Real Estate New York

Market Update February 2008

What's Hot in Home Design: Interiors

Be the first to see emerging styles inside and outside the home. Presented as an interactive slide shows these fresh ideas are brimming with photos, insights, and ideas for sprucing up your home.

Picking the top style trends for 2008 is a daunting task but Realtor Magazine's February 2008 issue makes a strong case for ten design trends that will stand out in the coming year. The presentation explores the latest in cutting-edge materials, building products, and equipment that will make a new home more appealing or transform an older home into a winner.

Click for complete presentation

Subprime Crisis Hits Home

While the Capital Region and upstate New York in general, has mostly avoided the subprime crisis, some local areas did not fair as well.

In Troy , particularly the 12180 ZIP code, 10 percent of subprime loans borrowers were in foreclosure, while more than 20 percent had fallen at least 30 days behind on payments.

Subprime loans frequently have adjustable payment rates (ARMs) that can reset to a significantly higher rate then the initial teaser rate the borrower saw when committing to the loan.

In addition, the statistics show that 24.2 percent of the subprime mortgages in ZIP code 12180 will reset after April, suggesting the potential for a new wave of foreclosures.

ZIP code boundaries can appear arbitrary, and some codes have higher populations than others. Therefore, ZIP code 12180 may have the highest number of subprime mortgages only because its boundaries are expansive and include densely populated neighborhoods. Incidentally, this is why the Realtors use SubAreas to designate communities with similar housing markets.
(see article below)

While most of Troy falls into 12180, cities like Albany and Schenectady are divided by several ZIP codes and share the codes with suburban neighbors, leaving the possibility that the two cities have more subprime mortgages than Troy .

Several ZIP codes that included parts of Schenectady had high numbers of subprime mortgages, with varying rates of default.

However, while the report focuses mainly on areas considered poor such as areas of Albany , Schenectady and Troy , investigating other areas produces some unexpected results. ZIP code 12020 in Ballston Spa, for example, had 217 subprime mortgages, and 26.8 percent of the loan holders were either in default or behind on payments.

While this unfortunate situation causes financial harm to sub-prime borrowers it also presents an opportunity for buyers to pick up some nice bargains in the months to come.

Click for Full Report from the Federal Reserve Bank of NYS

Sub Areas Considered

Location, Location, Location

Are the three most important concerns in real estate. But how do you differentiate one location from another? The current system uses three digit numbered areas and subareas to identify similar neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the system tends to be unwieldy and nebulous. Even experienced agents get it wrong and few can delineate some subareas accurately.

Of course, some areas are easier to define than others. For instance, Clifton Park , area 350, is broken down into two general subareas: 351 (below Rt-146) & 352 (above Rt-146). Unfortunately, most other areas are not so easy to define, with boundaries meandering all over the map in an attempt to include similar homes and exclude areas that are incompatible.

What we have done at Real Estate New York is to provide three ways for house hunters to select areas of interest. One is a sub area map in PDF format that can be downloaded at http://RENY.net/PDF/capital-region-areas.pdf . Unfortunately, it's a static map that doesn't provide all the detail one may need. This is because of the bandwidth limitations of some dial-up users. Second, we've provided a text document that lists all the areas and subareas in the Capital District. It can be viewed at http://RENY.net/Sub-Areas-2007.html . With a good area map and this document it would be possible to pin down the exact boundaries of a given area or subarea. This too is cumbersome.

Finally, we've just published an Albany County area subarea map in conjunction with Google Maps that not only delineates each area but provides the means to zoom in and out plus pan the map. Areas and Subareas are shaded in color with a popup banner that further delineates the area. If you like this map we will add other counties and perhaps information and demographics about each area and subarea. It can be viewed at: http://RENY.net/Capital-Region-Albany-County-Google-Map.html

If you find the map useful (or not) please take a moment to log in your opinion at the link on the Google map page. Please let us know if you would like additional information about each area, as well.

Architectural Coach

Five Home Styles Uncommon in the Capital District

Prairie: The Robie House, Chicago, Ill.

Low overhanging roofs. Narrow high windows. Typically one story with porches supported by large square columns. Originated in the late 1800s by Frank Lloyd Wright, Prairie homes are the ancestors of the 1950s ranch house.

“Prairie is the first truly American style of architecture.”

Also in the piece: Greek Revival, Italianate, French provincial, and Victorian/Queen Anne

Click for Complete Article from Realtor.org

Home Prices and Mortgage Rates Decline

Up to this point the Capital Region has not suffered from the housing decline experienced nationally. This is largely because the areas strong employment base resists instability.

And while Freddie Mac reports the area price decline at only one half of a percent (-0.5%) for the third quarter of 2007 (up 2.2% for the year; up 60% for the last 5 years) our latest statistics as of February 1, 2008 see a 5 1/2% price decrease in prices for the month of January to an average of $227,319 for the four main counties: Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer. This is the lowest average January price since 2006 ($227,056).

In addition, home mortgage rates for the New York State have also dropped nearly 8% from December 2007 to an average of 5.77%

Unfortunately, neither the mortgage rates below 6% nor the continued decline are predicted to continue.

For right now, however, the bargains are out there. But may be gone by the time the warm weather brings our traditionally busiest time.

Click for complete New York State Mortgage Report

Click for complete forecast from FeddieMac

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