The news has not been very good as of late. Nationally, real estate sales are down and values are dropping. The press loves the sensational, the dramatic. Good news isn't a draw. Who slows down on the highway to look at a car on the side of the road when there hasn't been an accident, right? Add some twisted metal and a few emergency vehicles and cars line up for miles to catch a peek. Sad, but true.
Here in the Hamptons, the news has not been all bad. Sure, there are stories of motivated sellers, price drops and more inventory than we have experienced in recent "high-flying" years, and there are data reports showing the number of sales are down from 2005, but the median and average sales prices are up. That's not bad news.
Well, the Wall Street bonuses are coming.
"For a fourth consecutive year, year-end bonuses are forecast to be highly lucrative, with the payouts rising 10 percent to 15 percent from 2005, according to Alan Johnson Associates, a leading executive compensation consultant."
And the Hamptons spring real estate market is right around the corner.
Read more below:
New York Times - Big Bonuses Seen Again For Wall Street
4 comments:
congrats! we wish you much success.
rudy.sellsius°
Congratulations Michael & Barbara. May it always be spring for you.
Home prices fall in Suffolk
BY KEIKO MORRIS
Newsday Staff Writer
November 10, 2006, 10:26 PM EST
For the first time in eight years, the median price of a home in Suffolk County dipped compared with the same month last year, yet another sign, experts say, of the housing market's gradual readjustment from the highs of just a few years ago.
The median price of a home in Suffolk County dropped 2.5 percent to $390,000 last month from $400,000 in October 2005, according to data released late Thursday by the Long Island Multiple Listing Service.
Along with decreasing prices, the housing inventory has increased, the data showed. At the current pace of sales, it would take 12.4 months to sell the existing housing supply in Suffolk County last month. In Nassau, that figure was 10.6 months, and in Queens, it was 11.5 months.
Bethany Marten, the owner of Home Buyers' Resource Center, a buyers agency in Baldwin, believes the housing market will experience a slow depreciation of 2 percent or 3 percent each year for the next five to six years. She views the readjustment as a needed correction.
"It's no longer 'My house is an endless source of cash for me, and every year I can expect my home to go up 10 to 20 percent.'We had a great party, and the party's over."
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Oh, this is all balderdash! This can't be happening! After all, there is no bubble! Real estate only goes up! They're not making any more land! Real estate is a sound investment!
Balderdash, I think not! Just look around and see the "for sale" signs lingering on lawns and the prices dropping all over Nassau and Suffolk. The average homeowner who purchased within the last 2 years has seen their home depreciate instead of appreciate. I do, however, agree that real estate is a sound investment but unfortunately many people who bought in the last couple of years were not thinking soundly. They grossly overpaid and overfinanced themselves. These unsound decisions are coming home to roost in the form of foreclosures and short sales.
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