Thomas McGiveron

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I don't know about you, but I'm starting to get a little offended at what's happened to Long Island in the last few years...as a Long Islander of course. I've decided to take "the battle" to the streets and created the Long Island Real Estate Market Fan Page on Facebook to start making Long Island great again!

Okay - What's Facebook?

Now I'm sure if you're on the internet more than one time in your life, you've heard of the website facebook.com. It is the "cleaner" version of myspace.com, and by that I mean, it's just less advertisements and more connecting with friends, family and more importantly, topics of interest and information.

When I first learned about facebook, I only saw it for one thing, connecting online with...whomever. The more I learn about facebook, the more I see it's a place to find any kind of information, company, service, product...just anything you can think of. It's the social "google" if you will.

It's All About Long Island...

Rather than type into a boring search engine, I can connect locally with a company or a local expert. And that is why I've decided to create the Long Island Real Estate Fan Page.

The more I can share with you and vise versa, about this great place to live, the better off we all are, as we educate people on how great it is to live on Long Island (despite high taxes!). And a note about those high taxes, I say it's like anything else; You get what you pay for! If you want to live where the taxes are $600.00 a year, well then knock yourself out. I did and let me tell you, there's no comparison! I'd rather pay $6,000 a year or more and live in the best place in the country.

From the climate, to the location to New York City, to the convenience of the ocean and magnificent waterways...Long Island is just a great place to live.

And when this economic "ice age" settles and we survive past 2012 (Nostradamus and Mayans eat your heart out!), Long Island will thrive!

Do we need government officials who believe in spending less and lowering taxes - you better believe it, but let's get there one fan at a time. I urge you to join me on the Long Island Real Estate Market fan page.

One of the best things about the facebook platform is, the news and information is there when you want it. It's not like receiving e-newsletters you don't want or commercials you don't want to see on Television. If you become a fan and bounce around on there once in a while, for any topic or fan page, it's so easy and it's free.

If you've read my web articles or gone through my websites, you know that I post pertinent information that can be valuable to the person who's interested in real estate. That's what I will be posting on the Long Island Real Estate Market fan page.

I'm also going to be posting things on there from all over the internet. I hope you do as well.

If you've got a cause you believe in and it's local and important, bring it on and share it on Long Island Real Estate Market on facebook.

Again, that's what's so powerful about the facebook environment. It's a community sharing local information from local people.

Now is this a "revolution" on the fan page...Yes it is!

We've got to come together and start making it clear that Long Island is better than Tennessee, Georgia, Utah, Colorado, etc. People are leaving here - young people - and we've got to help our community grow with youthfulness, not perish with age. That's what this fan page is all about. I've posted the link enough. Just join and let's start making Long Island great again!

Due to the increased demands of foreclosures throughout Long Island and my increased inventory of foreclosured properties, I have officially launched ISLANDFORECLOSURES.ORG

Properties like this one:

This property is priced at $274,900 in Miller Place, New York.

We are facing a changing market. REO's and short sales are dictating market value more and more each month!

I'm hoping the site serves a need. We're under construction right now, but hopefully, we'll serve a purpose.

Thanks for your feedback in advance!

The ever-increasing number of short sales on Long Island doesn't really surprise me anymore. In fact, nothing really does. With major banks like Citi trading at under $5.00 (as of this day) and as low as .97 in the last 3 months, what's there to be surprised about?

Well, in order to achieve some shock value (because that's what good writing is all about), I'm going to focus on what we know about the local Long Island real estate market and how short sales are shaping up to be a great challenge. Below is a chart of short sales on Long Island. The chart is split into each respective zone, showing how many short sales there are as of April, 2009 (note: this is all from the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island - if a short sale is marked, as it should be with a Y for Yes in the listing, that's what these numbers represent. What these numbers may not represent is real estate agents who don't know their listing is a short sale or they don't correctly upload the listing and check of Y for short sale). Another words, figure these numbers are larger.

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If you do not know which zone your town is located, feel free to call me at 631.587.1700, ext. 51.

