Bedford Village NY Real Estate Report RobReportBlog 2013 6 months ending 4/25 2012 24 Sales 25 $1,042,500.00 median sold price $1,225,000.00 $370,000.00 low sold price $384,800.00 $3,500,000.00 high sold price $4,750,000.00 3705 average size 4625 $387.00 ave. price per foot $309.00 171 ave days on market 246 $1,257,239.00 average sold price $1,515,589.00 93.03% ave sold to ask 92.54%
In the first quarter, sales of expensive Hamptons homes fell off the fiscal cliff.
Fear of higher taxes in 2013 drove a flurry of high-end house sales in the Hamptons at the end of last year. That front-loading of sales slowed down the top of the market in the first three months this year, experts said Wednesday, citing data from a report scheduled to be released Thursday by broker Douglas Elliman Real Estate and prepared by appraisal firm Miller Samuel Inc.
On the rest of Long Island — excluding the Hamptons and North Fork — housing inventory declined sharply in the quarter, according to the report. Houses listed for sale fell to 15,303 in the first quarter, down from 20,358 a year earlier, as homeowners wait to rebuild equity and see where prices head. Average prices rose in the first quarter to $435,082 from $415,243 a year earlier.
Hamptons houses sold for an average price of $1.2 million in the first quarter of 2013, down from $2.1 million in the previous quarter and $1.7 million a year earlier, the report said. The fall doesn’t signal a decline in prices so much as a shift in timing, said Jonathan Miller, president and chief executive of Miller Samuel.
Buyers, Miller said, tried to close “by Dec. 31 because the general assumption was a tax environment would be higher in 2013.”
Miller said 49 houses in the Hamptons sold for more than $5 million in the fourth quarter but only eight in the first quarter.
The so-called “fiscal cliff” threatened a mix of automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in 2013. Congress agreed to limit the tax hikes while increasing rates on the highest earners — those likeliest to be worried about capital gains on the sale of multimillion-dollar homes.
While the average price in the Hamptons swung, the median price was more stable, falling to $740,000, a 5.1 percent drop compared with a year earlier.
“The top end of the market has taken a breather,” said Douglas Elliman broker Paul Brennan. “Other than that everything is pretty normal.”
A residential desegregation conflict between the United States Justice Department and Westchester County was ratcheted up when the department threatened to ask that the county be held in contempt of court, according to a report by ProPublica.
The four-year dispute pits Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino against the Justice Department, and stems from a 2009 settlement in which the county agreed to pass a law aimed at ending discrimination against people receiving government subsidies to pay rent, the report said. However, Astorino vetoed that legislation, leading to a federal court decision earlier this month that he had violated the settlement, and included an order to sign the legislation, ProPublica said.
In its letter to the county, the Justice Department gave Astorino until Thursday to enact the legislation, ProPublica reported, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development added that it would withhold $7.4 million in federal grants if the county does not comply with the court order by Thursday
Four years after Westchester County entered into a landmark desegregation agreement with the federal government, relations between the two sides are hanging by a thread amid federal threats of contempt suits and revocation of money. The showdown is raising unsettling echoes of the disastrous 27-year-long court fight over housing that virtually bankrupted Yonkers, the county’s largest city.
The United States Justice Department last week sent Westchester officials a letter saying that the county had failed to enact legislation prohibiting housing discrimination based on source of income as ordered by the settlement and by a federal court ruling. The letter said the Justice Department would seek a contempt ruling against the county and County Executive Robert P. Astorino if he did not comply by Thursday.
Additionally, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has said it will revoke $7.4 million in money allocated to Westchester and send it elsewhere if the county does not take steps to comply with at least two elements of the settlement by the same date.
With the deadlines looming, the Westchester County Board of Legislators voted 12 to 4 on Monday to authorize a lawsuit challenging HUD’s decision to take away the $7.4 million, which would have gone to support housing and community needs.
Mr. Astorino, a Republican who was elected after the settlement was reached and has made his opposition to elements of it a centerpiece of his administration, used his annual State of the County address on Tuesday to reiterate his stark differences with the federal government.
He accused the federal government of going beyond the original agreement, trying to undermine all zoning decisions in the county and making “outrageous” demands not in the agreement.
“Washington bureaucrats, who you will never see or meet, want the power to determine who will live where and how each neighborhood will look,” he said. “What’s at stake is the fundamental right of our cities, towns and villages to plan and zone for themselves.”
