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A reader in the Volk You, Buddy comments provided a link to a September 10 Wall Street Journal article describing the auction results for West Ocean Two. Good looking out, anon! Some of you have been asking for information on these towers (and AQUA), so I thought it deserved to be featured on the front page of the blog. CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE My comments/rant: I'm legitimately worried about your mental well-being if you willingly pay $700-$900 a month in HOA fines. Ooh, but it has a conference room! FAIL. A friend's co-worker recently bought a 1 bed/1 bath ocean view unit for $350k. Sweet deal, right? Sure, as long as you don't count the additional $250,000 (over the life of the loan) in non-deductible HOA fees. I don't know about you, but it's difficult to write $700 checks and not "count" that money. They reel people in with the hook that "it's 50% off the original asking price!" Dude, that "original asking price" was conceived on...

And that was the week that was...and I want it gone, removed from my memory! The ups and downs, the "Yes, we'll go ahead," the "No, I want to think about it" deals. Just like the stock market, and the Congress, and every conversation! But here we are, a new update. The world keeps spinning and I keep writing - albeit with a heater next to me and the rain falling, but we keep going. Always. There are currently 147 active listings in the Skaneateles area of the multiple listing service. There are 5 new ones: 2 re-lists, 1 country with Marcellus schools, and another with lake rights. The fifth is new construction - 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2300 sf. for only $349,000. Interesting. Contingent sales show 10 marked as such with 2 new ones. One of these sold within a day of listing it and the other has been on the market for almost a year. Both were on the very low end of prices. One word of caution: with all the fragility of the market, some of the active lis...

Address: 3057 Volk Ave, 90808 Asking Price: $649,000 Year Built: 1954 Size: 3 beds, 3 baths, 1,900 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $342 Purchase price: N/A Purchase date: N/A MLS#: P654927 On Redfin: 21 days Down Payment: $129,800 Monthly Payment: $4,000 Income Requirement: $162,000 Description: This home is a great opportunity for the Rancho buyer who desires the clean modern architecture of Cliff May combined with extra living space and storage areas. Set on one of the largest lots in the tract - 6200 sqft - this home features 1527 sqft in the main house and a permitted casita of approximately 400 sqft. Upgrades to the home are numerous: separate indoor laundry room, 240 amp electrical service, air conditionaing in both the main house and casita, separate water heaters for the master bath and casita, and an intercom system. Located on one the nicest streets in the tract, this property is a short walk to the lakes, paths, wildlife and nature center of 800 acre El Dorado Park. This home is by far t...

I really, really, really hope you heeded my advice and took anything over $100,000 out of WaMu. If you're under those FDIC-insured limits, you're fine. The FDIC already found a buyer for the deposits (JP Morgan), so don't panic. I have money in several WaMu accounts and I'm not sweating it ( well, I'm kind of sweating it--this is big freaking news! ). Remember, the FDIC still has money--which may not be the case a few months from now. REUTERS: WaMu is largest U.S. bank failure By Elinor Comlay and Jonathan Stempel Washington Mutual Inc was closed by the U.S. government in by far the largest failure of a U.S. bank, and its banking assets were sold to JPMorgan Chase & Co for $1.9 billion. Thursday's seizure and sale is the latest historic step in U.S. government attempts to clean up a banking industry littered with toxic mortgage debt. Negotiations over a $700 billion bailout of the entire financial system stalled in Washington on Thursday. Washington Mutual,...

Yesterday I took the dogs out for their very early morning walk up the road at the lake. Boo ran ahead with his friends, Koko lagged behind. Nothing different than usual. But as I passed a camp a few down from ours, I saw this huge bird flying over the water. "A heron," I immediately guessed. Then realized what I had seen. I ran home to find Bob already out on the deck with his camera. I was chased down the hill by our dear friend Martha who was yelling to us to "Look! Look!" She was followed by her three dogs running circles around her and barking. We all met up on the deck and she pointed him out to me. All I could see was a triangle in a far tree, but she assured me that was our eagle. He had first been sighted by my brother-in-law when he was out kayaking this summer. Martha and her husband saw him fairly regularly after that. We were never so privileged until just then. Bob went down to get our kayak in the water and we were joined by an elderly wom...

