Town and Country carefully chooses its professionals. Judi Desiderio’s expertise and Quartery East End Market Insight reports are sought after sources of information. And information is what clients and customers alike need more than anything else for the most important business decisions people make: Real Estate decisions. Buy or sell? Hold on and rent/lease? How do I price my property if I decide to sell? How long are properties on the market? Are we past the bottom of the Market? No other reports more closely follow the specific East End, South Fork and North Fork, Real Estate Markets than Judi Desiderio’s reports – more than just statistics, because they include Judi’s daily experience as well.

But our experience also shows in the press quotes of our associates: Cathleen Doldon was interviewed by Long Island Business News , I was quoted in the Suffolk Times last week on local RE conditions. Many of our listings were featured in articles in Newsday and other newspapers and magazines.

Local papers have covered lots of events our brokers participate in or orgainzed, such as Newsday’s article on the Art Openings for Hamptons Artists in the Southold Office of Town and Country!

So don’t just take it from us how good our associates are: Take it from the press!

Russell McCall is a great North Forker. Russ is an entrepreneuer at heart – started Atlanta Foods in 1967, but always remained a loyal North Forker: his Great Grandfather Russell Walker already maintained a fishing cabin at the South End of Downs Creek in Mattituck.

McCall, member of the President’s Council of  the Peconic Land Trust was instrumental in establishing the gift  to the Town of Southold of Fort Corchaug Preserve  , helping preserve one most precious ecologies in the Eastern US around Downs Creek in Mattituck. Anyone who has ever witnessed the Autumn and Spring Bird Migration along Downs Creek will agree. In 1999 McCall further helped the conservation of  the North Fork farming tradition by planting 20 acres of Pinot Noir and Merlot, starting McCall Vineyards.

McCall recently opened his winery – in a beautifully restored barn  "with woodworking skills as if the barn was a piece of furniture" in presence of a North Fork who’se who of friends and acquaintances who had been a part of Russ McCall’s entrepreneurial activities on the North Fork.

 Towering above the vineyard is another example of McCall’s forward thinking mindset-  a windmill, churning and producing green electricity for his farm – a project he started with Green Logic and LIPA. And along the way helping the Town of Southold set standards for windmills on the North Fork.

The "North Fork Sound Stage" where Russ and his son John did a jam session and thanked the crowd before digging into a Gaucho Style "Parrila" style barbeque – sorry if the image seems blurry – after a few glasses of Russ’s delicious Pinot Noir Rose.

McCall’s wines can be savoured at Adam Lovett and Tom Chaudel’s  "A MANO RESTAURANT"  one of my favourite spots in Mattituck to taste local wines and eat local foods and hang out or get to know some local North Forkers or visting Manhattanites alike – a really great crowd.. Don’t forget to try the individual pizza’s, Truffles and Mushrooms is my favorite.

Some vineyards and farms are still for sale on the North Fork – with current interest rates at historical lows an interesting investment opportunity. Call Town and Country Real Estate to discuss the possibilities of investing in the North Fork and learn about the sale of development rights to help make a farm purchase feasible for buyers and save farmland for the North Fork in perpetuity.

Long Island posted the firstgain in jobs in 2 years. 6,700 to be exact! Long Island’s unemployment rate is now 6.6%,, at the height (February it was 7.9% which was the highest rate since 1992. This is music to the ears of all local commerce… 

Leisure & Hospitality sector experienced the greatest growth by adding 5,500 jobs.

NYC’s unemployment rate dropped to 9.8% in April from 9.9% in March,, not much of a recovery but at least stable.

Long Island’s economy should be emerging from this great recession a head of the rest of the state & country.

 The next “market trend” is well under way.

There’s nothing more impressive than a powerful recovery!

Town & Country was the first to identify the bottom in the middle of last year, and promised a report in 2010 that would prove activity levels were returning.

It seems some of the markets hit hardest by the recession came back with a bang!

SHELTER ISLAND posted a whooping 1300% increase in Number of Home Sales from 1 to 14 and therefore an OUT OF THIS WORLD increase of 1442% in Total Home Sales Volume from $1.24M to $19M – which is twice the $9.5M posted for 1st quarter 2008! Oddly though the Median Home Sales Price dropped 15.4% from $1,240,000 to $1,049,500 – a trend we see in 4 markets thereby clearly conforming to the public’s demand for lower priced homes.

All 11 markets monitored by Town & Country saw BLACK or increases, in the Number of Home Sales. 10 of the 11 markets saw increases in the Total Home Sales Volume with the only exception being SAG HARBOR AREA (which includes Noyac and North Haven) with a 16% dip. And 6 of the same 11 markets experienced gains in Median Home Sales Price in this year to year 1st quarter report.

EAST HAMPTON VILLAGE Median Home Sales Price rose 137% from $1,242,500 to $2,950,000. While quite impressive, it still trails the $3.45M posted 1st quarter 2008, pre-recession.

SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE Median Home Sales Price also experienced a grand increase of 103% from $825,000 to $1,675,000, 2009 to 2010 respectively. Still a far cry from 1st quarter 2008 when SOUTHAMPTON VILLAGE Median Home Sales Price was $2,775,000.

Studying All Hamptons Markets Combined we see just how impressive this recovery is. The Number of Home Sales rose 175% from 106 in 2009 to 292 in 2010 – which trumped the 287 posted back in 2008 before the crash! Further, the Total Home Sales Volume sky rocketed 251% from $153.6M in 2009 to $539M in 2010 and the Median Home Sales Price rose 51% from $730,000 in 2009 to $1.1M in 2010 – again trumping the $975,000 Median Home Sales Price 1st quarter 2008.

Clear across the board All Hamptons Markets Combined in every category and every price range displayed pure and powerful black.

If the time were ever more right to buy,,, I haven’t seen it!

To view more specifics on your particular locations and price ranges, visit out website 1TownandCountry.com and click “Reports”.

Don’t miss out.. you’ll be kicking your self and talking about the house (or property) you should’ve, could’ve, would’ve bought "back in 2010!"

The stats are in, the number of home sale buyers who agree to purchase a previously occupied home rose sharply in February according to the National Association of Realtors– far greater than predictions– The seasonally adjusted index of "O&A’s" (offer & acceptance) rose 8.2% from January to a February reading of 97.6. January’s reading was 90.2.

Here on Long Island we saw 1,555 contracts in February which was a 28.5% increase from January’s 1,210 according to MLS. These MLSLI (Multiple Listing Service of Long Island) are comparable to the NAR (National Association of Realtors) report on O&A’s accross the country.

the spring selling season is off to the races… don’t get left in the dust!

According to the Mortgage Banker’s Association, applications for home purchase loans shot up 42% last week on a non-seasonally adjusted basis compared with the week before. All this during the ordinarily quiet holiday season.

A sure sign buyers are jumping ‘off the fence’ and pulling the trigger.

The indicators are all supporting this decision to jump into the homeownership pool. Interest rates are at an all time low (with an expected increase in 2010), inventory is healthy (yet being absorbed at the fastest pase in over a year), first time home buyer credits of up to $8,000, $6500 tax credit for qualified buyers, prices reduced in most markets (but stabilized in many markets), and a market condition in favor of the buyer!

Frddie Mac declared home prices nation wide rose about 1 point on average during the 3rd quarter and 4th quarter activity has been even better.

Realty Trac states there was an 8% drop in November’s filings of delinquencies and foreclosures across the country. November makes the 4th month of declines in such filings.

Seller’s are ready, buyers are ready and brokers are ready…. let’s go shopping