Real Estate New York
Market Update April 2007
Albany Home Shopper's Fair May 5th The Affordable Housing Partnership of the Capital Region is hosting a home buyer's fair at the Albany Public Library 161 Washington Ave. 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday May 5th. The presentation is free and open to the public, featuring exhibitors, Information tables, seminars, door prizes and more! Click for complete information The Affordable Housing Partnership also offers an excellent resource page with a list of municipal and non-profit organizations in the Capital Region that offer down payment assistance for lower income buyers. Click for list New Website Provides Homeowner Basics Your dream of owning a home can become a reality if you set realistic goals, get sound advice, plan carefully and clearly understand the costs of home ownership. NeighborWorks® America, through NCHEC, has partnered with E*TRADE FINANCIAL to bring you a new educational Web site, designed to help you make informed, sound decisions related to the home buying process. http://www.keystomyhome.org Field Guide: Buying vs. Renting An excellent source of information, articles, studies, and tips to help decide the best housing course for many wide ranged situations. Click for complete article Lender's Corner Bill Powell of Delmar's TD BankNorth is this month's spotlight lender. Banks and Mortgage lenders still have many mortgage programs to offer Media coverage on sub-prime mortgage lenders has let to the creation of sites such as http://mortgageimplode.com which tracks the trouble, closings and mergers in this part of the market. One important piece of information missing from these news reports is that the majority of banks and mortgage companies are still operating and consumers still have many options to meet their mortgage financing needs. Click for complete article Bill Powell AVP / Mortgage Loan Officer Phone: (518) 439-4426 Toll Free: (800) 358-2651 Cell: (518) 588-6756 E-mail: William.Powell@tdbanknorth.com http://www.tdbanknorthmortgage.com/bpowell National Association of Realtors Outlook The National Association of Realtors, which has long proclaimed that U.S. home prices haven't declined on a nationwide basis since the Great Depression, now says they are likely to do just that this year. The Realtors, which had been projecting as recently as February a 1.9 percent increase in the median home price this year, now say prices for previously occupied homes will slip 0.7 percent this year from the 2006 level. Click for complete article by J. Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal			Bad News Good for Buyers National Home Values down 0.3% for March 2007 And once again the average sale price in the Capital Region for 2007 exceeds both the 2005 and 2006 values by over 11% for the same periods. However, sellers are getting only 97.64% of their asking price instead of 98.28% just last month. So, the bad national news is just starting to work in the buyers' favor by limiting seller's expectations and encouraging them to consider offers they may not have considered last year. The reason for this continued disparity is the underlying solid fundamentals of our area. Besides the growth in the high tech fields, the state capital, numerous hospitals and universities provide a solid economic base that resists the undermining effects of the national real estate bubble deflation. While the concern is that a home purchased today will be worth less tomorrow, the actuality appears to be otherwise based on past and current appreciation. All in all, good news for home buyers. Click for the complete story By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer Market Update Market Statistics as of May 1, 2007 This graph represents average sale versus list prices The above graphs indicates that both the average list price and sale price for the month of April 2007 significantly exceeds both the 2005 and 2006 list versus sale prices for the same period. Time on market is above average at 83 days with sellers getting 97.64% of their asking price. Once again, our local market has outperformed the national by a large margin. And while some have hoped for bargain prices, the fact of the matter is that our area benefits from a strong underlying market economy that protects us from surges and drops in market value. National average price is $217,000 while in the Capital Region the average price as of April 2007 is $246,347 The data presented is from the Capital Region MLS for the four principal counties of Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga. Mortgage Rates and Trends The link to up to the minute New York State mortgage information seems to work better than presenting the actual graph. Click for up to the minute mortgage rate information What Home Buyers Need to Know About Subprime Short answer: Nothing. Nor is every Sub-Prime lender guilty of predatory lending practices. Most mortgage brokers and lenders can still provide quality mortgage financing for the marginal buyer without recourse to dangerous loan practices. But caution is definitely the byword. Thousands of ordinary people are losing their homes and their financial future daily. Click for complete article by Dennis Maier Archives We've been asked to again include links to past market updates. But since our stories link to other web sites over which we have no control we only want to link to our most recent issues. Otherwise, the article links may fail to work as they once did. January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007

Real Estate New York

Market Update April 2007

Albany Home Shopper's Fair May 5th

The Affordable Housing Partnership of the Capital Region is hosting a home buyer's fair at the Albany Public Library 161 Washington Ave. 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturday May 5th.