Last time we featured this property , I encouraged the seller to stay strong. With so many negative nellys out there, it's so easy for sellers in Long Beach (which, as you know, is a World Class City tm like San Francisco, Paris, or New York) to feel pressure to lower the prices. I say DON'T DO IT! Sellers don't owe buyers anything, and certainly shouldn't be lowering prices to "lure" buyers! If they're just too ignorant to realize the snowflake uniqueness of your house, then you should just wait until a sophisticated buyer with taste and appreciation for high-class abodes flies in on his private jet. On September 4 th I said: Even better, you priced it 20% to 40% above nearby listings to let everyone know you are an aggressive, sophisticated investment strategist. Congratulations, you totally DOMINATED your neighborhood and let everyone know just how special your property is. I believe! Only pansies listen to that crap about price per square foot ...

It appears as if our lackadaisical seller over at 1130 E. 1st St. finally decided to get off his ass and try to sell his apartment. As you may remember, I berated the seller and their six-percenter for their obvious lack of effort, most ably demonstrated by their half-assed pictures and total lack of staging. Well, two weeks ago they finally figured out the formula to selling in a rapidly declining market (i.e. Drop the price, dumbass ) and sliced off an astounding $40,000. That represents a two-month total reduction of 50 grand for those of you counting at home. Now we're getting somewhere! Keep in mind, this place was purchased a scant 22 months ago for $415,000 . Un-effing-believable. And now our unelected Treasury Secretary wants total immunity in wasting our tax money to bail out banks idiotic enough to believe this cramped, outdated shit pile was worth upwards of $400k. It makes me want to vomit shards of glass. Anyhow, let's revisit the numbers and see if the odds of a s...

What a week it was! Somehow I thought the economic upheaval would have a fallout here, but it doesn't seem to have changed things much. We are still making progress, slow but sure. There are currently 144 active listings in the Skaneateles area as defined by the Central New York Information Service (MLS). This is down from a high in the 160s a few months ago. Of course it could be seasonal, but this is a prime season in which to list and sell. The number of people on the streets and in the shops is a good indicator. The village continues to be filled with wonderful visitors from all over the world. Please see the comment under the blog "Communication." We have five new listings this week - 1 waterfront, 1 village re-list (under the sales price of a year ago, I believe), and 3 homes ranging in value. Three properties were marked contingent - 1 new construction and 2 village homes, one of which just came on and found a buyer immediately! Well done! There are 9 tot...

This "realtor" has a "quotation mark" problem: Address: 24 3rd Place, 90802 Asking Price: $289,000 Year Built: 1953 Size: 1 bed, 1 bath, 739 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $391 HOA Fine: $200 Purchase price: $359,000 (!) Purchase date: 9/2005 MLS #: S08134941 On Redfin : 3 days Down Payment: $57,800 Monthly Payment: $2,000 Income Requirement: $72,250 Description: Rare opportunity to buy "on teh beach" condo via a Short Sale. One bedroom (easily fits king size bed) with one bathroom which includes corian counter top. The unit features 739 square feet of living space which feels much larger, entry way, separate dining room, kitchen "With a View", complex laundry room, complex storage room for bikes, blades, beach gear and all else to fit hyour lifestyle. Low monthly HOAs . This unit is not only located "on the beach" but it is also close to "Everything" in Long Beach including Convention Center and Shoreline Village. This is a must see ...

Many people find the home of their dreams before they've sold their current house. Living space is very important - they don't want to risk not having a wonderful home, so they don't list their home until they've found the next one. Some risk losing that house, but many place an offer "contingent on the sale of their home." The offer is in place, and essentially this means they have "dibs" on their dream home. Usually the home inspection is done and negotiated. They don't want to find out that the roof is caving in and that funny crack in the basement leads to a sink hole, for example. Naturally they are not in the best position to negotiate - they are not ready, willing and able buyers yet - but they are in good shape. Price their current home with the market and they are ready to move on. It only takes a buyer to make both deals happen. The agent writes in a recall - 48 hours to remove the contingency of the sale of a home or show they ...

