The newspaper headlines are not helping the anxiety among consumers concerning the decline in the housing market. Because of that fearful homeowners and skittish potential homebuyers in this region seem to be taking a wait-and-see stance in the last two weeks of August. 

But taken separately the news in Harrison tells a different story.

One headline in our local print daily this August blared: "Region's Home Sales Plunge," citing statistics from the New York State Association of Realtors for the lower Hudson Valley and all of New York State. And indeed, that news told us that the sale of existing single-family homes in the lower Hudson Valley fell nearly 37 percent in one month and that the statewide decline registered a drop of 50 percent. 

In Westchester, sales fell 29 percent—448 sales in July to 634 sales in June. But compared to results in July to a year ago, sales actually did increase by 8.7 percent from July 2009. But, then again, sales in 2009 were disastrous.

On a brighter note, throughout Westchester it was reported that the median price of homes sold in July, compared to June, jumped 30 percent from $615,000 to $799,000.

But the very next day, the headline in the print daily reported "Housing Market Suffers New Jolt," when the Commerce Department reported sales of new homes in July had dropped to the lowest level on record nationally, with sales in the Northeast declining at an even more severe rate.

In Harrison there are many factors to be considered before determining how the market is improving. Among those factors are the cyclical slowing of the market at the end of the summer, along with the fact that mortgages are more difficult to attain than they used to be, requiring significantly more information and time, the building inventory of available housing and how sales figures compare this year to last year.

Harrison on all counts stands apart from its Westchester neighbors.

At the lower end of the market, there are exceptional values right now in this community for buyers with good credit and a stable job outlook. A sampling of those opportunities would show that—compared with prices at the top of the market—there are some genuine bargains to be found from today's sellers who must move on. And never in our history have there been lower interest rates for mortgages

In gathering and analyzing the statistics from the Westchester/Putnam Multiple Listing Service, there is only good news about Harrison's performance compared to last year.

 If we take the numbers of homes that sold in Harrison between Jan. 1, 2009 and Aug. 31, 2009, and compare it with the homes that sold between those same dates in 2010, we find that sales jumped from 62 sold in 2009 to 101 properties sold in 2010, an impressive showing no doubt reflecting the stimulus provided by the federal tax credit, which ended April 30 of this year. This probably only affected the lower end and middle of the market. After all, if one is buying a $9 million home, does an $8,000 tax credit really hold much sway?

Taking the average prices of houses sold in this area in both periods, we find that the average price accelerated just a bit during this period, rising from $1,501,418 in 2009 to $1,572,549  in 2010. The average price may be skewed a bit since the highest priced home sold in 2009 was $9.2 million but the highest priced home sold in 2010 was only $6.7 million.

The lowest priced home sold in Harrison in 2009 was $423,000 in 2009 and $428,000 in 2010. 

It is interesting that median priced homes—those right in the middle of all homes sold—show a significant increase from 2009, reported at $1.2 million, to 2010, where the median priced home sold was just more than $1.5 million. This would indicate that a larger number of higher priced homes were sold here in 2010. Anecdotally, this had realtors in upper Westchester excited, hoping that the trend in increased sales of higher priced homes would move north from Harrison.

Tightening the schedule of sales to the period that runs from April 30, the final date for qualifying for the federal tax credit, to the present reveals that 43 properties sold in 2009, compared with 62 properties sold in the same period in 2010, no doubt reflecting the  incentive of that tax credit.

It will be interesting to see what happens after the end of September, when all the closings that qualify for the federal tax credit will have taken place. Will sales figures  in the lower end plummet? Or is there enough activity in the pipeline, generated by bargain sales prices and the record low mortgage rates?  Or, still again, will the unemployment picture continue to keep people at the lower end from jumping at opportunities to acquire a home now.

All things considered, qualified buyers sitting on the shelf may want to think about jumping into the fray sometime soon.

Editor's Note: Bill Primavera is a marketing practitioner and a Realtor associated with Coldwell Banker.