He added: “Westchester residents didn’t stop becoming American citizens the day the deal was signed in 2009.”
The complaints have vividly shown the tensions between Westchester and federal housing officials since the Obama administration and the county reached one of the most ambitious desegregation settlements in decades, after a discrimination ruling against the county in 2009. In the settlement, the county agreed to create 750 houses and apartments for moderate-income people in overwhelmingly white communities and aggressively market them to nonwhites in Westchester and New York City.
Under the threat of a federal contempt citation, the leader of a suburban New York county agreed Wednesday to sign the same fair-housing bill he vetoed in 2010 — if the county Legislature passes it again.
Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino sent the bill back to the Board of Legislators, urged its passage and said he would approve it.
“If the proposed legislation is adopted by the County Board, I will sign said legislation in accordance with my court-ordered obligations,” Astorino wrote.
The bill relates to the 2009 settlement of a desegregation lawsuit against Westchester. One of the terms of the settlement was that the county executive promote legislation against “source of income” discrimination — for example, when a landlord refuses a tenant because the tenant plans to use federal vouchers to pay the rent.
Federal officials have said such refusals often serve as covers for racial discrimination.
When Astorino vetoed the bill, he claimed the duty to promote it applied only to the previous county executive, who had agreed to the settlement. He also called it a federal intrusion on private property.
When he lost a long court battle, he asked the Legislature to re-introduce the bill. But the Department of Justice said Astorino had to go further. It demanded that he submit the legislation himself and agree in writing to sign it or face possible contempt-of-court charges.
Ned McCormack, a spokesman for Astorino, said Astorino believes he was already in compliance and “today’s letter goes even further to show unambiguously that we’re complying.”
Justice Department spokeswoman Ellen Davis said the department would have no comment.
It’s not clear that the bill will pass the Legislature and it’s not known how the federal government will react if it fails.
It’s also not known whether Astorino’s actions Wednesday affect another deadline, also related to the housing settlement.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has demanded the county provide by Thursday an acceptable analysis of exclusionary zoning practices in Westchester.
Mortgage rates continued to drop, with the 15-year fixed-rate loan hitting a record low, according to a weekly report from mortgage financier Freddie Mac.
The 15-year fixed rate fell to 2.61% this week from 2.64%, The previous record low of 2.63% was set the week of Nov. 21, 2012.
After a record number of sales in the 4th quarter of 2012, fueled by many high-end buyers
rushing to close at the end of last year, the 1st quarter of 2013 experienced a drop insales over $5M.Median sales price fell 5.1% to $740,000.
The overall number of sales jumped 20.9% to 347 from the year ago quarterdespite the lower number of high-end sales.There were 1,437 listings at the end of the first quarter, 4.9% below year ago levels.The monthly absorption rate, the number of months to sell all inventory at the current pace of sales, fell to 12.4 months from 15.8 months in the year ago quarter.Days on market, the number of days from last price change to contract date,expanded by 10 days to 187 from the same period last year.Listing discount, the percent difference between the list price at time of contractand the sales price, fell over the same period to 9.4% from 13.2%.
Median sales price increased 12.1% to $469,000 from the same period last year.
Year-over-year gains were seen in all but the highest market quintile.There were 78 sales in the first quarter, 17% fewer than in the year ago quarter and roughlyhalf the number of sales in the prior quarter tax-incentivized year end rush to close.Listing inventory expanded 5.5% to 521 from the year ago period. The combination of falling sales and rising inventory slowed the pace of the market as measured by the monthly absorption rate which jumped to 20 months from 15.8 months although the first quarter tends to have the highest absorption rate of the year.Listing discount, the percent difference between the list price at time of contract and the sales price,expanded to 11.6% from 10.4% in the same period last year.Days on market, the number of days from the last price change to the contract date,averaged 229 days or 30 more days to sell a property than the same period a year ago.
- The number of listings fell 24.8% to 15,303 from the same period a year ago,
- the lowest first quarter total in a decade.
- Median sales price fell 2.6% to $341,000 as average sales price increased
- 4.8% to $435,082 from the same period last year.
- Contracts signed in the first quarter increased 12.2% to 5,152 from the prior year total, representative of the release of pent-up demand. The number of sales edged
- 2.9% to 3,905 from the prior year quarter.
- Days on market, the number of days from the original list date to the contract date,
- was 2 days faster, falling to 135 days from the prior year period.
- Listing discount, the percent difference between the original list price and the sales price, declined to 6.7% from 7.8% over the same period.
