With a Metro-North train station allowing residences to arrive in New York City in about 30 minutes, residences find that they are not leaving their city lives behind.  In fact they are enjoying rural living with the added bonus of keeping in touch with their former New York City lives.  

In addition to its proximity to New York City, Hastings offers a wealth of amenities and charm.  The community has a small town feel with mom and pop stores, a town center, and a rich art community.  The Rivertowns Art Council organizes concerts, studio tours, and art workshops.  There are also many restaurants, some located on the river, multiple parks to enjoy the outdoors, and choices of public and private schools.

The area schools had the follow statistics: At the high-school level, 96% of students who entered high school in 2006 met or exceeded state standards in English four years later, compared to 94% from the previous year's class.  In math 94% of the 2006 group met or exceeded standards in 2009-10, compared to 93% of the 2005 class, the data show.  This is in addition to the Master's School in nearby Dobbs Ferry.  

For more information on this community and why it id growing please click HERE

Villages: 3rd Tuesday in Feb (2/21/2012)

Towns: 3rd Tuesday in June (6/19/2012)

Cities of Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Peekskill & Rye: 3rd Tuesday in June (6/19/2012)

Yonkers: November 15, 2012

The growth rate for high-tech jobs has increase 2.6%, faster any other sector, with a net increase of 21,000 jobs.  Westchester wants to keep these biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies here for the long hall.  Facilities designed specifically for research may be developed in the area. With more companies moving in or expanding in Westchester we could see an decrease in unemployment in the area, and an increase demand to move here. 

All of this could bode well for Westchester's real estate market.  Decreased unemployment could mean more people will have the ability to purchase a home in the area.  Hopefully the increased number of high-end jobs will translate into more luxury home sales in the county.

To Read the Full Article Please Click Here

Sales overall in Westchester were down from last year.  This decrease in sales volume is largely due to the end of the federal home buyers tax credit program.  The stimulus resulted in a surge of home sales in 2010, but this did not translate into sales in 2011.  Comparatively single family sales were lower by 4.4%, condominiums by 10.9%, and cooperative by 8.5%.  Resulting in an overall decrease of 6%.

Decrease in sales could also be attributed to the opposing forces in the housing market.  Though interest rates are at historical lows, it is becoming harder for home buyers to qualify.  As a result it is more difficult for buyers to obtain mortgages.  In addition appraisals of properties are more conservative, hindering the sale of properties.

There was not all bad news for the 4th quarter.  Sales volume for co-ops were up by 20.1% compared to the 4th quarter of last  year.  The average sales price for cooperatives was $146,000.  With the increase in sales it seems that Realtors have found the price point that generates activity in this sector.  On the flip side sales volume and median sales prices have dropped for single family, multi-family, and condominiums.  We may not have hit the price point in these sectors that will initiate activity.

To read the full 4th Quarter Report from the Empire Access Multiple Listing Service Please Click HERE

Sales of multimillion-dollar homes in Westchester County are on the rise at the start of the new year, with some buyers in 2011 paying record or near-record sums that still were below sellers’ listed prices.

Notable recent sales in the over-$5-million residential market  include Holly Hill in Briarcliff Manor, the approximately 65-acre estate and 10,000-square-foot, 13-bedroom stone manor of the late Brooke Astor. Administrators of her estate, which include JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., in December sold the 298 Scarborough Road property for $6.45 million.

The new owner, listed as Holly Hill L.L.C. in Dobbs Ferry, paid a little less than half of the asking price of $12.9 million when the property went on the market in late 2008. The price was lowered a few times, dropping to $7.5 million last August.

“The house itself is really something extraordinary,” said Tracy Isaacs, broker in the Scarsdale office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage who represented the buyer in the deal. Houlihan Lawrence represented the seller. “I think it’s a great price for the buyer, but it needs a lot of work … It was state of the art in 1965.”

Holly Hill’s buyer, a privacy-seeking hedge fund manager, plans to use the riverside estate as his family residence after extensive renovations to the 1927 home and other buildings.

Foreign buyers in the market

Broker Jason Wilson, who manages the Scarsdale office of Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, said hedge fund managers and other financial professionals drove the county’s luxury-home market in 2011, which saw “a lot of cash” from savvy investors in home real estate.

Overseas buyers too have made their presence felt in the market.

In Scarsdale, an undisclosed buyer moving here from a foreign country last month paid $10.88 million in an all-cash deal for 9 Heathcote Road, an 11,600-square-foot, seven-bedroom home in Scarsdale’s prestigious Heathcote Estate neighborhood. Built in 2006 by Cal Petrescu Architecture & Design in Scarsdale, the Georgian Colonial home in 2010 was named the county’s most beautiful home by Westchester Home Magazine.

The sale was the second highest in Westchester in 2011 and also the second highest since 2008 for sales listed with the region’s Empire Access Multiple Listing Service. Brokers said it was topped only by an approximately $11.6-million house sale last September at Milton Point in Rye.