The presentation is free and open to the public, featuring exhibitors, Information tables, seminars, door prizes and more!

Click for complete information

The Affordable Housing Partnership also offers an excellent resource page with a list of municipal and non-profit organizations in the Capital Region that offer down payment assistance for lower income buyers.

Click for list

New Website Provides Homeowner Basics

Your dream of owning a home can become a reality if you set realistic goals, get sound advice, plan carefully and clearly understand the costs of home ownership. NeighborWorks® America, through NCHEC, has partnered with E*TRADE FINANCIAL to bring you a new educational Web site, designed to help you make informed, sound decisions related to the home buying process.

http://www.keystomyhome.org

Field Guide: Buying vs. Renting

An excellent source of information, articles, studies, and tips to help decide the best housing course for many wide ranged situations.

Click for complete article

Lender's Corner

Bill Powell of Delmar's TD BankNorth is this month's spotlight lender.

Banks and Mortgage lenders still have many mortgage programs to offer

Media coverage on sub-prime mortgage lenders has let to the creation of sites such as http://mortgageimplode.com which tracks the trouble, closings and mergers in this part of the market. One important piece of information missing from these news reports is that the majority of banks and mortgage companies are still operating and consumers still have many options to meet their mortgage financing needs.

Click for complete article

Bill Powell
AVP / Mortgage Loan Officer

Phone: (518) 439-4426
Toll Free: (800) 358-2651
Cell: (518) 588-6756
E-mail: William.Powell@tdbanknorth.com

http://www.tdbanknorthmortgage.com/bpowell

National Association of Realtors Outlook

The National Association of Realtors, which has long proclaimed that U.S. home prices haven't declined on a nationwide basis since the Great Depression, now says they are likely to do just that this year. The Realtors, which had been projecting as recently as February a 1.9 percent increase in the median home price this year, now say prices for previously occupied homes will slip 0.7 percent this year from the 2006 level.

Click for complete article by J. Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal

Bad News Good for Buyers

National Home Values down 0.3% for March 2007

And once again the average sale price in the Capital Region for 2007 exceeds both the 2005 and 2006 values by over 11% for the same periods.

However, sellers are getting only 97.64% of their asking price instead of 98.28% just last month. So, the bad national news is just starting to work in the buyers' favor by limiting seller's expectations and encouraging them to consider offers they may not have considered last year.

The reason for this continued disparity is the underlying solid fundamentals of our area. Besides the growth in the high tech fields, the state capital, numerous hospitals and universities provide a solid economic base that resists the undermining effects of the national real estate bubble deflation.

While the concern is that a home purchased today will be worth less tomorrow, the actuality appears to be otherwise based on past and current appreciation. All in all, good news for home buyers.

Click for the complete story By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Market Update

Market Statistics as of May 1, 2007

This graph represents average sale versus list prices

The above graphs indicates that both the average list price and sale price for the month of April 2007 significantly exceeds both the 2005 and 2006 list versus sale prices for the same period.

Time on market is above average at 83 days with sellers getting 97.64% of their asking price.

Once again, our local market has outperformed the national by a large margin. And while some have hoped for bargain prices, the fact of the matter is that our area benefits from a strong underlying market economy that protects us from surges and drops in market value.

National average price is $217,000 while in the Capital Region the average price as of April 2007 is $246,347

The data presented is from the Capital Region MLS for the four principal counties of Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga.

Mortgage Rates and Trends

The link to up to the minute New York State mortgage information seems to work better than presenting the actual graph.

Click for up to the minute mortgage rate information

What Home Buyers Need to Know About Subprime

Short answer: Nothing. Nor is every Sub-Prime lender guilty of predatory lending practices. Most mortgage brokers and lenders can still provide quality mortgage financing for the marginal buyer without recourse to dangerous loan practices. But caution is definitely the byword. Thousands of ordinary people are losing their homes and their financial future daily.

Click for complete article by Dennis Maier