St Lawrence Properties' Blog: The Market

Sunday, August 22, 2009

Larry Jensen, Principal Broker at St. Lawrence Properties, LLC for New York and Connecticut and motorcycle enthusiast participated in the 2009 Dream Ride on Sunday to help raise money for the Special Olympics. Close to 10,000 motorcyclists from 7 different states participated in the ride all meeting up in Farmington, CT for a Lunch Gala.

The mission of Dream Ride 2009 is to raise much-needed funds for the thousands of Special Olympics athletes; the funds generated in each state will remain in that state. As an organization, Special Olympics contributes to the lifelong development of children and adults with intellectual disabilities. For those individuals and their families, Special Olympics has become a symbol of hope. For…

Maybe you saw the new, read a blog, heard people talking about it.

On May 12, 2009 the following Press Release was issued:

Improvement Coming to Buyer Tax Credit?
Shaun Donovan, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said that the Federal Housing Administration is working on a plan that will permit its lenders to allow home buyers to use the $8,000 tax credit as a down payment.

Previously, most buyers wouldn't receive the funds until after they filed their tax return, and that deterred some people from using the credit. The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® has been calling for the change.

“We all want to enable FHA consumers to access the home buyer tax credit funds when they close on their home loans so that the…

Two weeks ago I wrote about Home Sales heating up. As a Buyer's Agent, I was noticing a number of showings happening at the same time I was showing. I also noticed an increase in showings at my listings. The other indicator was the number of In Contract or Acceptable Offer status changes. Yet how many of you saw this reported in the news or in the papers?

There was a blip on the news a few days ago about New Home sales and I finally saw a Front Page report in a newspaper. However, that was only after I heard some guy on CNBC talking about Ground Zero for this Financial Mess being Wall Street. He made me so upset that I had to fire off an e-mail to him. Of course there was no response. Never is. They just go on TV and say what ever they feel, not backed by…

I just read an article on Wiki about the Great Depression: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression

Now I know Wiki can not be relied upon heavily, but I did find some very interesting facts in there. Some of the article talked about attributing the Depression to Corporate Greed. Take a look at the following and tell me if you can see any similarities? I saw too many!

"The depression had devastating effects in virtually every country, rich or poor. International trade plunged by half to two-thirds, as did personal income, tax revenue, prices and profits. Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell…

So we know what Black Monday or Black Friday is, but how about Green Thursday?

Yes, we saw the Stock Market rally today, but why? What cause  this beautiful site. Well no one is really saying, but remarkably just two days ago I talked about a sudden surge of showing activity in the Real Estate Market.  Read Story Here

As I talked about two days ago, we would see a recovery on the street before we see it on Wall St. and sure enough, we saw a small up tick in the Real Estate Market and two days later its being reflected on Wall St. Don't get me wrong, I do not think this is a full blown rally, its a tick up! Just enough to let people know there is hope!

Let's remember everyone,nothing in excess is good. Let's keep a recovery a nice slow steady climb. If…

The National Association of Realtors announced today that Existing Home Sales rose 5.1% in February. Great news, but even without these numbers, I could have told you that things are up. See home showings are way up. In fact while showing numerous buyers around this past weekend, there were numerous places were agents were stacked up waiting to show a home for sale.

Since all Real Estate is local I ran our local stats to see where Westchester & Putnam Counties are ranking compared to the National Stats. Well I have good news folks:

February Home Sales are up 14% for Westchester and 13% for Putnam. Pending (homes with accepted offers and waiting to close) are up 225% in Westchester and 400% in Putnam over January figures. What I found very promising is…

I recently had to turn off the the TV. OK, I didn't turn it off, but I could not listen to CNBC anymore. Instead I switched to court TV though I am not sure that is any better, at least they are not preaching doom.

I was at an awards luncheon recently where I received an award for my production in 2008. Yes, I actually doubled my closed transactions in 2008 over 2007. Even though only 10% of all agents in Three Counties achieved these awards, there were still almost 800 agents that received it! 800 agents had banner years!

So I got to thinking why? Why did we achieve success when others were running from the business? I can;t tell you how many times I heard this; "You are in Real Estate? Not making any money these days, huh?" I shrugged most of those…