I work in Bedford (Katonah, Cross Rvr), Pound Ridge, The Salems, Somers (all of Northern Westchester from Chappaqua to Brewster, and CT. Depending on your price point, you should have a large selection to choose from in any of these towns. You are correct in thinking that as time goes on more and more inventory will come on. Houses are selling in various price points. Under 600k there is strong activity: I listed a house in that last month just under 600k and it will be signed in a contract shortly. I have another at 899 that is available and others upwards of 1.5 mil that are also available. Look until you have seen enough to know EXACTLY where you want to live, then focus on that spot until your dream house comes on, and you will succeed.

Dear prospective home buyer,

It seems you've received some wise answers previously. As of a couple of days ago the mortgage rules have been redefined - I'm sure your mortgage specialist will be able to advise you as to rates, government incentives as relates to tax breaks etc.
I'd like to address the inventory question because of your statement of "we're waiting for the April inventory". Although there are homes that come on the market in April, traditionally (in lower Westchester) our "spring market" is defined by the time immediately following Super Bowl Sunday until the Easter/Passover Holiday period. Since those holidays usually fall sometime at the end of March or in April, we tend to have a Slow Down period at that time.
So, please please have your agent create an account for you with a feed to our MLS (Multiple Listing Service) so you don't miss out on any listings. In my area (Larchmont, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Rye, Scarsdale) new properties are being listed every day, Now!
Best of luck in your search.

I think you have gotten some good answers in regards to your situation. I tend to agree with you that while we are in a buyers market and when the bottom actually hits you will still have time to find a home without being priced out of the market. But you do run several risks that as long as you are aware and comfortable of should be considered reasonable risk.
First their are quite a few buyers who are on the sideline waiting for what they believe to be the right time to jump back in. What this means directly to you is that at some point you may think you are ready and you will find increased competetion and may even lose a couple of houses that you would have liked to purchase.
Next you run the risk that some of these motivated sellers may actually find that their lives and jobs are more stable than they thought. Many times a seller who is worried about everything that is going on the economy as well as their paticular lives can be motivated by uncertain times. If in fact we get past this dark time, it will give many people including sellers a new form of confidence. So depending on their circumstances they may become less motivated to sell.
Neither of those are reasons to jump right in and ignore what is happening in the world. But some buyers will look back at this time and realize they took advantage of the fear out there. My advice would be to try and find a home in a community that you think highly of, can afford and that has had prices impacted more based on the real estate market as a whole rather than the fundamentals of the actual community. The stronger communities seem to be impacted later in the downturn and appreciate earlier in the upturn. Good luck.

Andrew Rogovic
Associate Broker Prudential Rand
914-263-2743

Ann, during every previous real estate recovery, we bounced along the bottom for years. After the last run up in westchester county which ended in 1988, home prices were flat in nominal terms for 10 years. Are you saying this time its different? I find it doubtful. Prices won't spike. This plan will do almost nothing for westchester except prop up some bubblicious prices that will be eroded by inflation. 10 years of no growth is probably optimistic now. Any real estate bulls that start running are the ones with mad cow disease.

Not a buyer now but as an ex-Wall St person turned real estate salesperson I can tell you that we are alot closer to the bottom w/ all this stimulus $ about to be dumped into the economy than anyone can imagine. When the market does turn, and we are close, just watch all those buyers come out of the woodwork, its like in an up equity market, all the sudden you have bidding wars and gapping prices. Now you are still in a buyers market, use it to your advantage. First, what are the mortages like on the houses you like, how desperate are your sellers? Have they missed any tax payments? What is the history on the property? Don't wait for the bulls to run, if you like something think about where you would feel comfortable owning that house, where would you feel like you got great value for a home that you are going to love for a long time. We have lived in our home 22 yrs., we still love it! Happy to help if you need it.....

Let me ask you a question? what would happen if one of the houses you are thinking of making offer is purchased by another person? if your asnwer is, no big deal, then keep on looking. If you would regret your lack of making a decision make an offer!!!

