Ossining Real Estate Market: May 2011

May marked an anniversary in the real estate industry. It has been a solid year since the end of the housing stimulus and the ensuing mad rush to get a house purchase under contract by April 30, 2010. And as many of us in the industry remember, the market stalled after that. Closings in May 2010 were stimulus closings (the deadline for closing was eventually extended to September), so the comparison to May 2011 is skewed some, but a year look back gives useful perspective.

For the period of May 1, 2011 through May 31, 2011, Ossining had five single family homes close at a median sale price of $382,000. In the same period, May of 2010, 12 homes closed at a median price of $445,000.

Clearly, volume and values are down, but the further we go out from the stimulus period of 2010 the more organic and less stimulus-influenced the results become. Interpreting the results is not straight forward—was 2011 that bad? Actually, no, nor was May 2010 that "good."

One would wonder aloud why, if the median price fell $63,000 why more homes didn't sell in 2011, but look at this this way: in 2010, sellers had leverage on the buyers. If the buyer wanted to get the seller to sign the contract by the tax deadline, they had to accommodate the seller. And many did. That's not the case in 2011, where the pendulum swung back to the buyers. 

Here's the silver lining, and reason for optimism for Ossining's market looking forward to June: a whopping 33 homes are currently under contract, and if only half of them close by the 30th, that is one very strong month.

All information is from the Empire Access MLS and reflects all reported data by participating companies.