Angela Fish Chan, Broker/Owner

What you do you think? Seasonal Uptick or Stimulus Success !


Did the homebuyer tax credit, (due to expire on Friday, April 30) help our market?

I recently took a look at our local market. I tracked it back 10 years. This, of course took some time and yes our local board provides all this information. BUT, the boards report is tedious and I wanted a quick birds eye view. So, here it is below is my report.

It doesn't look too bad ... the numbers are not too far off from the highs of 2004-2005.

BUT... REALLY ... I'm wondering what other professionals think? We have less than 2 weeks to find our buyers a property before this credit expires, and I'm confident it will not be extended. So . . . is the party over or was the tax credit just the appetizer.

You can see that study here or click on the image below: I'll bet this isn't too far off from your local
market if you are in the northeast.

I'll be tracking the numbers right through spring and all of summer. Time is a great clarifier. Barbara Abe
a Rainmaker AR user in Hawaii (poor Barbara) wrote last fall: "The first-time homebuyer tax credit is also helping. It is no surprise, therefore, that home sales have begun to rise nationally for 5 straight months. The increases were beyond the normal seasonal uptick in spring and summer."

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . let's see if that carried over.

Jodi Summers a Rainmaker California feels the stinulus package is working.

What say ye all?

So . . . what do you think? Is the Rockland County NY Market improving. Is this another seasonal uptick, or do we have a rally going on? Are folks just trying to cash in on the tax credit and rushing the market before that credit expires on April 30th. What do you think? We have a transaction going on right now (and have had a couple of others these last few weeks) where we are still seeing highly desireable properties securing multiple and very competitive bids. We are seeing (albeit most likely temporary) bidding wars. I'm concerned that what will obvioulsly entice a seller to bump a previous offer for a seemingly more attractive offer will end up biting them on the back end when that all important appraisal arrives. What say ye all? Will these bidding wars continue or end on April 30 ? ______________________________________________________________

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All Areas: All Rockand Residential Listed and Sold as reported by the Greater Hudson Valley MLS

2010 Residential Listings Year - to - Date January thru March ... 2010 Residential Sales Year - to - Date January thru March
Rockland Residential Market Reports	January 1 to March 31 2010

Condos Condos Condos All Areas: All Rockand Condos Listed and Sold as reported by the Greater Hudson Valley MLS

2010 Condo Listings Year - to - Date January thru March ... 2010 Condo Sales Year - to - Date January thru March
Rockland Condo Market Reports	January 1 to March 31 2010

All Areas: All Categories

Rockland Residential	Rockland Condos

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day Washington, D.C. March 30, 1863 Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.

And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

UPDATE: Nov. 13, 2009 LONG-TERM RATES FALL TO LOWEST LEVEL IN FIVE WEEKS. 30-Year FRM Below 5 Percent For Five Of The Last Seven Weeks .

“Mortgage rates eased further over the week, helping to promote an affordable home-purchase market and stimulate refinance,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “This comes at a time when house price declines are moderating and consumer demand for prime mortgages at commercial banks has picked up. “The National Association of Realtors® reported that national median sales price of existing homes fell 11.2 percent in the third quarter relative to the same period last year,. Moreover, almost 20 percent of the top metropolitan areas experienced

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