third bedroom is downstairs, across from the living room, and it’s perfect as an office, as there’s room for two desks and shelving, or one desk and some bookcases. I guess you could wedge a twin-size bed in there but not much else. Certainly not a bed and a desk. The bedrooms upstairs aren’t too small in square footage, but the sloping dormered walls prevent you from getting much furniture in there other than a bed and a chest or so. Our bedroom furniture, which includes a long dresser with mirror and tall chests, wouldn’t fit in there at all. This would be a great house for a single person, a couple with no kids, or a couple with one child, or possibly two who were willing to share a bedroom. However…that’s not us.

So, it’s not for us, but it could be for one of you. I really admired how they did a fabulous job of maximizing space and storage. The kitchen is the best example of that. It’s a small kitchen, there’s no getting around that, but by putting in tall, narrow cabinets, your eye follows them up to the ceiling. The laminate counter is cut back whenever possible to allow more space between the two areas of the kitchen, and everything possible is tucked away, like the microwave, which is in a cubby underneath the counter. In other rooms, there’s storage for wine and other sundries in the dining room under the staircase, and in the downstairs bath they cut out storage cubbies in between the studs on one wall, and there are small cabinets tucked between the ceiling and the top of the bath/shower enclosure. I absolutely adored the covered patio on the southern side of the house, and the yard is quite nice, with mature plantings, although there’s no backyard to speak of as the house is situated at the back and to the side of the corner property.

Whoever renovated this house, whether it was the current owners or previous ones, did a fantastic job. It’s a very livable little house. But in the end it’s just too small for our family.

By Debra | Posted in Babylon, Open Houses | Tagged , , , | Comments (9)

Hump Day Thoughts And Links

May 20, 2009 – 7:17 pm

This past weekend was reasonably productive, from a real estate perspective. We saw three houses, 19 Nehring, 155 Cooper and 2 Edward. Actually, it was only I who saw Cooper and Nehring. Deb stayed home for those. We tried to go see 78 Wampum, but the Realtor must have closed up shop and bugged out long before the scheduled end to the open house. Write-ups are in the works, but may not be up until late this weekend.

I finally got to meet my Realtor, Tom McGiveron. He was at the Nehring open house and we got to spend some time chatting about the real estate market in general and my needs in particular.

I’m back at work today, after taking a few days of respite. It was nice to have some time to spend with my wife and daughter, but it’s good to be back at work. I get to missing it after a while

My Personal Credit Crisis [NY Times]
Are sub-prime mortgages, liar loans and bad real estate decisions something just for the poor and uneducated? Nope. NY Times economics writer Edmund Andrews writes about his process of one bad financial decision after another. Although, unlike most of the poor saps out there, he gets to recoup some of the damage by writing a book about it.
Long Island Has The Highest Foreclosure Rate In New York State [Long Island Bankruptcy Blog]

Some disturbing analysis from the Craig Robins over at LIBB.

Several years ago, once-blighted neighborhoods became gentrified when sub-prime mortgage funds easily flowed in. Now, however, the tide has turned, and these areas are suffering an epidemic of default, as homeowners simply cannot afford to pay their mortgages. Now, thousands of homeowners stand to lose lifetimes of savings as well as their homes.

Data shows that Long Island’s housing problems appear to be worsening. Long Island’s foreclosure rate is 3.7 percent, with at least 31,000 homes in some stage of foreclosure during the period 2005 through 2008. This is higher than the 3.3 percent rate for the tri-state region.

Additional data shows that more than 6 percent of Long Island mortgages are 90 days or more past due, which is substantially greater than the 3.5 percent amount for the same period last year.

The State of The Long Island Real Estate Market: April 2009 [Tom McGiveron]
Tom has a nice writeup on the current state of things here on the big, fish-shaped island and it’s not pretty.

So where is the market going? Well, the above slide is pretty clear on that. With over 33,000 listings for sale (inventory) and less than 1500 sales, we have a long way to go toward leveling the supply of homes on the market. This point is irrefutable. These numbers do not lie.
Are there signs that things are improving? Absolutely, but the improvements are slow and small (which is a lot better than nonexistent). Now what does this mean for buyers? It means, for the time being, that home prices will not be increasing anytime soon. However, as I always say, interest rates are at historic lows so getting in now is an incredible time.

Of course, being a Realtor, he can’t help pushing a little buy now spiel on us at the end. It’s all good.

Some borrowers try to cheat for better mortgage deal [Real LI]

At a Hempstead mortgage help forum two weeks ago, one lending executive told Newsday that people try to game the system to get better deals, even though they’re not in financial distress, while others who have gotten good loan modifications come back for another break because they’re broke after spending on luxuries. One man with an adjustable rate loan even insisted he was suffering due to the high, reset interest rate, the executive recounted, but he was just parroting the now-familiar complaint about exotic loans. A look at his loan showed that his rate hadn’t even changed yet, the lending official said.

A Chrysler Dealer Fights Obama’s Destruction of the American Dream [Rush Limbaugh]
Holy crap! Am I really linking to Rush Limbaugh? Somebody smack me in the face here.

Local dealer Jim Anderer of Island Jeep in Lindenhurst called in to the Rushmeister’s show yesterday and blamed the Feds for Chrysler’s decision to terminate his franchise. Seriously.

This is insanity. The government is stealing my business. Well, I cannot accept that as a patriotic American. I was raised in this country to believe that if I work hard and I achieve what I was going after — and I did! I did it! I got it, and now all of a sudden because, you know, we have a president who pushes Chrysler into bankruptcy and puts all of the UAW workers out…? Didn’t have to. Maybe some would have to go out but not all of them, okay. This doesn’t happen in America. This is still America, I think. I mean, this isn’t Stalinist Russia. This is not Nazi Germany where the troopers say you’re out and their buddies are in. That’s what I’m faced with.

I guess Jim missed all the news reports where they explained that Chrysler has been hemorrhaging money for some time and was no longer viable as a going concern.

As is so happens, my dad does some work for Eagle Jeep out in Riverhead, another dealer that’s getting the axe. The story he told me is that Chrysler wanted a bigger commitment from them to the Chrysler brand and when Eagle wouldn’t go for it, they were out. I’m pretty sure the government wasn’t involved in that decision either.

By Gary | Posted in Babylon, In The News, Website Stuff | Comments (0)