The State of The Long Island Real Estate Market: April 2009

I am conducting buyer and seller seminars throughout Long Island and I am continually hearing people tell me what they think about the Long Island real estate market. I hear things like, "Oh, the market's going to pick back up soon." I also hear things like, "The market is crashing and all prices are going to go down another 50%..."
It's usually sellers saying the first thing and buyers saying more of the latter. Obviously.
Now my website is directed entirely towards educating sellers and buyers on the Long Island real estate market. I do not dress up the information and I pull no punches when it comes to taking a good hard look at what's going on. At least in my opinion, my information is transparent in as much as the information presented is as accurate as I can make it.
To specifically address what has happened to the Long Island real estate market, I decided to take a look at all the zones of Long Island, which includes in this article: Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. I took a look at the most current data available via the Multiple Listing Service Of Long Island. I measured April 2008 and April 2009 respectively. What I found was shocking, even to me.

Long Island is comprised of zones, which cover multiple hamlets. If you have a question about what zone you are in, please call me at 1.877.765.3123, ext. 51 and I'd be glad to review this with you.
These statistics do not lie. When a seller tries to tell me that the market isn't "as bad" as what I say - I refer to this chart.
I was recently at a friend's party and his father-in-law was trying to tell me that the average home in Suffolk is selling for $415,000. I promptly told him that information was inaccurate and proceeded to tell him that prices have dropped 17.5% in the last twelve months and the average selling price in Suffolk County is currently around $370,000.
Well, I was the party-pooper. Hey, there's a first time for everything!
So if you're buying or selling, please refer to this chart. I will do my best to update it every month, so keep checking back in monthly to see where we're at. To me, this is a great way to stay on top of where the market is.

So where is the market going? Well, the above slide is pretty clear on that. With over 33,000 listings for sale (inventory) and less than 1500 sales, we have a long way to go toward leveling the supply of homes on the market. This point is irrefutable. These numbers do not lie.
Are there signs that things are improving? Absolutely, but the improvements are slow and small (which is a lot better than nonexistent). Now what does this mean for buyers? It means, for the time being, that home prices will not be increasing anytime soon. However, as I always say, interest rates are at historic lows so getting in now is an incredible time.
If you would like to learn more about one of our seminars or would like to sit and review more market information, please do not hesitate to contact me at 631.831.9048.

(c) Copyright 2009
By Thomas McGiveron, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
www.tommcgiveron.com