Like me, many of you may have had your heart skip a beat reading the title of the recent N.Y. Times article, Widespread Fear Freezes the Housing Market, which basically recaps, on a national level, the performance of the Housing Market of this past July.

Although none of us can deny the changes that our Housing market has gone through since the 2005 peak, on a local level these numbers just don’t jive.  Take a look at my company’s Housing Newsletter for Rye and in comparing July 2010 to July 2009 in Rye:

• Sales are up 7.4% from July 2009.
  
• The Average Sales Price rose to $1,842,466 from$ 1,491,203 .
• The Median Sales Price rose to $1,800,000 from $1,350,000, up 33.3%.
  

Sales/list price ratio in July 2010 moved up to 95.4% from 95.2% in June 2010. *

Although Harrison sales were flat year over year, prices also increased although the Sales/list price ratio was basically flat at 90.1% to 90.6%, according to the William Raveis Housing Newsletter for Harrison.

*Housing Newsletter from Raveis.com.

Rye Single Family Home Sales for the past 12 months

I think our area has a particular set of circumstances and in some instances, and may flow with what is happening nationally, but it is an area that was not dependent on the national Home Buying Tax Credit to spur sales, and we are not seeing the let down evident in those other communities now that the credit initiative is over.

• We are blessed with an abundance of different industries in the N.Y. Metro area.
  
• The lack of buildable land in Westchester preserves the value of the homes in the area.
  
• The highly rate schools and community amenities still keep Rye and the surrounding communities high on every corporate relocation list.

And we tend to follow the NYC housing trends, which have been on a quiet upswing- the Real Deal just reported that NYC rental vacancy rates are the lowest in 3 years as N.Y.C.’s unemployment rate has been going down steadily in the past few months.*

*The Real Deal Online 8/23/10

So, I tend to agree with Jim Cramer in his recent Today Show interview that the current issues affecting the Housing market are really about JOBS. For our area in particular, as JOBS come to the N.Y. metro area, those people come to buy in desirable suburbs.

It will be interesting to see what happens after Labor Day.  Will the combination of new inventory (I suspect) and super low rates bring a new energy to the local housing market?