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WPCNR THE HOUSING NEWS. Interview with Better Homes and Gardens/Rand’s Mike Graessle. May 30, 2009:  

 

What a great day to buy a house — in White Plains.

 

Attractive White Plains home prices and the city’s  low taxes compared to the rest of the county continue to offer great opportunities for the home buyer in White Plains today, which local realtor Mike Graessle says is holding its own.

 

 

“What’s selling are the lower priced homes. The higher priced — those already in a house, looking to move up are challenged,” Graessle said, sharing latest in-city sales statistics. WPCNR File Photos Posed by Professional Models.

 

White Plains homeowners looking to sell, and those looking to buy in White Plains face a market where the city’s  lower priced homes in the $400,000 to $600,000 range are moving , at a slower pace,  even producing bidding wars,  Graessle says.  Higher priced home sales in the $700,000 and up range are still stymied by banks being unwilling to lend the jumbo mortgages required and enforcement of strong credit standards in approving such loans large or small, he said.

 

 

Mike Graessle, of  Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty, told WPCNR Friday that though White Plains home sale prices have fallen January through March–houses are moving, they just take longer to sell.

 

White Plains flagship housing market

 

White Plains closings (29) in the first quarter,  were actually one more than last year’s first quarter activity. Graessle said this was encouraging because the closings reflected deals agreed to in the fall, indicating White Plains was holding its attractiveness to home buyers in the midst of the financial crisis of the autumn.

 

 Mike observed that Westchester-wide closings were down 42% (427 closings in 2009, compared to 732 in the 2008 First Quarter).

 

In  the first five weeks of the second quarter from April 1 through May 6: 203 homes sold countywide to last year’s 327, down “only” 38%.

 

Average Selling Price Down 17% One Year After “Crash of ’08”

 

White Plains home selling prices are down, Graessle observed, but White Plainsians are not taking as much a loss in value as other homeowners in the county. Graessle, quoting local stats from the Westchester Putnam Multiple Listing Service,  said the average sale price in White Plains for Single Family Homes closing the first three months of 2009 was $593,699. Last year the average price in the first quarter (before the “Crash of 08”) was $715,364, a decline of  17%.

 

 

Around Westchester County, first quarter price decline was severe. The average selling price the first three months of this year countywide was $694,672 compared to the $935,067 in the first quarter of 2009—that’s a 25% decline.

 

The White Plains median price for a single family home in the first quarter of 2009 was $590,000, meaning half the 29 closings sold below that and half sold above that figure. This is down from the $623,500 median price from the first quarter of 2008 – a 5.4% decline. Across the county the first quarter median price was $530,000  down 15% from the $622,500 in the first quarter of 2008.

 

5-1/2 months to sell

 

Graessle noted that the average days of the market for homes closed in the first quarter in White Plains was 165 days or 5-1/2 months. He noted the total of White Plains new listings in quarter one was down 35%. As of May 29, 141 homes in White Plains were on the market.

 

Expect Close to Sale Price.

 

The realtor drew WPCNR’s attention to the interesting factoid that of the homes closed in the first quarter in White Plains, that the average difference in price offered and the price the home sold for was 5.6%, unless of course you price your home too high on debut.

 

3.5% Down Payment Required

 

Graessle expressed optimism that the White Plains lower priced homes at least would continue to keep the White Plains real estate market moving forward . He noted that with the 3.5% down payment and $8,000 tax credit now in effect on FHA loans, a first-time home buyer if they can muster a $20,000 down payment can get a mortgage on $500,000 White Plains home, and secure a 5%– 30 year mortgage, if their credit is good.

 

Foreclosures Not Contributing to Price Decline

 

Despite soaring county foreclosure judgments, Graessle was asked if the number of foreclosures was contributing to the softening of sales prices in White Plains. He said no, because when foreclosed homes go on the market in White Plains, there are competitive buyers who bid the price up, based on his recent observations of the White Plains market.

