Long Island homes selling again, but news is mixed

Ask Victoria Moody when she last got an offer on her Baldwin cape and she replies "Oh geez . . . years ago."

She sees fewer for-sale signs around, but housing recovery is not yet firmly in her lexicon.

"We may be on the upswing," she said. "I just hope it's not going to get worse."

Mixed news. Long Island homes are selling again, up 35 percent from a year ago. Prices have stabilized and closings per month have shot up by double-digit percentages from a year ago. But the true state of the market might not be clear until the summer, and its health is still being compromised by foreclosures, although not as much as the nation's.

In the past year, the federal home buyers tax credit and artificially low interest rates have pushed sales, but federal programs have barely dented foreclosure rates. Now, with the contract-signing deadline for the credit expired, can the housing market sustain the momentum?

"Personally, I don't believe it's going to come to an end," said Frank Dell'Accio, president of the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. "The consumer is far more comfortable."

Foreclosure problems. Appraiser Jonathan Miller, who tracks Island sales, said foreclosures still drive down property values. A Federal Reserve report Thursday said Nassau and Suffolk are in the nation's top 10 percent of counties with the highest ratios of nonprime mortgages in trouble. In Suffolk, about 27 out of every 1,000 homes are in some sort of distress, from 90 days late to repossessed by lenders, while in Nassau, it was almost 21, data showed. That's higher than the national average of 10 homes per 1,000.