This is the market report for Ossining, NY for August 2011. It covers single family homes in the Ossining School District. All data is from the Empire Acess MLS.  In August 2011, Ossining had 15 closings at a median sale price of $420,000. In August 2010, Ossining had 15 closings at a median sale price of $436,000. Both volume and price are holding steady, and this is a fairly siginificant departure from the downward trend of previous periods this year. August of 2010 was in the the stimulus period, so the results this August, which are unaffected by any outside forces or inducements, are organic and describe some strength. That is good news for sellers, finally.  Currently, there are 33 homes under contract at a median asking price of $409,222. This shows that pending prices are are al... 09/04/2011

I had the good fortune to be asked  by the Ossining-Croton Patch.com site to blog for them regularly, and this past week I was featured in one of their videos on the challenges of the housing market. We met at one of my firm's listings in Ossining, and filmed interview style on the state of the market, what sellers can do to get their homes sold, and where I saw the market going.  If you want to see me in a talkie and hear my nasal, best suited to be writing voice, feel free to click on the link. My editor said we would be doing it again, but maybe he was just being nice. I was proud that I refrained from drooling. Articulate talk will be in the ear of the beholder.  By the way, the house we are filmed at is Tom Ricapito's listing at 14 Hillcrest Ave in Ossining, a really great 4 bedroo... 09/01/2011

Ask any foodie about New York and you'll know that we have the best bread they've ever had. Local restaurants often boast that they have bread baked from Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and with good reason. I myself have lived in New Orleans, Austin, Rochester, Philadelphia, Boston and Maryland and appreciated the local offerings (New Orleans has some of the best food in the world!) but always measured bread against the bread from home.  While Arthur Avenue bread and rolls are the world standard in my view, Ossining bakery is right up there.  Among my fondest childhood memories is when I would go with my father to Ossining Bakery after Sunday mass. He'd stand at the counter with his fedora hat and horn rimmed glasses, smile at the counter person, and order 12 hard rolls as we called them. ... 08/31/2011

We have a unique listing that might be of interest for someone looking for a home they can renovate without having to pay cash or getting a rehabilitation mortgage. It is a 2172 square foot tudor in the heart of the village adjacent to St Ann's school yard on Eastern Avenue. It was used for years as a single family, but is zoned as a two-unit and still could be converted.  The home has 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a stucco exterior, with a 1-car garage and a flat rectangular lot. It is a few blocks from shopping and public transportation. The owner will hold a mortgage with a 20% downpayment for the right buyer, with negotiable terms. Owner-financed home are rare, so this is a unique opportunity.  The home is a true renovation job. It has been gutted to the studs and needs a new heating system ... 08/29/2011

Are you looking for flooring for your Westchester home in Ossining NY 10562? We know there are many choices..and sometimes the process can feel overwhelming. Whether you're looking for hardwood floors, tile, carpet, laminate flooring, or if you just want to refinish your hardwood floors, Floor Coverings International can help make the process fun and simple. We are a shop at home service. Our tagline is "We bring the store your door." This is important because first, you can see the colors in your lighting and color coordinate with paint color, cabinets and furniture. Second, it allows us to provide a true estimate for you. And, third, of course it is more convenient this way. We provide guidance - Which is the best type of flooring for your environment and your budget? We'll help expla... 08/27/2011

One of the most frequent questions posed to me in my life as a real estate broker is why the property taxes in so many Westchester communities are so high. I grew up in Ossining but have lived in five other states as well as Upstate New York, so I have some theories for our town. Some of my ideas are, admittedly, fantasy. But if they were implemented I think we'd see a sustainable tax burden instead of the crazy numbers we are currently faced with. Close Sing Sing Prison and bring in private development. While Sing Sing makes a partial tax payment to Ossining, true development would add far more money to the treasury. The facility was opened when the locale was considered above the Arctic Circle. It is no longer a remote outpost. A maximum security prison, aside from being a less than ... 08/21/2011

Water created the Grand Canyon. Anyone who has ever seen a house with a leaky roof or basement appreciates this. And sewage is mostly water. It erodes. While sewage didn't cause the recent leaks (really massive spills) in Harlem and now Ossining, it is clear that external damage, such as a fire or tree falling, will cause massive destruction to the corroding, crumbling conduits through which we have managed our waste the past century. And we don't have the money to fix it. All that has been done is repair the damage to stop the spill and dump bleach in the waterways to manage the bacteria. Does that make you rest easy?  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and at a time when we should be investing in shoring up and updating infrastructure throughout New York, we instead fix ... 08/14/2011

