Housing Market Updates in the Hudson Valley
How much can I sell my house for?
Are you wondering what the value of your home is? You are not alone. Most homeowners don’t completely understand the housing market and how they fluctuate. The info on the internet and national news is confusing at best. You hear that the market it hot, hot, hot and you don’t sees the prices of homes in your neighborhood. The neighbors complain that housing prices are flat, but your friend at work tells you they have a bidding war when they put their home on the market. The real estate market is a moving target and the nuances of each location can seem a bit of a mystery.
What homes are selling in your neighborhood?
Check out our Quarterly Housing Market Updates for these counties:
Orange, Putnam, Rockland, & Westchester County New York
Additional information is available on your specific neighborhood or town upon request.
The real deal of real estate prices is what is happening in your own backyard; today. The housing market is always LOCAL. A bit of a mystery how it works, learning about a specific area helps buyers an sellers make choices. Confusing at best, it takes constant monitoring of the proper information to get the real understanding. What happens in The Hudson Valley and our current sales matters most when it is your turn to buy or sell a home. The national news will tell you the basic trends, with whatever fluff or spin they choose. The local numbers don’t always reflect what happens in another state or even in another county 30 miles away. The numbers don’t lie. In real estate, you need the most accurate data available.
Don’t be fooled by reading what homes are worth on those giant syndicated sites. While they are huge and do a great job of marketing themselves, when it comes to knowing your neighborhood, they are clueless. A mere compilation of data digested by a computer that spits it back out, is hoping to be somewhat accurate with numbers. They don’t aim for accuracy. According to their own data, they are right about 60% of the time. I’m sure you don’t want those numbers when pricing your home to sell. Price your home too high, and it won’t sell, while too low you will not get what your home is worth. A neighborhood can have some very nuanced reasons for a home to be worth more or less than a home down the street. A computer will never generate that sort of accuracy, because there is no thought process to digest the true differences that only your local real estate agent will know.
Real estate always has been and always will be about the location. Hudson Valley homes vary greatly in size, style and sale price. To learn more, please contact me directly. I’ll be happy to explain what has been happening and what you can expect when buying or selling a home in the market today.
Education is power in real estate. A good idea is to become familiar with these real estate terms. A basic understanding will help make sense of the enormous amount of information you will come across during the purchase of a home. These frequently discussed terms are commonly confused and sometimes a simple conversation can easily put you in the know.
- Fair Market Value
- This is the amount at which real property is sold in a voluntary transaction. It is defined as what a buyer is willing to pay a seller at any given moment in time for a property. (an “arms length” transaction – meaning no relation between buyer and seller that could personally alter pricing)
- Appraised Value
- This is the value of real property in the opinion of a licensed appraiser. It is usually used for valuation prior to a bank providing a mortgage for the property that you are looking to buy. Since the bank is using your home as collateral in order to lend you the cash to buy a home, they need to know that the home could be easily sold if you cannot keep your end of the deal. An appraisal is also used in order to get a reverse mortgage or a home equity line of credit.
- Assessed Value
- This is the value that the town assessor usess to calculate taxes on the home or land.
- Replacement Value
- This is the cost of duplicating or reconstructing the home on the property. Your insurance company wants this information. They base your insurance premium on this number for any future claims. Remember, even if the house was to burn to the ground, the land itself still has value. The cost to rebuild is what is being addressed with this number.
- Comparative Market Analysis
- This is not a formal appraisal. This is more of a look into the future. A licensed real estate salesperson is able to gather accurate data and put together a number that a home should list and sell at. Different from an licensed appraiser, the real estate agent is looking to move forward into the market and predict what a home will sell at in the next few weeks. Gathering data of inventory, sold properties and current competition is how agent puts together a CMA. Location, age, condition and upgrades are the tools used to predict what a buyer will most likely pay for a home. While we don’t have a crystal ball, we use facts to come up with a logical expected price.
All of these terms show a home to have a different value. Although sometimes the amounts are similar, they have very different uses. I’d be happy to discuss more of how these numbers effect you. Even if you are not looking to buy or sell your home tomorrow, the vocabulary remains important to you for your financial planning. Education about the local market and how real estate sales work is a big step in making the most out of real estate planning for your future wants and needs. As always, I’m here to help.