I sat at my open house yesterday deep in misery, I admit. I had several deals pending in different stages of flux, which I suppose is a kind word, and the past week to remember while I waited for resolution. There must have been at least 10 people - agents, buyers, owners - who needed to call me in response to my messages. A few did, but the majority didn't. And that is what drove me....drove me.....well... nuts. Two people called me several times and I told them how much I appreciated their communication. It makes my job so much more pleasant. We can commiserate or bat ideas around or simply talk. But without a phone call the imagination takes over. Imaginations, I've found, generally tend to dwell on the negative if not downright disastrous. Look at the past week we've had economically! Eventually the calls started rolling in, and frankly all the news was good. I was able to say that progress was being made - if only that the players were at least talking now. T...

"Mary" as I will call her - dear "Mary" decided to buy a home. She and her husband prepared for this purchase. Yes, they had a house to sell, credit to repair, but they wanted and needed a bigger house with some specifics not easy to find. They looked for 18 months. Through the snows and the heat, all over Central New York. "It doesn't exist!" I'd complain to Bob. "They will never find it!" But I kept looking and kept checking things out. Once I even told lovely Lisa in our office I was going to drive about 40 miles one way at night to not sell a house. "Where's your confidence?" she asked. "Why are you doing this?" "Because they want me to - but this isn't the house." But then it came on the hotsheet one day. Just what they wanted - exactly what they wanted and where they wanted. I called them and we hustled out there. They put in a full price offer and won out over the other people who w...

I have learned so much this week - about how to handle stress, mainly. And I know I'm not alone. I've heard from several people who lament the passing of an art form - meet people, share houses over the internet, go see houses, check comps, negotiate briefly to buy the house of their dreams, have a home inspection that finds only a few issues, work out those issues, apply for a mortgage and get a good rate, get the commitment and update the abstract and have it surveyed and meet in an attorney's office to sign the papers. Ah, the good old days! Now no deal is safe. It should be. Stocks rise and fall, but there's always the land. Nothing is so totally lopsided in Skaneateles, as it is in other parts of the country. Hold onto the property and it will increase in value. Everyone complains about the bizarre market we're in. It's not just me, and it's not just agents. Anyone in the mix - attorneys, home inspectors, insurance people, mortgage processors an...

Wow. What a gem. Address: 1540 Temple, 90804 Asking Price: $319,000 Year Built: 1920 Size: 3 beds, 2 baths, 1,472 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $217 Purchase price: $472,500 Purchase date: 11/2007 MLS#: P639927 On Redfin: 109 days Down Payment: $63,800 Monthly Payment: $1,900 Income Requirement: $79,750 Description: PRICE REDUCTION!!! Recently remodeled 3 bedroom, 2 bath home on a corner lot. Open floor plan. School in the next block. Detached garage. Corporate owned. The listing information lists the STYLE as “Ranch.” What are you ranching over there, pardner? Mounds of dirt? “School in the next block”? Um, try FIFTEEN FEET AWAY. I guess that’s handy if your kids happen to go to that school, but even so, why on earth would you want to live spitting distance from a schoolyard? And I’m unsure what they mean by “corporate owned.” Public information on the property indicates a more apt description is “Countrywide owned.” Could you imagine if this truly was "corporate owned" and this POS d...