The corporation, or village of Ossining, will be 200 years old in 2013, and our fair municipality was the first village to incorporate in the State of New York. The bicentennial will rightly observe a long, rich history as well as cultural significance from being the cradle of the "up the river" line from old gangster movies to Breakfast at Tiffany's, and most recently, prominent mention in the hit TV series Mad Men.  So have we outgrown the "village " moniker? The dictionary defines a city as an inhabited place of greater size, population, or importance than a town or village. Indeed, according to the 2010 census, of Westchester County's six cities, Ossining is larger than Rye and an eyelash smaller than Peekskill. Of the county's 23 villages, only Port Chester is has a greater populat... 08/07/2011

The Multiple Listing Service statistics for July closings in Ossining and Croton indicate good news for market watchers. Comparing data from this past July to July 2010, Ossining is way up, and Croton is virtually identical. July is typically a high volume month in the market cycle due to the weather and school year schedule, and despite an overall malaise in the industry, local results give reason for optimism. In July 2011, MLS data shows that Ossining had 14 single family home closings at a median sale price of $378,000. In July of 2010, only 8 homes closed, and the median price that month was a paltry  $269,000. What is significant about this rebound beyond the numbers is that last July was still in the stimulus period- the deadline for contracts was April 30 technically, but buyer... 07/31/2011

July 26 thru July 31, Ossining, New York - Saint Augustine's Festival. Enjoy rides, games, music, delicious food, and fireworks.  Fun for the entire family.  Also enjoy the beautiful grounds of St. Augustine's. Anthony Stokes Pereira, Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty I can help you with every aspect of buying or selling your home because I'm experienced, because I am a Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty Real Estate Professional . . .and because I care. As your Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty Sales Professional, I will provide you with the information you need to make an educated decision. The relationship between a home buyer or seller and their agent is based on trust, shared goals and understanding. I strive to continually improve and to do this I listen and take the needs ... 07/23/2011

  Growing up here in the 1970s and 80s, my memories of Ossining's downtown are those of crumbling blight. When Arcadian Shopping Center opened in the 1960's it only took a few years for almost all the commerce to migrate down route 9, leaving Main Street a veritable ghost town. The Urban Renewal of the time, mainly the demolition of much of the intersection of Main and Spring, was an ironic term. Urban, yes. But renewal? Hardly.There were renovations of buildings, but commerce of substance was gone for decades. Times have changed yet again. Main street is back, and the signs that are now up around town commemorating the village's 1813-2013 Bicentennial do herald a new era that has been decades in the making. It is hard to pinpoint when the turnaround began exactly, perhaps the migration... 07/18/2011

With the closure and razing of the old building that housed Big Top and several other small businesses and their imminent replacement by Walgreen's, the village of Ossining will have yet another "big box" drug store. Nearby Chilmark shopping center on the border in Briarcliff also has a proposal on the table for the arrival of the area's second CVS, which will be at the cost of Prescriptions Plus.  Those of us old enough to remember Arcadian Garden Center before the arrival of CVS might recall that there was a time when Ossining was well served by small, neighborhood pharmacies, and the populace got by just fine. I hate to sound like a curmudgeon, but other than occupying vacant retail space that the market appears to not otherwise fill, I am skeptical of the value brought by another r... 07/11/2011

This is the market report for Ossining, NY for the 2nd quarter of 2011. It covers single family homes in the Ossining School District from April 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011. All data is from the Empire Acess MLS.  In the second quarter  of 2011, Ossining had 28 closings at a median sale price of $374,250. In the 2nd quarter  of 2010, Ossining had 44 closings at a median sale price of $443,000. This is a significant drop in both volume and price, and speaks to the decline of the market we are witnessing both in Ossining and other parts of Westchester County. This is great for buyers, but it is tough on sellers.  Currently, there are 31 homes under contract at a median asking price of $375,000. This shows that pending prices are virtually pinned to within a few hundred dollars of last quarte... 07/03/2011