Luis Fernandez, ABR, CIPS, GRI, QSC, SRES, Top 1% of Westchester Brokers
The Luis Fernandez Sales Team
Keller Williams Realty Group
760 White Plains Rd
Scarsdale, NY 10583
luis@lowerwestchesterny.com
Tel 914 902-3251
Fax 914 931-1791
Cell 914 309-9383

Yes, many houses are on the market for quite some time. But instead of waiting for the market to "maybe" go more down, why not make a lower offer?

Many sellers are willing to look at that. Especially if the conditions are good (for example a higher down payment, no mortgage cont.).

Zack, you have a point there. I suppose the fact that some of these houses are not selling just means that they are not reasonably priced. I only said "reasonable" because the 3 houses that we're considering, they were built in the last 7 years and I did some research into how much the initial buyers paid for the house. I found out that for these 3 houses, the present owners are willing to sell at the price they bought it or built it (or either at a very small profit). So that seems reasonable to me. But like you, we're actively looking but are unwilling to pull the trigger because I feel like the longer we wait, the more the housing prices will go down. I really think that the market is going to fall hard because I agree with you that the market (stock and real estate) had been hyper inflated for the last 5 years. In fact, I think it's going to fall very hard in the next 6 months if the Feds and govt don't keep bailing distressed companies out.

Gail, which area are you talking about when you say that there were multiple offers. I think perhaps that may be the case in Scarsdale area due to its proximity to NYC, good neighborhood, and great schools, but I don't believe that is the case with other areas. Brokers keep telling me that the market is getting hotter but I have no idea where they are getting this from because my observation has been that houses are not selling. Why do you say that houses are priced right when most of them still aren't selling? (I have to agree with Zack on this point).

I check Houlihan Lawrence site, Prudential site, etc. all the time and almost all the houses are still available and my research into Westchester market shows only a few sales in the last few months. I also noticed that brokers always say that you'll know when you find the perfect house or buying a house is an emotional purchase (I heard this from 3 different brokers) but, for the financially cautious, I do think it's a trade off between finding a nice house and how much you're paying for it. We only started looking about 3 months ago and saw about 20 houses (that's not that long, is it?)

Gizmo,
Just curious, what are you using to decide they're priced reasonably. When we first started, I was using asking price vs others we've seen and going based on the discount off of that, but after watching a number of houses i was using as a reference not sell, I've been trying to be a lot more objective. Its tough though as every house is different. We're moving back to the sidelines especially with the events in the economy recently. Interest rates on jumbos has been increasing for the past month but with the prime rate being cut again tomorrow, almost certainly by at least 75 bps, these will start coming down at some point. Plus when Fannie and Freddie can buy jumbos, you may get a boost from that although as I've seen from your other posts, you're price range is well over the cutoff.

Gail mentioned that houses are priced right and rates are low, but I'm not finding this to be true. I'm finding that very few houses are priced right, and they sell quickly, but the vast majority are priced at the high end of what may be reasonable and higher up into ridiculous range. Even the nicest of these tend to sit for a while because buyers know its a buyer's market. The more I see of the economy and the monopoly money that propped it up the past 4+ years, the more I realize how hard this is going to fall and since housing was the ATM that funded the monopoly money, its gonna be the one to fall the hardest.

Just my thoughts as we start looking at renting until this recession takes its pound of flesh.

I apologize, I know you asked for buyer opinions, but I work with buyers every day. Buyers have started coming out in droves and we have been seeing multiple offers on houses for the past couple of months. This is because houses are priced right and the market is low.

I love my home...I go into dozens of houses a week and love every one of them...I would be happy to live in any of them. There will always be something out there that might "look" better from the outside...the grass is always greener.

When you walk into the house that's perfect for you, you will know it at the front door and will not want to look at any other homes. It would seem to me that you have not found that perfect house for you yet...keep looking until you don't want to look any further. You are not buying a used car...you are buying a home; a place to live and raise your family.