The final sale price in Scarsdale was nearly $1.9 million below the $12.75-million list price for the home on 2.5 acres.

The foreign buyer was represented by broker Lisa Pitt, vice president at Paddington Stone Realty in White Plains. MaryKatchis and Dawn Knief, brokers at Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty in Scarsdale, were the listing agents.

Buyer confidence still is lagging

For the brokerage team of Katchis and Knief, 2011 was a record sales year in Scarsdale and surrounding communities. At the market’s peak in 2007, they were listing agents for the highest reported house sale in Scarsdale, a $12-million deal for a Heathcote Road property not listed with the Multiple Listing Service.

The near-record Scarsdale sale “is a good indicator as far as the luxury market is concerned,” said Michelle Coletti, president of Paddington Stone Realty. That market “has definitely picked up speed.”

“New York City and Westchester are blue-chip,” Coletti said.

“They’re the first to rebound after a market like this. Everyone says slowly but surely, stabilization is happening.”

Coletti, though, said buyer confidence in the housing market still is lagging. “It’s almost a generational thing,” she said. Among the younger generation, confidence in the American dream of buying a home of one’s own “has been shaken a little bit” by what Coletti called “repeated exposure to sensationalized negative media.”

That lagging buyer confidence “has driven up rental demand and rental prices, especially in Westchester,” she said. In White Plains, the county’s top rental market, four downtown luxury apartment buildings all have occupancy rates at or above 95 percent, she said.

The county’s housing market “definitely is a lot more positive now than it was at the end of last year,” said Coletti.

‘Value-conscious buyers’

At Houlihan Lawrence in Bronxville, Chief Operating Officer Christopher Meyers said the Holly Hill and Heathcote Estate sales “seem to be a result of liquidity at the high end of the market – above $5 million in particular.”

Houlihan Lawrence had 15 house sales over $5 million in 2011, three more than in 2010. At the market’s peak four or five years ago, “We were doing 25 to 30,” he said.

Meyers said Houlihan Lawrence has eight housing transactions in contract that should close by the first quarter of 2012. A year ago, only one house sale was in the works at the start of 2011.

“The strength right now in the market is above $5 million and under $500,000,” said Meyers, with the lower-end market showing a 40 percent year-over-year increase in pending deals.

The luxury market for homes in the $2 million to $4 million range is down about 10 percent from a year ago, he said, perhaps due to a decline in Wall Street bonuses in 2011.

“The bonus buyers, that’s kind of their sweet spot, the $2 million to $5 million range,” Meyers said.

“We’re trading today at prices that are equivalent to about 2003,” said Meyers. Those prices have drawn “value-conscious buyers” into the market. “Today we’re not seeing a lot of emotional buys from buyers,” he said.

By: John Golden, Westfair Online

JetBlue added a daily nonstop flight between Westchester county airport and Nassau.  In addition Westchester County Airport has weekly nonstop flights to Aruba.  For more on other airlines' additional services to the Caribbean and Mexico please visit:

More Flights to Mexico and Caribbean

The clock moves ahead (thus, losing one hour) when DST starts, typically in the spring, and falls back one hour (thus, gaining one hour) when DST ends in the fall. To make it easier to remember which way the clock goes, keep in mind one of these sayings: “spring forward, fall back” or “spring ahead, fall behind.”

Spring forward, such as the real estate market especially in White Plains. Off to a great start this quarter to date. For more information about the White Plains community, go to: http://www.luxuryhomeswestchester.com/White-Plains-NY-Community-Map

When selling your home in the winter, the art of staging the inside becomes more important.  Here are five simple tips that can help you sell your home shine even when the outside landscaping has faded:

• Keep your house warm.  In the winter people tend to turn the thermostat down to save money, however a warmer house is more welcoming to a potential buyer.
• Clear your walkways and driveways of any snow or ice.  Make it easy for buyers to get to your home.
• Clean the windows and blinds.  Letting in the natural light can brighten up a room and cheer up the home.  This also brings attention to the windows and blinds so make sure they are clean even during winter.  Dirty windows will make the home seem as those it's not well maintained.
• Background music played softly can completely change the atmosphere making the home seem cozy and keep potential buyers around longer.  Stick with classical music which can appeal to anyone.
• Leave the lights on.  Before showing a home, make sure it's well lit.  A well lit home is more inviting.  If you're not home, consider setting up timers.

Home prices are one factor in determining your cost of ownership, but so are interest rates and financing availability. Even though interest rates have gone up in the last six months, they are still near historic lows. Since your monthly mortgage payment is a combination of paying down your principal and paying the interest owed, if home prices come down a little further but interest rates up, it could cost you even more to service a mortgage on an identical home!

While a home is a major investment, it is also the center of your personal life. It's important to live in a home that reflects your taste and values, yet is within your financial "comfort zone." To that end, it may be more important to lock in today's relatively low interest rates and low home prices, rather than to hope for a further break in prices in the future.

Please give me a call if I can be of any assistance in determining how much home you can afford in today's market.