Real Estate New York

Market Update March 2008

Capital Region Home Prices Buck Trend

A closely watched housing index says home prices in the Capital Region rose during the last quarter of 2007, even as they fell nationally.

The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight said Tuesday that prices of existing single-family homes here rose 1.22 percent during the year's final three months and 4.31 percent overall last year.

The numbers are a vindication of sorts for local real estate agents, who have insisted that the region's market is healthy relative to slumping areas in California, Florida and elsewhere.

"I'm sure there are a lot of communities that are different from the national numbers," said Marie Bettini, president of the Greater Capital Association of Realtors Inc., a Colonie-based trade group. "There are a lot of markets that are OK."

For months now, the Capital Region housing market has presented a paradox: According to numbers from GCAR, median sale prices have been flat or rising -- even as the number of homes sold were in steep decline.

On Monday, that trend continued: GCAR said January's closed home sales were down 20 percent from the same month last year, but the median sales price remained flat.

Because numbers like that seem to run counter to the laws of supply and demand, they've generated puzzlement -- and even skepticism.

Some cynics have wondered whether Realtors are cooking the books, or if buyers are using deflated prices to buy larger homes, thereby keeping prices stable.

But economists consider the OFHEO House Price Index to be among the most accurate of housing-price gauges because the agency bases its measurements on repeat sales of the same properties or refinancing on the same properties.

Click for complete article by Chris Churchill of the Times Union

Gradual home price drop good: Yale's Shiller

Robert Shiller, Yale finance professor and author of the highly touted "Irrational Exuberance" book on asset bubbles, said gradually falling home prices are nothing to fear.

It's the more swift and sharp slide that can undermine housing, and thus consumer confidence and the economy, he said here at a Reuters Housing Summit.

"There's nothing troubling about a gradual correction of home prices. If we keep our incomes at the current level and home prices go down we are richer, we can buy more housing," Shiller said.

"On the other hand, if they fall suddenly and fast then that can bring on recession and that is the worry right now."

A housing boom that lasted nine years is now unraveling.

The economy is "probably on the brink of recession," Shiller said.

The most recent Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index released in late January showed an annual 7.7 percent price drop in November.

Still, that slide pales in comparison with the surge registered in the nine years of the housing boom. 

Click for complete article by Lynn Adler of REUTERS.com

Stylish Outdoor Living

Decks and patios give a home and yard an attractive, functional outdoor space.

Home owners' increased interest in enjoying nature and gardening is reflected in patios and decks sprouting on the front, back, and sides of city and suburban homes, as well as atop roofs of condominium buildings and townhouses. These outdoor spaces reflect a greater array of designs, materials, sizes, and price points than constructed in years past.

“They're getting bigger and bigger and sometimes extend off the back and wrap around one side,” says Melissa Galt of Melissa Galt Interiors in Atlanta. Many also are designed as a transition between the indoors and a landscaped yard, says San Francisco architect Frank Bergmaschi.

Decks and patios also are getting swankier, the equivalent of outdoor rooms with sophisticated furnishings and all the bells and whistles. “Home owners want to take everything they love about their homes and move the whole lot outside,” says Michael Payne, a designer and former host of HGTV's show, “Designing for the Sexes.”

Here's how to get these outdoor spaces the attention they deserve:

Click for complete article by Barbara Ballinger of the National Association of Realtors

Architectural Coach: Radiant Heat

Heated floors for a cold day? To many buyers, that sounds too good to be true. Learn about the benefits of radiant heating and why it's becoming such a sought after amenity.

Radiant heating and cooling is growing in popularity in green design, new construction, and renovations as home owners discover the advantages of these features — not to mention, how they can pay off when they go to sell a home.

These systems, where embedded pipes circulate warm (or cool) water in the floors, are particularly energy efficient, which clearly is a big selling point. But there's more to radiant heating than just being fuel efficient.

Here are a few additional reasons a buyer will want to pay particular attention to this method of heating and cooling:

• Radiant heat makes floors toasty and warm, which makes you feel cozier in the space. It eliminates drafty floors and provides consistent heat throughout a room.

• There's no need for air ducts, which can circulate mold and dust throughout a house. For anyone suffering from allergies, this is an important consideration.

• For ultra efficiency, renewable energy sources, such as geothermal and solar, are compatible for fueling a radiant heating and cooling system.

• Radiant heating and cooling is quiet. Unlike other systems, there are no clanging radiator pipes or air rumbling through ductwork.

• With other types of heating, the hot air rises quickly up toward the ceiling, warming the parts of a room where people rarely go. With radiant heat, the warmth stays lower in the room, closer to where you are.

• Radiant heating and cooling doesn't interfere with furniture layouts or the choice of window treatments in a room the way that radiators, baseboard heating elements, and air vents do. You don't want to hang long curtains over an electric baseboard heater, place a sofa against a radiator or over an air vent, or have a chair right in front of a through-the-wall air conditioner. With radiant heating and cooling, there is nothing visible in the room; it's all buried in the floor.

• The energy efficiency of radiant heating and cooling can save 20 percent or more on fuel bills. This is, in part, because the water being circulated through the pipes doesn't need to be heated to as high a temperature as a traditional radiator, for example.

Click for complete article by Leslie Banker of the National Association of Realtors __________________________________________________

Tell a Friend

If you know someone who may benefit from our monthly market update please forward this page. To sign up for our free, no obligation, market update click here: Market Update SignUp

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX