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      It’s a great day to buy a house in White Plains New York, Dennis . The housing market is still very hot continuing the last 6 months boom in real estate throughout the county.

That is what Crystsal Hawkins-Syska President of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors told me on White Plains Week this week. She sells real estate out of Keller-Williams in White Plains and told me White Plains is still very hot and we continue to be an annex to New York City

She says homes in White Plains are flying off the shelves.Right now 415 homes are for sale in White Plains and 468 White Plains homes have been sold in the last six months.

She remarks that if no more homes are put up for sale in White Plains it would take 5 months to sell all the homes for sale right now.

She told me 98 homes are being sold a month in White Plains, an average of 3 sales a day. Crystal remarks that Keller Williams has 100 plus listings now in their White Plains office.

That’s how hot White Plains is and it is a struggle to show all the homes for real estate agents because the owners want a limited amount of persons visiting their homes—Crystal says they are limited to 12 in a party plus the agent. She says she has not seen a market like this since 2004-2005 “when people would walk into the house and make an offer.”

She says prices are holding up and not selling far above their assessed value. She believes this is because the assessments were appraised on the high side when the city set them. This goes along with what the White Plains Assessor’s Office told me two weeks ago: the assessment roll coming out Monday will tell the tale

She says persons putting up homes for sale have to get their homes in good condition, because potential buyers will not negotiate needed repairs to lower the price if serious repairs are needed on the home. They will just walk away.

There is also big interest in multifamily homes as starter homes that couples can fix up, rent then use as collateral to buy another house.

Ms. Syska notes this is a new way for first time buyers to get in the market. She says financing is available through New York State to help out persons not having quite enough to qualify for a mortgage. The complete interview will be telecast 8 pm Thursday on fios ch. 45 and optimum in White Plains, ch 76. The short interview can be seen on White Plains Week (on this website.)

We had a coup in White Plains New York USA this week. The Democratic City Committee voted to nominate Richard Payne to run for Common Council, replacing incumbent councilman John Kirkpatrick. This resulted in a spirited floor fight.

Sources tell me Mr. Kirkpatrick is not going to primary Mr. Payne for the nomination. This failure to be renominated for another time is nothing new with the Democratic City Committee.

Bill King was denied the nomination back in 2001, paving the way for Tom Roach, the current Mayor to go on the Common Council. Glen Hockley and Arnold Bernstein were also denied the nomination. And in one of the most outrageous denials of all. Milagros Lecuona a Councilperson for 12 years, was never appointed Council President. 

Mr. Payne is assured a seat on the Common Council because there is a lack of dynamic Republican candidates to challenge apparently. Can we see a show of hands?

Mayor Tom Roach tells us the data is continuing to show a decline in active COVID cases in White Plains. There are currently an estimated 372 active cases in our City, down 16 from our call last week. Over the past 7 days we have averaged 27   new cases per day.  The number of COVID patients at White Plains Hospital has continued to  decline. Patients are encouraged to come to the hospital if they are in need of care.  

The CDC has provided additional guidance on the most effective masks and the most effective ways to make use of them to protect yourself and others. It’s been shown again and again that wearing a mask reduces the risk of infection. Research shows that wearing a kn95  mask or layering a cloth mask atop a surgical mask, can increase protection to the wearer and others. More information may be found on our website, Cityofwhiteplains.com

The federal government has been slowly increasing vaccine supply to New York State. They have increased the anticipated weekly supply by more than 20 percent over the next three weeks.  However, even with these increases, the demand continues to far exceed the supply and as a result appointments remain difficult to secure.

Eligible residents should continue to check the State website, covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov or call the State Hotline at 1-833-NYS-4-VAX (1-833-697-4829) to check for new openings. 

In the last 6 Days since I was on the air, the Westchester infection rate of positives from  tests has been 4.2%.  2,961 new positive cases appeared. If they hospitalize at the rate of 5% we could see 148 hospitalizations within next 10 days. And due to snow cancellations, the state will call or e-mail you with new dates for scheduled vaccination.

The establishment of a Yonkers vaccination site could not have come at a better time and is long overdue. Because Yonkers and Mount Vernon have lead the county by far in new positive cases for months.

However it begs the question of why the tent structure at the County Center was not turned into a vaccination area instead of being dismantled. You could run vaccination buses right up to the tent in White Plains.  It is great the state county or whomever finally discovered Yonkers and Mount Vernon were out of control in infections. However the infections down there are already there…the vaccines may be coming in way too late. Not good thinking, but now it is out of control.

I also think that it is not easy to get directly from Mount Vernon to Yonkers for the Yonkers vaccination site at the New York Armory. If they had kept the tent hospital facility at White Plains open, they could send “Vaccine Buses up Route 22 direct to White Plains to the tent increasing the ability to move persons up for the vaccine.