Dana Voelzke

Are you looking for a home in a great neighborhood with excellent schools with affordable property taxes? This is your opportunity to learn more about the neighborhood and tour some great homes. This Sunday Oct. 25th from 1-4pm McCafffrey will hold simultaneous open houses at seven different properties ranging in price from $250,000 to $550,000 for sale in Southern New Milford and Brookfield. Click here for a map and print out our address list for further details on each home. Sign up to receive a list of the best buys in your price range on my website.

While touring homes in New Fairfield recently with a client who recently relocated from out of town, our conversation turned to sweet corn, one of my summer barbecue favorites. Turns out, her husband is a big corn fan too. "What's Halas?" she asked. Since consistent, good quality sweet corn is hard to come by, I promised her a blog post complete with map about Halas Farm Market, one of the best local spots to pick up fresh produce in Northern Fairfield County. Besides the great corn, Halas has an annual pumpkin painting contest that benefits charity. See their website for details. They also have lovely plants and garden supplies, pictured below. Enjoy!!

Map to Halas

If you're thinking about relocating into the Greater Danbury area, it takes a while to learn to navigate the area. Our roads are were not exactly planned on a grid system around here. The Federal Road shopping hub on the Danbury/Brookfield line has a lot to offer. There is a Home Depot and a Lowes within less than a mile of each other, a Best Buy, a huge movie theater, Stew Leonard's - a great local fresh dairy/farmers market style grocery store, Kohls, numerous furniture stores and more.

One of my favorite places in Greater Danbury to stop in for a quick bite to eat is the Costco snack booth. My husband and I stopped in on our shopping day for a slice of pizza for lunch. A frozen yogurt on a hot day after a long shopping trip certainly hits the spot. Our local Costco parking lot is full almost any given day with customers from Northern Fairfield County, Southern Litchfield County, and even many cars with New York license plates from the eastern part of the state near Brewster.

Click below for a map and directions.

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Below is a snapshot of market data for the six towns in Greater Danbury from January to August.

Coming in to the fall market we see a lot of first time buyers in the market competing for homes because of the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit, but also because of improved affordability resulting from lower interest rates and prices. In Danbury alone, there were 20 closed sales under $350k in August and there had been 26 in July, whereas typically activity levels would drop off. For more info on this phenomenon I suggest reading Janet Guilbault's blog Outsmart the Crowd: Skip the $8000 Tax Credit and Wait to Buy .

Also, the number of single family home sales in the $350k to $450k price range was 9 in August, compared to an average of 5.3 during the last 12 months. This is and encouraging sign. Investors out buying REO's and multifamily homes in cash. Over two thirds of all multi-family properties on the market right now are short sales or REO's which is making them attractive for distressed investors, even as rents continue to fall. Some are taking advantage of the glut of REOs to purchase their first rental property.

So what does this mean for me? It depends, of course!! When the market enters a down cycle, the cycle doesn't just last one year. For those who are waiting thinking that things will get better in 2010, I assure you it will take longer than than. The drumbeat from economists about the "double dip" recession continues to grow. The fact is that the cycles in real estate are long, 5-10 year cycles. This market presents some interesting opportunities, but only for those who act conservatively and are willing to take a long term view.

Question: Hey, I thought this was a buyer's market? My fiance and I have a great, stable jobs with strong income and $50,000 to put down in cash. We will be getting married soon. We've been trying to buy an entry level house for $350,000 in the Greater NYC area for over a year. I have looked at over 60 homes and made offers on a few but none have been accepted. I still think prices in this market are too high. What gives? Signed, Frustrated

Dear Frustrated:

Statistics tell the story of what is happening in your market. While many in the media focus on by how much prices have decliined and how much below the sellers asking price you can offer, you need to be focused on how much inventory exists in the segment of the market in which you are bidding. If you simply ask your agent, I'm sure he or she can provide you with that. There is more inventory in the upper price ranges of the market than at the entry level, where you are, which explains why it may not feel like such a buyer's market to you. You're not the only one, believe me. Most of the activity in the area where a commute to NYC is accessible is from first time buyers who are focused on the entry level price ranges, bringing inventory down to an almost 'balanced market' levels of 6 months or less in some areas.

Real estate laws vary by state, but your buyer agent should be the one charged with finding your home, listed on the MLS or otherwise, so that you get the benefit of professional counsel, pricing advice, etc. on each home you consider for purchase. This market can be tricky because prices in all areas aren't necessarily coming down in a nice clean 10-20% linear fashion. You need an agent who knows prices in your market and can provide you with an opinion of value on homes you're bidding on. A "cheap" bank foreclosure can quickly turn out to be not so cheap when the cost of repairs is added to the bill.

You also need to realize that if you're looking for a deal, like everyone is, you need to be wiling to buy when no one else is. For example, if homes in your price range are attracting 20 people at an open house, then there may be too much traffic chasing too many homes (further evidence of my comment above on inventory). Make sure you have your pre-approval and financial house in order. Be sure to work with an experienced lender who can help you understand how the many recent changes in underwriting criteria may affect your specific situation. Know your numbers, keep saving more money, and do everything you can to continue to prepare yourself as much as possible.

Your agent should be able to give you basic insight into the seller's motivation before you even walk into the house and can counsel you on potential negotiating strategies. You should be looking to purchase from motivated sellers if you are "looking for a great deal".

Good luck!! Be patient and stick with it!!