What we see in this chart is clear, with over 3700 short sales on Long Island and only 262 sales in the previous 90 days (that's only 87 short sales sold per month), sales are lagging. So I'll use the stats from this chart and divide the short sales available with the short sales sold over a time period of 90 days, and the scary thing is, there is over a 43 month supply of short sales on Long Island.

That means, at the current rate of sales, it would take...

Finish the article here

I am conducting buyer and seller seminars throughout Long Island and I am continually hearing people tell me what they think about the Long Island real estate market. I hear things like, "Oh, the market's going to pick back up soon." I also hear things like, "The market is crashing and all prices are going to go down another 50%..."
It's usually sellers saying the first thing and buyers saying more of the latter. Obviously.
Now my website is directed entirely towards educating sellers and buyers on the Long Island real estate market. I do not dress up the information and I pull no punches when it comes to taking a good hard look at what's going on. At least in my opinion, my information is transparent in as much as the information presented is as accurate as I can make it.
To specifically address what has happened to the Long Island real estate market, I decided to take a look at all the zones of Long Island, which includes in this article: Queens, Nassau and Suffolk. I took a look at the most current data available via the Multiple Listing Service Of Long Island. I measured April 2008 and April 2009 respectively. What I found was shocking, even to me.

Long Island is comprised of zones, which cover multiple hamlets. If you have a question about what zone you are in, please call me at 1.877.765.3123, ext. 51 and I'd be glad to review this with you.
These statistics do not lie. When a seller tries to tell me that the market isn't "as bad" as what I say - I refer to this chart.
I was recently at a friend's party and his father-in-law was trying to tell me that the average home in Suffolk is selling for $415,000. I promptly told him that information was inaccurate and proceeded to tell him that prices have dropped 17.5% in the last twelve months and the average selling price in Suffolk County is currently around $370,000.
Well, I was the party-pooper. Hey, there's a first time for everything!
So if you're buying or selling, please refer to this chart. I will do my best to update it every month, so keep checking back in monthly to see where we're at. To me, this is a great way to stay on top of where the market is.

So where is the market going? Well, the above slide is pretty clear on that. With over 33,000 listings for sale (inventory) and less than 1500 sales, we have a long way to go toward leveling the supply of homes on the market. This point is irrefutable. These numbers do not lie.
Are there signs that things are improving? Absolutely, but the improvements are slow and small (which is a lot better than nonexistent). Now what does this mean for buyers? It means, for the time being, that home prices will not be increasing anytime soon. However, as I always say, interest rates are at historic lows so getting in now is an incredible time.
If you would like to learn more about one of our seminars or would like to sit and review more market information, please do not hesitate to contact me at 631.831.9048.

(c) Copyright 2009
By Thomas McGiveron, Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
www.tommcgiveron.com

I recently sat with a homeowner to discuss the fair market value of their home and to talk with them about the Long Island real estate market. We sat to talk and started talking about the market. She had lived in her home for 35 years and was curious about selling.

As we talked, I showed her all the information that I normally review. This information contains the latest insights from experts in the real estate industry as well as my expert analysis of the Long Island market.
Halfway through our discussion, she said, "Oh, so prices are dropping?"

This interaction helped me realize that I, and my colleagues in the real estate business, have our work cut out for us. There are a number of homeowners out there that just do not pay any attention to what's happening. And there are some that do listen and know a little, but still think Spring will bring higher prices.

With nearly a 28% drop in prices since 2006, Long Island real estate [NEWSFLASH] prices are dropping. This graph shows just how different the Long Island real estate market is today as opposed to the 1990's. I recently had a discussion with an investor in Babylon who told me, "We've been through this before in the 90's. We'll ‘bounce' back." Well this graph breaks down both the 90's and now and what you see is that long line going down...we're over 200% worse off now than we ever were in terms of lost equity/value. The depreciative numbers are staggering.

The current inventory, as of February, 2009, for homes available for sale on Long Island was 32,746 homes for sale. As for demand (buyers), 2486 closings ocurred in February, with Suffolk county seeing the most sales at 905 units sold according to the Multiple Listing Service. And remember, those closings are homes that went into contract most likely in November/December, 2008 and some in January of 2009.

Click here for more information on Inventory and how it's affecting price.