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Real LI

Buying and selling real estate in the communities of Long Island

Long Island median home sales prices down

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Local home prices fell further in January, sinking 5.6 percent across Long Island and Queens, according to a regular monthly report from the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, which tracks the regional housing market.

From January 2011 to January 2012 in Nassau County, median home sales prices fell 6.1 percent, from $410,000 to $385,000. Median closing prices in Suffolk slipped below...

Sellers: Write a love letter about your home

Seller Dave Graziosi wrote this letter about his

Photo credit: Newsday illustration / iStock photo

The latest tactic for getting attention in this real estate market has sellers putting pen to paper -- to write a love letter that will catch the eye of potential buyers. Want to learn how to do it? Click here for several tips....

Open house watch: See 9 Manorville homes

This home at 41 Frontier Trail in Manorville

Photo credit: Handout

On the market for $474,000, this Manorville home has four bedrooms and 2½ baths. A former model home on Frontier Trail, it has been lived in for only three years.

“It has a grand, two-story foyer,” says listing agent Marlene Stevic of Coldwell Banker Premier Homes (631-929-3700). Located on a .79-acre corner lot, the property is wooded, professionally landscaped and fenced in.

“It has...

Rich Cribs: Mill Neck horse farm for $2.775M, and more

handout for lscribs10 photos of 323 Mill Hill

Photo credit: Daniel Gale Sotheby's /

Horse property. This parklike horse farm situated on more than six acres in Mill Neck is on the market for $2.775 million. Most of the parcel is flat, ideal for horses to graze, walk and relax. Amenities include a state-of-the-art, fully heated barn furnished with a mahogany interior, 18 stalls, a tack room and indoor and outdoor horse showers.

There’s also a separate four-stall barn that...

Why you should buy her house in Woodmere

Linda Breeds stands in her Woodmere kitchen, surrounded

Photo credit: Nancy Borowick

Seller. Linda Breeds

Address. 63 Centre St., Woodmere

Asking price. $379,000

The competition. A 1918 three-bedroom home on the block is listed for $399,000.

Recent sale in area. A 1928 three-bedroom home sold in November for $425,000.

Taxes. $10,006

Time on the market. Less than a month

Listing agent. Donna Galinsky and Lenny Bobrow, Pugatch Realty in Woodmere,...

Hamptons: 10 most expensive sales of 2011

This is the 55-acre waterfront estate in North

Photo credit: NONE/

Town & Country Real Estate recently released its annual Top 10 Most Expensive 2011 Hamptons Sales report, which includes a couple of surprises.

Starting with the numbers — all 10 sales were more than $20 million, says chief executive Judi Desiderio, noting that hasn’t happened since 2007. “The high end came back with a good thrust this year,” Desiderio says.

But perhaps even more...

Quogue home: I'm tall, treed and have a mudroom

First person blog - 9 Postfields Lane, Quogue

Photo credit: Handout

Combing through real estate listings can be entertaining — especially when you come across a description so unusual that it makes you smile (and take notice, which is really the point). Take, for example, this traditional-style house for $1.995 million being built in Quogue that takes on a first-person description.

Attention-grabbing right out of the box, it starts with: “Please pardon my...

News 12 clip: See Asharoken's Duck Island, and more

Valerie Kellogg, Newsday's LI Homes editor, talks with News 12 anchor Stone Phillips about some of LI's more affluent homes, including a Duck Island home with a barn and a baseball field in the backyard. News 12 video. (Feb. 7, 2012)

Newsday's LI Home editor Valerie Kellogg went on News 12 Long Island this week to talk about three high-end homes on the market. Here's the clip, in case you missed it, with a list below of the agents representing each of the properties.

Tune in about 7:15 p.m. Tuesdays to watch the segment live each week. Great homes are in store!

ASHAROKEN HOME:

Jacqueline Lewisy, Signature Premier...

Why you should buy their house in Melville

Homeowners Debra and Steve Rosenblatt and their dog,

Photo credit: Steven Sunshine

Seller. Debbie and Steve Rosenblatt

Address. 112 Pembroke Ave., The Villages at Huntington, Melville

Asking price. $879,000, plus homeowner’s monthly maintenance fees of $245, which includes pool facilities, security, snow removal, etc.)

The competition in The Villages. Four-bedroom home is listed at $829,000

Recent sale in The Villages. Four-bedroom home sold in October...

Open house watch: 6 Baldwin area homes

This house at 830 Hastings St. in Baldwin

Photo credit: Handout

New to the market, this split-level on Hastings Street in Baldwin Harbor is listed for $374,990. “You are getting a lot you don’t always get in that price range,” says listing agent Bobbi Brown of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate (516-623-4500).

The four-bedroom, 1½-bath house has hardwood floors, redone windows, an attached garage, a full basement and an updated kitchen with granite...