Cost-conscious New York tri-state area buyers such as teachers have finally reentered the housing market, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a reversal, it may be higher priced sales that lag.

The number of buyers in contract to buy homes priced less than $500,000 in Westchester County rose by almost 40 percent in 2011 compared to a year earlier, according to a market report from residential brokerage Houlihan Lawrence. And a similar trend is apparent in New Jersey, the Journal said. Jeffrey Otteau, an appraiser in New Jersey, told the paper that the market there was like a “snowball, rolling down hill and gaining momentum,” and that he expected that snowball to keep rolling into 2012. [more]

A Manhattan jury found New York City and Westchester County attorney Louis Cherico guilty of bank fraud and money laundering for his part in a fraudulent scheme involving Westchester real estate, LoHud.com reported.

Cherico conspired with four others, all of whom were already sentenced to between 12 and 51 months in prison for their parts in the scheme, to obtain mortgage loans on the purchase of several multi-million dollar Westchester homes in 2002.

The group submitted false documents to obtain mortgage loans that sometimes exceeded the purchase price of the properties. [more]

The Anti-Discrimination Center, a New York City non-profit housing group, has asked a Manhattan district court to enforce a 2009 consent decree that settled a lawsuit over Westchester County’s alleged failure to
follow federal fair-housing laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The center, which was awarded $7.5 million in the settlement, claims that the county is skirting its obligations to enforce the laws, citing missed deadlines and failure to provide sufficient planning documents. The center also complained that the federal government and court-appointed monitor aren’t doing enough to ensure compliance.

A representative for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the department is taking the case seriously. It is currently withholding $7.3 million in yearly federal housing funds for Westchester until the county meets requirements. [more]

The tri-state area — Long Island, northern New Jersey, Westchester County and Connecticut’s Fairfield County — is holding stable post-recession and directly competing with Manhattan as it recovers, according to the Observer. Rents are up, even as vacancy rates remain steady.

In Long Island, the majority of action is in Melville and Garden City with the growth of education and health services companies. The vacancy rate for Nassau and Suffolk Counties combined was 10.3 percent at the end of the first quarter, up from the last quarter of 2010. [more]

Affluent New York City-area neighborhoods are showing improved residential market stability, according to the Wall Street Journal, while lower-income, outlying neighborhoods still lag behind. For example, so far in 2011, Westchester County has seen the number of signed contracts on homes priced $1 million or higher climb 25 percent, compared to the same time period a year earlier, according to residential firm Houlihan Lawrence. Chris Meyers, Houlihan’s COO, said that the rate of recovery is lopsided among New York City’s outlying neighborhoods. “There appears to be a growing rift between the commuter towns and those further from the city,” Meyers said. [WSJ]

Though a plan to create 750 below market-rate homes in Westchester County is moving forward as part of a recent lawsuit settlement, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has announced that another part of the plan is “incomplete and unacceptable,” according to the New York Times. In a letter to the county, HUD said Westchester had failed to set forth strategies to overcome exclusionary land-use approval processes and zoning ordinances. The agency gave the county until April 1 to revise its analysis. [more]

With a median property tax bill of $8,404, residents in Westchester County pay more in property taxes than do people in any other major American county, according to a new analysis of census data from the Tax Foundation, the New York Times reported. The numbers are based on an average of real estate taxes paid on owner-occupied housing from 2006 to 2008. Adjusting for the median cost of owner-occupied homes in each county, Orleans County, N.Y., had the highest property tax burden, with a median tax obligation of $2,506, or 3.04 percent of the home value, while in Westchester County, the median tax level was just 1.44 percent of the county’s median house value. Comparing property taxes by their size relative to median household income, the residents of Passaic County, N.J., are most burdened, with a median real estate tax bill of $7,095, or 8.34 percent of the median household income. New York and New Jersey together accounted for all of the top 10 highest median property tax burdens, whether calculated by median property tax dollars paid, or as median taxes as a percent of median home value, or as median taxes as a percent of median income. [NYT]

[more]

Saks Fifth Avenue is pulling out of Forest City Enterprises’
controversial Ridge Hill real estate project in Westchester County,
raising further questions about the future of the $685 million
mixed-use complex.
Forest City announced yesterday that Saks pulled out as the anchor
tenant of the project, less than a year from signing a deal to develop
an 80,000-square-foot store at the Yonkers site, making it the chain’s
only store in Westchester County. Saks told The Real Deal that the
developer failed to meet a key provision of the deal.
“Saks Fifth Avenue had signed a letter of intent to be a part of the
Ridge Hill development, but Forest City was unable to secure our agreed
upon list of co-tenants for the development,” said Julia Bentley,
spokesperson for Saks. [more]

New York metropolitan area home prices have improved, but still haven’t seen the solid increases of some other markets around the country, according to S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index July data released today. Home sale prices within a 50-mile radius of New York City declined at a slower pace than previous months, according to the index, which gauges values in 20 major U.S. cities. New York-area prices fell 10.3 percent in July from the same month last year, compared to a year-over-year drop of 11.9 percent in June, and 12.2 percent in May. Since the data does not include condo or co-op units, the report primarily reflects home prices in the outer boroughs, Connecticut, New Jersey and Westchester County. New York was one of 13 metropolitan areas showing at least three straight months of price gains, the data shows. New York-area prices inched up 0.8 percent between June and July, and 0.7 percent between May and June after having increased slightly between April and May. Before that, prices had been falling, including a record decline of 2.5 percent between February and March. [more]

Platinum Equity has
relocated its New York offices from 250 Park Avenue to the
8,000-square-foot penthouse of 52 Vanderbilt Avenue. Also, Governor Paterson announced today that New York will offer a federal
income tax credit to first-time homebuyers starting early September to
encourage home sales. Jones Lang LaSalle has been selected by Gramercy Capital to oversee the
commercial real estate finance and property investment company’s
14.5 million mill-square-foot commercial real estate portfolio in the U.S. And, Westchester County has agreed to fund the building of 750 units of affordable housing. Click here for more.
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