Address: 1775 Ohio Ave #105, 90804 Asking Price: $217,500 Year Built: 1993 Size: 3 beds, 2 baths, 1,225 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $178 HOA Fine: $353 Purchase price: $418,500 (!) Purchase date: 5/2006 MLS #: P655706 On Redfin : 6 days Down Payment: $43,500 Monthly Payment: $1,746 Income Requirement: $54,375 Description: This is a very desirable 3 BEDROOM condo within a great complex with an nice open floor plan. This is a true 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with over 1200+ square feet that is move-in condition. Large kitchen that opens to living area, seperate dining room, master-suite with huge closets, central air and heating, etc. Huge oversized private patio. This is the best priced 3 bedroom condo in Long Beach. Won't Last! You know the tides of the real estate market have turned when your price per square foot is HALF the monthly HOA fee! With a $1,746 ( pre -tax benefit) mortgage payment, this three-bedroom condo would be an okay deal for an owner-occupant (assuming you want to li...

The death knell for Washington Mutual is finally ringing. Their credit rating was recently reduced to "junk" status and the Fed is desperately searching for a buyer: http://www.nypost.com/seven/09172008/business/feds_try_to_find_a_buyer_for_wamu_129499.htm If you have more than the FDIC insured limits ($100,000) in any bank--especially WaMu--rectify that immediately. WaMu has too much toxic crap on their books and I seriously doubt they will find a buyer in time to avoid a government takeover. It's tempting to take my CD out of there given the bad news, but I don't think there's much point. But it's fully insured by the federal government and in this environment a truly "safe" bank is hard to come by. Plus, the FDIC still has money to cover our deposits. That may not be the case after a few more large banks fail and I'd rather have my money with one of the FIRST banks to go under than the last: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080916/ap_on_bi_ge/bank...

"Slowly I turn, step by step....." Having lost a deal this week due to the mortgage mess and having gained a deal this week due to the mortgage mess, I think I am going around in circles instead of advancing or retreating. There are currently 142 active listings in the Skaneateles area. We added 7 "new" ones this past week - 4 were actually re-lists and 3 were brand-new, first time in recent memory on the market. Two properties were designated "contingent." One was in the town, another on the water (surprise!) As of tonight, there are 8 "K"ed properties and 13 pending properties. One actually went right to pending - an eager buyer's agent found the perfect home for his people, talked the owners into selling for a decent price, and pended it immediately. Only one property closed, and that was sort of in the Skaneateles area - but again, 10% under the original list price. There's a trend - especially for the homes priced for yesterday...

A reader suggested I feature today's property and I am glad he/she did. In case you were starting to believe sanity was creeping back into Long Beach real estate, this specimen of delusion will change all of that. You see, greed still rules the day. And this delusual "seller" (I use quotation marks because judging by the avarice-induced asking price, it's abundantly clear this flipper has no intention of ever selling) wants to party like it's 2005. I mean, who doesn't want to relive those days? You know, the days when $500 in new bathroom tile translated to $4,300 in added value. Those glory days when installing $5,000 worth of stainless steel appliances earned you $10,000 in equity. Those days in the sun when you could buy a property, hold it for less than a year, and pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars for doing absolutely nothing. But, unfortunately, our f**ked flipper decided to kick off that '05-themed celebration in fall of 2007, when the housing...

Tonight is the world premier of the movie, "The Express," the biography of Syracuse University's Ernie Davis. He was an incredible running back and the first black man to win the Heisman Trophy. Traffic will be stopped, an orange carpet will be unfurled on Salina Street. Dennis Quaid, SU former football players, Newhouse graduates and honored guests will walk into the Landmark Theater. Ernie Davis died of leukemia before ever getting to play in the NFL. I spent the morning addressing envelopes for a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and remembering him. Bob had read to me an article by Arnie Burdick, a local sports columnist, from the Post Standard last night, leaving both of us in tears. Davis was a hero to us as young kids growing up in Syracuse, and probably our first brush with inexplicable death. I had attended football games with my father, and probably saw Jim Brown play and then of course, Ernie Davis. The games are some of my fondest memori...

