White Plains, Bellwether
By ELSA BRENNER
Published: July 23, 2010
INCREASINGLY, White Plains mirrors the real estate fortunes of the county as a whole, and that was apparent once again last week when the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service issued its quarterly report on the state of the housing market.
In the city as in the county, the market looks brighter: Sales are up, as is the median price of a single family home — an indication that the recession’s effects are easing, said Michael Graessle, a vice president of the Westchester Putnam County Association of Realtors and formerly a city planning commissioner.
Centrally situated White Plains, the county seat, is home to about 6 percent of Westchester’s 954,000 residents. It also has a wide variety of housing stock, if not the large estates of the rural northern parts of the county.
There were 64 percent more closings on single-family homes in White Plains in the second quarter than in the same period a year ago: 54 versus 33, said Mr. Graessle, who is also an agent for Better Homes & Gardens Rand Realty in White Plains.
Correspondingly, countywide — in all 6 cities, 19 towns and 23 villages in Westchester — the number of sales of single-family houses rose 69 percent, to 1,202 from 710, according to the report.
The report noted that because sales volume in the first half of 2009 was “exceptionally low,” almost any increase in sales would have resulted in the sizable gains seen this year.
The report singles out as a major positive factor the federal tax-credit program. It attributes the surge in sales volume to the program’s requirement that contracts be signed by April 30 and closings take place by June 30 — although the closing deadline has since been extended to Sept. 30.
Also, the report said, low mortgage rates fueled sales. As of July 14, the rate for a mortgage on a property costing $417,000 or less was 4.625 percent and holding, according to Rocco DeMara, a senior consultant for Rand Mortgage in New City, N.Y. The rate for fixed-rate jumbo mortgages, for properties costing $729,000 or more, was 5.75 percent.
Except for a short uptick in March, conventional mortgage rates have been falling, and many buyers view this as a solid time to strike a deal, Mr. Graessle said.
Second-quarter sales numbers resemble those recorded in 1996 and 1997, which were considered strong years but in retrospect did not measure up to what followed from 2002 to 2006. In the second quarter of 2005, for example, 1,580 single-family homes closed in Westchester.
Condominium sales were also up in White Plains and the county. Overall condo sales surged by 84 percent, to 318, from April 1 through the end of June, from 173 the same period a year ago. In White Plains there was an 88 percent increase, to 47 units, from 25 last year.
This was the quarter in which many sellers finally let go of notions of what their houses “should be worth, based on boom-year sales,” and agreed to more realistic asking prices, Mr. Graessle said.
White Plains was a little ahead of the county curve when it came to the rise in the median price of all homes. This is because more properties sold at the high end of the market, a shift seen as a result of more Wall Street bonuses and increased confidence in the job market.
In White Plains, more sales activity at the high end translated into a 13 percent increase in the median, to $495,000 from $440,000 for the same period last year. Countywide, the median rose by 8 percent, to $377,000 from $349,500.
When it comes to million-dollar-plus properties with lots of land, White Plains cannot compete with Bedford, Katonah and other northern areas. But among well-heeled buyers, it draws those who want to be close to shopping, dining and other amenities of city life, Mr. Graessle said.
For example, in June, Jeff and Kim Netland closed on a $1,287,500 four-bedroom colonial in the city after their employers in Minneapolis transferred them to jobs on the East Coast. Mr. Netland is an executive with a technology firm near New Haven; Mrs. Netland is employed by UPS in Secaucus, N.J.
“White Plains was in the middle geographically, which is one of several reasons we chose to buy this kind of house here rather than someplace else in the county,” Mrs. Netland said.
Considering that larger real estate trends often seem to manifest themselves in White Plains, professionals like Mr. Graessle say they will be watching the city closely to divine what lies ahead for Westchester.
The big question on most people’s minds, he said, is whether the upsurge will continue. Many fear a double-dip recession, involving more employment losses and weakness on Wall Street that will once again put a brake on the market.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 25, 2010, on page RE4 of the National edition.
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