Kevin Clancy Albany New York Real Estate Broker

First let me say I understand the pain of being a property owner in upstate NY. We have some of the highest overall tax burdens in the entire country when you figure in income tax, gas taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes. However, for now I want to talk about property taxes. I still hear it all the time. "They did a revaluation in my town when values were at their peak, why don't they do another revaluation now that values are down so I can save money". This shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how property taxes are figured. First property values, in the Capital Region, in general have not dropped much if they have dropped at all. But lets assume they have. Suppose property values in a town dropped 20% over the past year. A home assessed for $200,000 is now worth $160,000. Now the town does a revaluation and the values of properties are reduced by 20% across the board. Is the homeowner happy or any better? Of course not. The reason is the tax bill for the school, town, and county has gone up like it does every year. So now the entire town is assessed at a lower value why aren't they paying lower taxes? Because the tax rate will increase to offset the lower assessed values. The town has to do this to raise enough revenue to pay their bills. Instead of complaining about assessments a more valid argument, if you are concerned about your tax bill, would be concerns with Town and school budgets, waste, and spending. Have questions or want to review area town tax rates? Visit me online at http://www.clancyrealestate.com

The perception among many is the Realtors simply drop homes in our Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system and they sell themselves. This is far from the truth! As a broker I spend a considerably amount of time networking and keeping track of current and future deals that may or may not be listed in the MLS. I can think of two recent deals I did simply by talking to other brokers and knowing what inventory they had coming on the market before it hit the MLS. Right now I have the following non MLS listed deals available. These properties will not be found in the MLS but are available for viewing. If you see one that works for you visit me online at Albany NY real estate for sale or call me directly.

1) Four 4 unit apartment buildings in Albany with a listing price of approximately $160,000+- each.

2) 7 Acres of vacant land in the Guilderland School district for approximately $60,000+-.

3) A 3 bedroom Albany Contemporary style home on a cul de sac for $250,000+-.

4) A 200 year old historic Colonial in Altamont in the mid $300,000+- range.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank You!

Sincerely,

Kevin Clancy

518-861-7016
kevin@clancyrealestate.com
http://www.clancyrealestate.com

Be sure to check out this month's Newsletter, click here

To Search Thousands of MLS listed homes, click here

To see Kevin's Bio, click here

To see Hot Listings, click here

For Buyer's Articles, click here

For Seller's Articles, click here

Albany real estate is becoming increasingly competitive and often I meet with a potential  home seller that is talking to 4-5 other agents regarding the sale of their home. One of the most difficult aspects of listing a home in this market is determining market value. After 18 years as a certified appraiser, and over 10,000 home appraisals I have a pretty good idea of what a home is worth. However, lately it seems like I am hearing the same comments over and over. "xyz agent with xxx realty says I can get $50,000 more then your estimate of value". I call this buying a listing. Another agent will either intentionally or by error tell a homeowner a grossly inflated number in the hopes the seller lists with them rather then accept a detailed, realistic,  supportable actual value estimate. The agent lists the home, it doesn't sell,  and then they  start a series of price reductions that brings the home down to where is should have been listed originally. It wastes time of the seller, other agents, and skews market statistics.  The worst case of this I was involved in was two years ago. A seller decided to list a home for roughly $100,000 more then my estimated value with another Realtor that assured him he could sell the home quickly for the higher price. Keep in mind this was a seller that wanted a 60 day marketing time. The result was 2 years of marketing, with 3 different Realtors, and with a final sale price lower then my original estimate!   If you are thinking of selling your home you need to have confidence in the value estimate your agent provides you. You should be asking the following questions. Are you a certified appraiser? How many evaluations in this area have you completed? How many homes have you sold in this area? What is your average sale price to originallist price ratio? How does the average days on market for your listings compare to that of the market as a whole? What percentage of your listings expire unsold?  Don't make the mistake of picking the least experienced agent that tells you the highest value for your home. Have further questions about the value of your home? If you are thinking of selling visit me online for a free over the net home evaluation at Albany NY Real Estate

Just wanted to say thanks to Sherman, John, and WROW for giving me a chance to talk about Albany Real Estate today. Ok So they busted on my website video a little bit. New Video is in the works for 2009! These guys are true professionals. It was an enjoyable experience. Hopefully you caught my interview. If not I am actually considering a once a week real estate radio show. Here is a photo of today. I know I have a face for radio! Thanks to everybody that listened, called, and emailed afterwards!

If you know me you know I like looking at data to spot trends. My MBA Research paper was on the Albany housing market. I spentliterally hundreds of hours on regression analysis of Albany housing data trying to predict housing demand and price movements. The bottom line, predicting housing prices and demand is very, very, difficult. It can be done with about the same certaintyy as predicting mortgage rates moves or the stock market. However, when Albany housing statistics are evaluated it always involves the number of homes sold and the year over year sale price. I have said before, as a certified appraiser I prefer to use "paired sales" to measure price movements not median prices, but that is another issue for another time. I think the one thing often missed by housing statistics is a measure of housing affordability. I have never seen the Times Union mention affordability in a housing article. Yet it is a critical measure of the market. One firm that does an excellent job of reporting affordability is John Burns Consulting. They measure home affordability for many, many metropolitan areas. The following statistics came from the November John Burns Consulting survey.

The main measure of housing affordability is the ratio of the percentage of median income required to purchase a median priced home. The latest data released by John Burns Consulting shows that in the Albany Market roughly 34% of the median household income is required to buy a median priced home. This will have dropped in the past week with the drop in mortgage interest rates. What does this mean?

Well for comparison NYC requires 78% of the median income to purchase a median priced home. In Buffalo, NY it would take just 21% of the median household income to make payments on a median priced home. At 34% Albany is just about fairly priced. Its not a bargain but we aren't yet priced out of the market. The Albany areas housing barometer rating is 5.3. The closer to 10 on the scale the more overpriced your market is. The closer the 0 the more affordable the market is.

Presently we are roughly in balance. The recent drop in interest rates has helped as well. So to anyone that says Albany is overpriced, look at the numbers! Have questions Visit me online at Clancy Real Estate Albany NY Real Estate

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank You!

Sincerely,

Kevin Clancy

518-861-7016
kevin@clancyrealestate.com
http://www.clancyrealestate.com

Be sure to check out this month's Newsletter, click here

To Search Thousands of MLS listed homes, click here

To see Kevin's Bio, click here

To see Hot Listings, click here

For Buyer's Articles, click here

For Seller's Articles, click here