Sandy-Damaged Homes Bargain Prices - Some of the prices sound too good to be a bargain, but the homes that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy are available at a discount. Some of the properties are selling at 10 percent off.
Some of these prices are from upscale homes on New York’s Long Island and the Jersey Shore to as much as 60 percent off modest bungalows Staten Island and Queens, it’s still very much a game of buyer beware.
Not only are buyers are on the hook for repairs and in some cases total rebuilds, they’re also wading into a host of potentially expensive uncertainties about new flood maps and future insurance rates, zoning changes and updated building codes.
“It’s totally changed the way I sell real estate,” said Lawrence Greenberg, a sales associate with Van Skiver Realtors, whose own Mantoloking, N.J., office was wrecked in the storm.
Prior to Sandy, prospective buyers rarely mentioned issues such as flood maps and building elevations until the matter of flood insurance came up — often at closing. “Now, everybody asks the question of elevation,” Greenberg said. Even if potential buyers plan to tear down and build new, they ask about the pending changes in flood maps proposed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, because flood insurance rates will depend upon the new zones.
There is no sign of a mass exodus from shoreline communities. The number of for-sale listings in January in the 380 zip codes hit by the storm was about 2 percent below the same time last year, according to online real estate information company Zillow Inc. That indicates that most homeowners are rebuilding, or have not yet decided how to proceed.
But real estate agents in New York and New Jersey say the majority of homes for sale in these areas have some damage from the Oct. 29 storm, and it appears to them that a rising number are being put on the market as the spring home-buying season approaches.
New listings range from destroyed oceanfront properties being sold for the land, to flooded bayside homes untouched since the storm that must be gutted. Even the few undamaged homes in affected neighborhoods are listing at prices about 10 percent lower than they would have been pre-storm.
Some sellers are overwhelmed by the daunting prospect of restoring a damaged home. Some are older homeowners who had stayed in the houses where they raised their families, but now are relocating. Some didn’t have flood insurance.
Another set of sellers were in the process of getting out before the storm hit. Jackson had 18 properties in contract prior to Sandy, but all of those sales either fell through or were renegotiated for a lower price.