Local Real Estate Bucks National Trend

March 18, 2008
Brattleboro Reformer

By NICOLE ORNE, Reformer Staff

BRATTLEBORO — Across the country, the housing market has been dissected and analyzed for signs of weakness.
However, in Windham County, the level of the crisis varies depending on who you speak with.

For Brattleboro Area Realty, spring is here and it's a good time to buy, agent Chris Lewis said.

"This spring is better than last spring," said Lewis. "We're seeing more buyers that are shopping, but there's more inventory on the market. I'm doing more closings than I did at the same time last year."

Tami Purcell, of Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Estates of Brattleboro, was less optimistic.

"We're seeing a slower market than before, compared to years past, but things still are moving," she said.

Lewis believes it is a buyers market and this means home shoppers can be more selective. "They've got better selection than they've had for years," she said.

Selling time has slowed down, Lewis said. This year, it takes roughly six months to sell a house, whereas in the last two or three years, it usually sold in under three months. However, Lewis said when she first started selling real estate 20 years ago, the average was 11 months on the market before a sale.

"It's better than it used to be," she said.

Purcell says her listings are staying on the market for about 200 days.

"It's a longer amount of time than in, say, 2005. But the inventory was tighter then, too," she said.

The buyers aren't just people with lots of money and out-of-staters seeking to retire, Lewis said.

"With banks being a little more picky in who they're lending to, what we're finding is more local people can afford to buy because the prices aren't escalating as fast as they were in the last four or five years," she said.

This also means more local residents and first-time buyers are able to shop for a home in their price range, she said.

While lower prices mean more options for buyers, it also means sellers are having to be more "realistic" in their asking prices, Lewis explained.

"The price is different than three or four years ago where no matter what the price, you'd have an offer in the first two or three days," said Lewis.

However, Purcell's estimate of the amount of buyers was more grounded.

"There are still buyers out there, but they're concerned overall with the economy," she said. "People are careful, trying to find what they want at the best price for them."

Purcell said she hasn't seen "many people being forced to sell. Unlike many parts of the country, we don't have huge foreclosure problems others are seeing."

Things in other states are worse off, Purcell said.

"In Vermont as a whole, prices kind of went up as the rest of the nation was on the way down. Vermont is still a good investment, especially compared to other parts of the country."

The local market has been able to sustain itself, Lewis said, mostly because of the banks being more selective in who they loan to.

"Our banks were conservative," she said. "They didn't do anything outrageous to support that growing market. Locally, I think it helped keep this market strong because they didn't do stupid lending. If we have banks doing crazy loans, that's when we have an issue."

While she felt the market was doing well considering the crisis in the rest of the country, Lewis believes that "this is a story worth talking about because it's such a big part of the economy."

In order for many buyers to get a home, they must get a loan, and, as Lewis said, the banks and mortgage companies have become more selective.

"What's happening is, obviously, with the housing and mortgage crisis we're going through, lenders and investors have clearly changed their credit underwriting criteria," said Ed Sensor, the president and CEO of Northeast Home Loans.

While the basic 30-year, fixed rate mortgage is still the norm for many borrowers, Sensor said that borrowers now have more requirements to meet.

"Today, what happens is all the investors have gotten much more sophisticated," he said. "They've said, 'OK, if you're borrowing more than 60 percent to value and your credit score is between this and that, there may be an additional delivery fee attached.' It's risk-based pricing."

Sensor stressed that there is not a shortage of money available. "There's plenty of money for good borrowers on standard pieces of property. The marketplace has not exactly tightened credit standings as much as it has priced individuals for the risk involved in the transaction."

While he said there was no doubt there is a liquidity crisis and banks have been more reluctant to lend to people with less than perfect credit, Sensor said the Northeast has not been hit as hard as other regions.

"The economy, nationwide, we've got a problem, no question," he said. "In Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, many rural markets, it hasn't really affected, I don't think, the market to any degree. It hasn't hurt the economy."

He said the lack of heavy new building development and speculators in this area has saved it from the worst. Though this prevented Windham County from having much of a building boom, it also means the county is not experiencing a crash now, Sensor said.

"The housing market was good, but we didn't have the huge appreciation (in home values)," he said. "But now we don't have the huge depreciation. It's more muted. There's not a peak and valley. It's more of a slow wave."

Brattleboro Town Lister Al Jerard said the area has seen a mere 10 transactions per month recently, much less than usual.

However, he said there has been no noticeable drop in price that can be quantified yet.

"The last couple of years it was still going up, but the last 12 months it's been leveling out," Jerard said.

Nicole Orne can be reached at norne@reformer.com or 802-254-2311, ext. 277.

To learn more, visit Brattleboro Area Realty's website, Berkley & Veller Greenwood Country Realtors' website, and Northeast Home Loan's website.

To read more news in the Brattleboro Reformer, click here.

Return to Real Estate News

Home | About Us | Listings | Agents | Members | Services | FAQs | Contact Us

New England Showcase, 14 Noahs Lane (off Putney Road)
P.O. Box 996, Brattleboro VT 05302-0996
(802) 257-4387

Feedback | Site Map | Terms and Conditions | Privacy