They did a fireworks show on the Hudson River this evening right on the Ossining, NY waterfront. The kids lobbied hard to go, and even though I was kind of tired and we can sort of see it from our upstairs rear window, I gave in. Up close was much better. I'm glad we went.  There is something really cool about watching Independence Day fireworks on the historic Hudson River from a vantage by Sing Sing Prison, which dates to when the country was young. This video captures the finale of the show, and my kids' reaction. After the fireworks were over, you could hear car alarms all over town. They were that powerful.  I never published any schedule for fireworks this year, so I thought I'd bring them to you!  07/01/2011

Some towns have notable native sons who leave us and make us proud. My hometown of Ossining, NY has a special one-Peter Falk.  "Just One More Thing" is not just the title of the late Peter Falk's autobiography, it was his classic tagline in his signature role of Detective Columbo. Sadly, the world said goodbye to the great actor and native of Ossining at age 83 in his home in Beverly Hills yesterday. Mr Falk grew up on Prospect Avenue (now also known as Peter Falk Way), and while this down to Earth man left Ossining long ago, Ossining was never out of him.  On a personal level, I have Mr Falk to thank for helping me pass Philosophy 101 in 1987 at Villanova. His character, the detective, had a very unassuming way of asking the often pompous and smug suspects about minor details of their... 06/24/2011

Last week, I published a market report for Ossining which had the median price of a single family home in Ossining schools at $382,000. While Westchester is one of the more expensive counties in our state, Ossining is actually one of the more affordable places to buy from a price point of view.  Today, Coldwell Banker has published a Home Listing Report which surveys 164 New York housing markets and has ranked Ossining (!) as the most expensive market in our state with an average price of almost $920,000. Being a native of Ossining and with an office in town, I was intrigued as to how they came to that conclusion, so I dug a little deeper. There were quite a few characteristics of the data to consider to put the numbers in context:  The span of time measured was listings taken was from ... 06/15/2011

Ossining/Croton on Hudson Patch just started here June 1 and I have been asked to contribute to the blogs. I was happy to oblige. I am gratified that two of the top 5 posts are my own contributions and I hope to continue the trend.  Ossining and Croton are two communities that are near and dear to my heart. Having grown up in Ossining, I spent a ton of my youth in Croton, between friends, scouts, and church youth group. Just this morning I had breakfast with a client at the famed Croton Colonial diner, a haunt I (and thousand of others) have known since high school.  Both communities are rivertowns, right on the beautiful Hudson, and as such they have some common traits- they are popular MTA Hudson Line commuting points, they have tons of charming pre-war homes, and both communities ar... 06/07/2011

May 2011 marks the anniversary of the first month after the stimulus ended. That's right, it has been a solid year since the mad rush to get a house purchase under contract by April 30. 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 the year look back gives useful perspective.  For the period of May 1, 2011 through May 31, 2011, Ossining had 5 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 les... 06/04/2011

Wow, I couldn't believe how many views my posts have.  I've been blogging here almost 1 year (my anniversary will be July 3rd).  i was impressed that my profile has been viewed over 10,000 times. But, what really astounded me is that my blog posts have been viewed 105,095 times.  Wow, that's a large number!  That doesn't even include the views from all the reblogs nor my outside blog nor localism.  I guess that's one of the reasons I've been getting so many online leads.  Thank you Active Rain. Below are my Top 5 posts: (note that these car clicks not views which is a higher #)   1. Hire a contractor you can trust - Hope this doesn't happen to you (7/4/10) 4,510 2. What types of hardwood are best for your pets? (12/17/10) 2,024 3. Designing a Kitchen backsplash (9/4/10) 1,721 4. Bamboo ... 05/27/2011

OH MY GOD I HAVE RADON IN MY HOUSE!!!   If you've been in real estate in the past hundred years I am sure you've heard that one once or twice...   What is Radon??? Radon is a noble radioactive gas caused by uranium in soils and mainly granite. It releases Alpha decay in the air through the radioactive radon gas. It is invisible, odorless, tasteless and deadly. Radon related deaths occur every year in the upward number of 20,000 people its primary related death is lung cancer... This is a staggering amount for something that is easily abated. Attic fan (image provided by Geoff Bolen of RTCA) Basement (image provided by Geoff Bolen of RTCA)   Depending on logistics and levels a radon abatement system typically costs as much as a decent fridge ranging from $1,000 to $2,000. Essentially all... 05/26/2011