LIers less gloomy about housing market

Long Islanders are a little less pessimistic about the real estate market than they were in the fourth quarter of 2010, and like consumers in other parts of the state they expect the overall health of the market to improve in the coming year, according to a new poll released Thursday.

Long Island's overall real estate sentiment is -25.3, up 4.3 points but far below the point where equal percentages of those surveyed feel optimistic and pessimistic about the housing market, according to a survey released by the Siena Research Institute and the New York State Association of Realtors.

Long Islanders' perspective that it's a buyer's market also deepened, with the score for selling dropping 4.1 points from the fourth quarter to -41. Local consumers' outlook on buying real estate did drop by 3.2 points -- a move in the direction toward a more healthy and sustainable market, according to the institute. Long Islanders' perspectives on buying still earned a high positive score of 46.3.

"The current view toward buying is extremely positive on Long Island," said Don Levy, director of the Siena Research Institute. He later noted, "Right now the seller is losing and the buyer is winning, and that tension is more acute on Long Island, according to the sentiment, than it is in any other area of the state we measure."

In a thriving and sustainable real estate market, the sentiment scores regarding selling and buying both would be moderately positive -- say around 15, Levy said. That way the seller would be able "to go to the table and realize a profit and the buyer can get good value with the understanding the property will continue to appreciate," he said.

Liz English, Long Island Board of Realtors president and an associate broker at Netter Real Estate in West Islip, acknowledges that some may view sellers at a disadvantage but she does not.

"With interest rates where they are now, the buyers are there," English said. "The buyers' dollars are perfect now, so if sellers are waiting for the market to go up, the buyers may not be able to stretch as far as they can now. It truly is an opportunistic market on both sides of the fence." Interest rates now are considered low.

Consumers on Long Island and statewide were optimistic about what the health of the real estate market will be a year from now, with positive scores on all fronts. Closings in March were up from February and the trend is continuing, English said.

"We see a trend, and this is not one that's padded by a home-buying incentive program," English said, referring to the federal program for first-time home buyers that expired last year. "This is the real deal."