John Ammirati

Nassau County had 624 under contracts in the first 15 days of December 2008 versus 724 last year same time period. This is in line with yearly figures - down 15% in sales. Plainview Old Bethpage had 16 Under Contracts versus 20 last year same period. Things have slowed in Plainview Old Bethpage. Deals are taking much longer to get to contract. Some buyers seem to be waiting either for further price drops or further drops in interest rates. I think lack of new developments in these areas in January might get them off the fence.

It's time to stop reading the headlines and get down to the real story. Under contract statistics are the best indicator of where a market is right now. In Plainview NY after several months of better results compared to last year - the market took a breather in November - I'm still hoping it's the result of the last week being a holiday week but the final word will be out when the book is closed on this month. While the figures for the first six months of 2008 were 246 Under contracts vs 328 in the same period of 2007. July to October figures were an improving 190 under contracts vs 152 last year same time. Nassau County as a whole had only one month that beat last years monthly numbers - that was September. Right now we are down 13% in Plainview year-to-date and 15% in Nassau County year to date. Suffolk County is only down 11% but that was because they had a much steeper slide last year. The good news is that 16428 houses went under contract this year in Nassau County and that's plenty of business for agents who want to work.