Ben Shor

The statistics shown below were taken from the Ulster County Multiple Listing Service.

Comparing sales from January 1, 2010 through July 15, 2010 with sales from the same time period in 2009, there has been an increase of 160 homes sold, a 33.6% increase. The average sale price decreased from $240,296 to $235,503, a 2% decrease. The median sale price increased from $206,730 to $209,875, a 1.5% increase. Sales increased for homes in every price category, except for the lowest and highest priced homes, those priced under $100,00 and over $501,000.

When you compare sales for the January 1, 2010 through July 15, 2010 with sales from 2008, there have been appreciable drops in average and median sale prices. The average sale price dropped from $300,999 to $235,503, a 27.8% decrease. The median sale price dropped from $245,000 to $209,875, a 16.7% decrease.

The average and median sale price for 2010 is slightly lower than what it was in 2004! But with prices remaining fairly stable for the past year and a half, perhaps we have hit the bottom of the market.

The following chart is broken down by Ulster County town, for the period January 1, 2010 through July 16, 2010. It lists the number of units sold, the average list price prior to sale, the average sold price, a comparison of these two figures, and the average days a listing is on market, beginning with the listing date and ending with the sold date.

Woodstock had the highest average list and sold prices for Ulster County, and the Village of Ellenville had the lowest average list and sold prices. Rosendale had the highest ratio of sold price compared to list price, and Ellenville had the lowest ratio. Marlborough had the highest number of days on market, and Hurley had the lowest.

The statistics shown below were taken from the Ulster County Multiple Listing Service.

Comparing sales from January 1, 2010 thru April 24, 2010 with sales from the same time period in 2009, there has been an increase of 70 homes sold, a 31.5% increase. The average sale price increased from $232,509 to $241,285, a 3.7% increase. The median sale price increased from $190,000 to $209,120, a 10% increase. Sales increased in every price category, except for sales of homes over $1 million.

Comparing sales from January 1, 2010 thru April 24, 2010 with sales from all of 2009, the average and median sale prices were almost exactly the same.

When you compare sales for the January 1, 2010 thru April 24, 2010 with sales from 2008, there have been appreciable drops in average and median sale prices. The average sale price dropped from $288,758 to $241,065, a 16.6% decrease. The median sale price dropped from $239,200 to $209,120, a 12.6% decrease.

The average and median sale price for 2010 is slightly lower than what it was in 2004! But with prices remaining fairly stable for the past year and four months, perhaps we have hit the bottom of the market.

In my first article in this series, Photographing Properties for Sale in Ulster County, I discussed what we (Team Ulster) photograph when we are preparing to list a real estate property for sale in Ulster County. In this second article, I will discuss the procedure we follow to make the photographs look their best.

When we come back from shooting the photographs of a property that we are about to list on the Ulster County Multiple Listing Service, we first download the photographs from our camera to a folder on our computer. We then open up our photo-editing software, and import those photographs into this program. (To find a photo-editing program, go to Google, and type in "photo editing software". Google offers a very good free program called Picasa.)

Within the photo-editing program, we may do a number of things so that our photographs present the property in the best light [pun intended]. We might straighten, crop, lighten, darken, or brighten the photographs, so that the photographs show the property the way we actually saw it. We are "fixing" the photographs because we may not have had proper lighting, or we did not hold the camera straight, or we forgot to use the flash, etc.

Occasionally we will retouch the photograph to hide an unsightly item that we forgot to move before we took the photograph. We never retouch a photograph to hide something that is permanently there, such as a power line or telephone pole, because that would be unethical. But if we forgot to remove that red rubber ball or that ugly garbage can before we took the photograph, we will now try to retouch it out of the photograph. From our experience, retouching is difficult to do because the picture often looks worse with the "offensive" item retouched out of the photograph, than when that item was in the photograph. So, we often forgo retouching, and just curse ourselves for not having seen that offensive item before we took the photograph.

We do not edit every photograph that we took, just those that we might want to use. Once we have finished editing, than we export the edited photographs to a new folder. At this point, we pick the photographs that we will put on our Multiple Listing Service, our team website (www.UlsterCountyHouses.com), and on the slide show or property website that we will set up just for this property.

We are now ready to use our edited photographs to prepare a virtual tour, but I will cover that procedure in my next article.

The following statistics were taken from the Ulster County Multiple Listing Service (MLS). These statistics include all single family homes sold in Ulster County that were listed on the Ulster County MLS. We will be comparing statistics for the full 2009 year with the previous year's statistics.

The average and median price for single family homes sold in 2009 decreased considerably from 2008.

One of the major reasons for this decline was the federal government offering an $8,000 tax credit to first-time homebuyers in 2009. As a result, many of the homes sold were to first-time homebuyers, and these buyers tend to purchase lower-priced homes. This brought down the average and median price of sold homes in 2009.

Another reason for the decline in prices was the "great recession" that began in late 2008. Existing and prospective homeowners suffered major losses of income and deep declines in the value of their investments. As a result, some homeowners had to sell because they could no longer afford to maintain their home, and some homebuyers had less money to purchase a home. This brought about downward pressure on home prices.

The average sold price for single family homes decreased by about 17% from 2008 to 2009, from $297,505 to $246,530.

The median sold price for single family homes decreased by about 22% from 2008 to 2009, from $245,000 to $215,000.

The number of days a sold house was on the market from the time it was listed until the closing date, increased by 9 days (about 6%) from 2008 to 2009, from 162 to 171.

The sale price to list price ratio decreased by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009, from 93.80% to 93.33%. That means that in 2009 the average single family home sold for about 7% less than the final listing price for that home.

The number of single family homes listed in 2009 decreased by about 5% from 2008, from 2,945 to 2,807.

The number of single family homes sold in 2009 increased by about 1% from 2008, from 960 to 971.

Here is some great first-time home-buyer news: SONYMA (State Of NY Mortgage Agency) has announced two new features that can be used with their loan programs.

1. Down-payment assistance loan of up to 3% of the home price, with a maximum of $10,000. This is a no payment, 0% interest loan, which is forgiven after 10 years.

2. Tax credit advance loan. Now applicants can receive their $8,000 federal tax credit at the closing, when they need it. If the advance is paid back by June 30, 2011, there is no interest. In order to be eligible, borrowers must generally be first-time home-buyers, and have contracts for a home signed on or before April 30, 2010, with a closing on or before June 30, 2010.

Income limits for Ulster County:

1-2 person household: $83,640

3 + person household: $97,580

Maximum single-family home price: $354,970

For more detailed information about this program, click on the following link:

Down Payment Assistance and Tax Credit Advance Loans