 

 

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. May 28, 2009 UPDATED 3 P.M. E.D.T.: The Common Council this morning at11:17 A.M. voted 5-2, with Mayor Joseph Delfino and Councilman Glen Hockley opposed and Councilpersons Boykin, Lecouona, Malmud, Power and Roach in favor to enact a $158.2 Million budget for fiscal year 2009-10. The council also voted to eliminate the funding for the payment of David Birdsall as Acting Budget Director, and enacted an unspecified number of job cuts of full and part-time personnel.

Melissa Lopez, of the Mayor’s office reports to WPCNR that 55 part-time jobholders and 25 full-time employees of the city have been cut beginning July 1. WPCNR asked for a list of the jobs being cut by department, and for a list of the names of the individuals. Lopez issued this statement: “The Mayor’s Office wishes to respect the privacy of these individuals.  If you would like their names, I would recommend you file an FOI request.”

Ms. Lopez said a list of the positions by department was being worked on but it “would take awhile.”

The members of the Common Council voting in favor of the cut, trimming the Mayor’s budget $2 Million from his proposed budget of $160.2 Million, spent two hours telling the morning television audience how hard they had worked on the budget to begin to repair the city finances and keep the city fund balance at the $5 Million level. Councilman Tom Roach, Rita Malmud, Dennis Power described the Mayor’s original budget as “unbalanced,” “unacceptable,” “impractical,” because it proposed using up $11.4 Million in undesignated fund balance. The Council-enacted budget today, keeps the fund balance at the $11.9 Million level by adding new revenues, cutting expenses, and borrowing $2 Million for undetermined “settlements or court-ordered expenses.” 

Councilperson Tom Roach commented that a long term structural financial plan was needed to repair the city’s finances going forward, bringing expenses in line with revenues, and he predicted substantially more “pain” in developing the 2010-11 city budget. He described the cuts the council made as “turning the battleship around.”

Councilperson Milagros Lecouna said she looked forward to a new Mayor where the council would be a part of the budget process.Lecuona also noted that if the council were to consider raising the sales tax another 1/4%, part of the increase should be spent on creating affordable housing and acquisition of open space.

Dennis Power, promised the council would do much more next year (in terms of financial adjustment). He said the council might have to look at raising the sales tax, and alluded to the council having to look at the White Plains Performing Arts Center (which filed papers with the IRS this month, disclosing it was $700,00 plus in debt as of last June), and seeing what it could do to keep the WPPAC a “viable organization.” Power said separate commercial and residential tax rates for White Plains was a legislative priority, that he hoped would be passed. Mr. Power also suggested that the city might revisit the possibility of developing the railroad station area in the future

The council members, criticising in turn, this morning  the “one-shots” the majority of members at this morning’s table  had voted for in past budgets to balance the Mayor’s  spending that lead to the current year deficit, did not allude at any time to projected union settlements to come that will affect city budgets the next few years in these revenue-challenged times.

The lone councilman in support of the budget was Glen Hockley who said he was not in favor of any job cuts that hurt families. He also quoted Commissioner of Public Safety Frank Straub as saying downtown safety would be compromised, considering that during the summer, according to Hockley the city averaged 30 arrests on both Friday and Saturday nights in the downtown. Hockley also quoted Straub as saying and fire response time to the southend of town slowed by inactivating two pieces of equipment.

Mayor Joseph Delfino defended his budget as “balanced,” and noted that had the Common Council enacted the  1/2 per cent sales tax he had asked for two years ago, (the council would only go for a quarter per cent) the 1/2 per cent would have brought in the $12 Million which the Mayor said was equivalent to the $12 million gap the council was now closing.

Delfino in a bitter close to the meeting, often appearing on the verge of tears on television, said the revenues of the city were not broken, but “splintered,”: and said his budget was an attempt to fix that.  He saluted his Acting Budget Director, David Birdsall for his terrific efforts. He cut off shouts from the floor over the restoration of $50,000 to the library budget. He called the restoration of the $50,000 to the library a political move.

Delfino in his final soliloquy accused the council of laying a 33% tax increase on the citizens. Councilman Tom Roach interrupted the Mayor’s speech pointing out it was not a 33% tax increase, but a 6.5% increase, and the increase in the tax increase was a third, not an overall 33% increase.

Delfino closed saying to White Plains he has always been “a servant,”  not a politician.