Busy, busy week! It's been absolutely wonderful! There are currently 146 active single family listings in the Skaneateles area. This is about a 10% decrease since mid-spring. And why? Homes are selling! This week three new listings came on the market. Two were re-lists and high end waterfront and the other is a new village property, high end also. Four properties were marked as "K" for contingent, among them my beautiful 11 Onondaga Street listing. Another village home, new construction and a waterfront round out the contingent designations. This may be the first time in a very long time that the number of "K" properties in a given week is greater than the new listings, another sign of health. Two properties were withdrawn, one possibly because it was rented. Five others simply expired, something that happens in this market unfortunately. There was only one closing, an older village home in the mid-$200s. It had been reduced from its original price by ab...

A reader asked for some MLS numbers for the Long Beach properties featured on Dr. Housing Bubble Blog last week. Dr. HB was kind enough to get those to me. Here are the two remaining active listings: R804042 R808109 Yikes.

Today we’re going to take a ride in the Way Back Machine and visit a rat hole featured what seems like ages ago . Address: 1182 E. 9 th Street, 90813 Asking Price: $199,000 Size: 2 beds, 1 baths, 600 sq. ft. Year Built: 1923 $/Sq. Ft.: $333 Purchase price: $285,000 Purchase date: 7/2005 MLS #: S499815 On Redfin : 196 days New Down Payment: $39,800 New Monthly Payment (Principle, Interest, Insurance, Taxes): $1,283 New Income Requirement: $50,000 Description: WOW $$$$$ HUGE PRICE REDUCTION... TRUE PRIDE OF OWNERSHIP ON THIS ONE!!! CHARMING HISTORIC BUNGALOW (1923). THIS BEAUTIFULLY UPGRADED 2 BEDROOM HOME FEATURES: REFINISHED HARDWOOD FLOORS, NEW TILE FLOORING,NEW PAINT INSIDE & OUT, ORIGINAL HISTORIC DECOR, ATTACHED GARAGE AND BAMBOO-SCREENED BACKYARD. NO MELLO - ROOS OR ASSOCIATION DUES! JUST A FEW BLOCKS FROM THE BEACH AND DOWNTOWN! They tried to pull a little sleight of hand with the days on market, but this third-world hovel has been begging since late 2007! It's been a l...

Atta boy. Address: 2311 E 1st St, 90803 Asking Price: $1,749,000 Year Built: 1908 Size: 5 beds, 3 baths, 2,600 sq. ft. $/Sq. Ft.: $673 Purchase price: $955,000 Purchase date: 3/2007 MLS#: P654248 On Redfin: 2 days Down Payment: $350,000 Monthly Payment: $11,000 Income Requirement: $437,000 Description: Absolutely stunning Craftsman highly renovated Bluff Park showplace! This 100 year old home has had absolutely EVERYTHING done from the foundation, plumbing, electrical, roof, heating and so much more. This home features beautiful original hardwood floors throughout, wood beamed ceilings and craftsman window mouldings and castings throughout, original beautiful doors and knobs, a gorgeous formal dining room with built in hutch, brand new kitchen with Silestone countertops and Subway tile backsplash and d cor accents and a wonderful breakfast nook, 2 main floor bedrooms and large bathroom with his & her sinks, tons of closet space, 3 large additional upstairs bedrooms with 2 more comp...

Dr. Housing Bubble has an article today about the massive amounts of equity evaporating in the world of Long Beach real estate. Brutal.

Now we're cooking with gas! There are "only" 142 active listings in the Skaneateles area as defined by the multiple listing service. This past week only two new listings came on - a re-list with a reduced price, and my gorgeous listing on Autumn Tree Court (open Saturday, $394,500). Sorry - had to do it! The good news is that 5 - count 'em, 5! - homes were marked contingent this past week. Two were solid investment properties, two were waterfront, and the fifth was new construction (a great house, too - sorry to see it sold!) But things are moving! Overall there are 11 contingent homes, just waiting to be pended and then closed. I looked more carefully this week because of the reduction of active listings. Where did they all go? Three expired - two of these were waterfront. Two others were withdrawn. There's never a reason - whether they were removed to prepare for a different brokerage, or the owners just have stopped wanting to sell, or were leased is ne...