Home Buyer - Real Estate Guide

By GEORGE NIANIATUSOlean Times Herald

A substantial listing of housing inventory for sale, combined with

still-low interest rates, means 2015 will be a buyer’s mar-ket for prospective Olean-area home buyers.

The Olean-area real estate market, spanning from Allegany to inside the west-ern edge of Allegany County and north to Franklinville, has an abundance of resi-dential homes for sale. “This year we have 632 homes for sale,” said Dennis Pezzimenti, vice president of the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Board of Realtors.

With so many homes for sale and interest rates still in the 3.5 to 4 percent range, depending on mortgage terms, this is a buyer’s mar-ket, he said.

Last year, the median sale price was $80,000 for a three-bedroom home with 1 and ½ baths, Pezzimenti said. This year’s median price probably

won’t deviate much.The median price for the

local market is far lower than the statewide average, meaning the cost of living is less in the Twin Tiers for housing.

Assessing the Olean-area market, he said, “We have pretty much been a buyer’s market because of the nature of our population,” which has slowly declined a bit.

But there are reasons to be upbeat. The local economy shows promise of rebound-ing, Pezzimenti said, noting a major project is underway this year to revitalize Olean’s downtown.

“The attitude of the com-munity is turning more toward the positive,” he said.

Additionally, the North Union streetscape project has captured the attention of many.

The revitalization of the downtown will hopefully spread. Pezzementi said he’s like to see the streetscape foster more economic devel-opment “that will positively

affect our profession” and the community.

Another positive example for the economy last year was the fact the local real estate association sold one home for more than $400,000 and another for nearly that much.

“That’s a good sign the market is getting better,” he said.

Last year, market analysts said the overall New York state economy did rebound with the ascent of the stock market and stronger home sales.

According to the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR), closed sales of residential proper-ties in the state surpassed the 100,000 mark for the second consecutive year to reach 106,919.

“The New York state housing market recovery marched on in 2014, driven by continued low mortgage interest rates, economic growth and rising consumer confidence,” said Duncan

MacKenzie, NYSAR CEO.“While total (2014) sales

fell just shy of the previous year, it is important to recog-nize that sales remained at a high level. In fact, it is the first time since the 2006 and 2007 markets that annual sales have exceeded 100,000 units in consecutive years. The statewide median price

also held on to the gains from last year as sellers received a growing percent-age of their asking price at closing.”

MacKenzie also said, “While strong market fun-damentals remain in place as we enter the new year,

PAGE 2 THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 OLEAN TIMES HERALD

This housing inventory translates into very good news for local buyers who are looking.

Homes for sale abound in greater Olean area

Please see Homes, page 3

George Nianiatus/Olean Times Herald

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose at a steady pace in January, pushing prices up at a faster pace than wages and putting more homes financially out of reach for would-be buyers.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 4.6 percent in January compared with 12 months earlier, S&P said this month. That is up from growth of 4.4 percent in December.

Few Americans have list-ed their homes for sale, and the tight supply has kept prices higher. The increases have eclipsed earnings, making it more difficult for buyers to save for a down payment and afford a monthly mortgage.

we expect the 2015 market to be aided by 2014 policy changes including the imple-mentation of lower Federal Housing Administration mortgage insurance premi-um rates and the reasonable lending standards under the new Qualified Residential Mortgage rule. Both of these rules will remove unnec-essary barriers to home-ownership placed before creditworthy borrowers, allowing them to pursue the American dream of home-ownership.”

There were 106,919 exist-ing single-family homes sold in 2014, a decrease of 1.3 percent from the 108,367 sold in 2013. There were 28,614 sales of existing sin-gle-family homes in the 2014 fourth quarter, an increase of 1 percent from 28,328 sales in the 2013 fourth

quarter. The 9,435 sales in December 2014 represented an increase of 2.5 percent from December 2013.

Despite this past February being one of the coldest iin history, the New York state housing market notched gains in both closed sales (2.5 percent) and medi-an sales price (1.3 percent) compared to last February, according to the housing market report released in late March by NYSAR.

“New York’s home-buyers would not allow February’s exceptionally miserable weather and mar-ginally higher prices to keep them from their clos-ings or from inking a con-tract on their new home,” said MacKenzie, noting that pending sales jumped 13 percent compared to February 2014 in addi-tion to the uptick in closed sales. “We will be carefully

watching to see if inventory levels, now at a nine-year low, can rebound to meet the increased high demand that typically accompanies the spring and summer mar-kets.”

“A recent study by the National Association of REALTORS found that Millennials, who the Pew Foundation claims will overtake the Baby Boomers this year as the largest living generation, value homeown-ership and are positioned to enter the real estate market,” said MacKenzie. “This could be a year that is defined, in part, by Millennials driving sales activity.”

The February 2015 sales total of 5,925 was up 2.5 per-cent from the February 2014 total of 5,781.

(Contact editor George Nianiatus at [email protected])

OLEAN TIMES HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 PAGE3

homesContinued from page 2

Nationally, home prices rise modestly

thursday, april 16, 2015 OLEaN tIMEs hEraLd

OLEaN tIMEs hEraLd thursday, april 16, 2015 PAGE 5

OLEAN TIMES HERALD THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 PAGE 7

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015 OLEAN TIMES HERALD

Home Buyer - Real Estate Guide

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