Aldo Grillo's New York Real Estate Blog

Long overdue I have been putting off starting my blog. Boy do I have a lot to say about real estate in the NY Metro area specially Queens.

When you hear “real estate is down now”, or “it is a buyer’s market” and even “who is buying now no one is giving out mortgages to buy a home?”. Well they are correct half of the time that is true in any real estate market. It depends on the individual buyer and who wants or needs to sell now. Furthermore the most important fact is LOCATION. Yes it still holds true location location, and location is perhaps the most important factor that will retain the value of your home and make it easier for lenders to lend to buy that home.

Within the NY Metro area year to date average home sales reported by Zillow.com are down 7.1%, (for Queens reported by Cranes -8.8%) but up 3.3% for the last 5 years. Even more interesting the bottom tier of home sale price had a reduction of over 15% within the last year to date but still up 4.3% for the last 5 years. What does this tell me, is that home prices moved down just recently in the NY Metro area. If I look deeper into the numbers I see condos and coops only moved down by ½ a point within the last year. That tells me home buyers who had the opportunity to put low money down payments for a home increased the price (demand and coops in NYC have a rule of 20% down kept their own. As we can see what is coming down must come down. In only selected areas prices have seen support. I cannot say at this time in the market an upward trend but support is their specially in those high demand areas and a lot of coops Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, and Rego Park. I just had a sale of one of my listing in Rego Park that just had a bidding war between 2 interested buyers. I was think and informed my client we may get an offer to buy and negotiate a price at around 205K or 210K my buyer ended up with a sale price of 215K. I make very certain of my pricing and look at all factors of the home trends and how I market it. (marketing is based on the sales commission package the seller chooses) but never the less it sold when I thought we were going to need some more time then we sold it in “3 weeks”. Location really make a deal happen in a buyer’s market but I really can’t call it a buyer’s market because the buyers a reluctant to buy because they think it will be hard to get a mortgage. This is try if you are buying a home out of your price range (putting down less than 20%) or look to buy when your FICO score is less than 700.

As buyers we need to understand there is a time to buy and that is when you have the opportunity to. Look at home that you can put a descant down payment, when your FICO score is less than average, and last but not least the most important fact is LOCATION. Even if you need to buy a smaller home for now buy in an area where it holds its own.

Aldo Grillo
NYS Real Estate Sales Agent
Mortgage Officer
www.NewYorkRealEstateValue.com
www.SureRateLock.com.