The time to buy for first-time homebuyers by Daniel P. Bader Michael Mahany spent most of Mon., March 30 moving into his new two-bedroom co-op apartment on Haven Avenue. Mahany and his girlfriend, Sara Andreas, are first-time homebuyers. And they are not alone. It appears that the roller coaster real estate market is treating first-time buyers to the smoothest ride.  Perry Payne, senior vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said that over the March 28 weekend all but one of the couples who attended her open houses were first-time buyers. Since some homeowners are having trouble selling their current apartments, it’s people like Mahany and Andreas who are showing up at open houses. “I’ve been wanting to buy for a while,” said Mahany, who previously rented in Inwood. He’s a stage actor, fresh off a road tour with Walt Disney’s “High School Musical.” Andreas, also an actress, isn’t around to unpack all the boxes in the apartment because she’s on the road with “Legally Blonde.” The couple started apartment shopping last fall. For Mahany, owning in New York City was a personal statement that he had made it in his career. When the saw the Haven Avenue apartment, with its view of the Hudson River, they fell in love. “We put in an offer right away,” Mahany said. According to Payne, his agent, his new apartment had been on the market for nine weeks. It was listed at $475,000, then the price dropped to $450,000, and Mahany scooped it up for $440,000. “They’re coming in, they’re pre-approved and they’ve done their homework,” Payne said about the buyers. Many recent buyers are people who may have been priced out of the market 6 to 12 months ago. But with low interest rates on mortgages and slightly higher prices they have jumped back into the pool. “They were priced out, but they’re back,” Payne said. Agents at Simone Song Properties have not had the same experience as Payne, but, Song said, it makes sense. “If they’re not first-time homebuyers they have to sell first,” she said. “In this market, it’s very hard for people to do that.” Instead, she’s seeing a lot of shoppers, but few buyers, saying, “I think everyone’s waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Or for the market to bottom out. “You never know when the market is at its absolute bottom,” Song said. Now is also an advantageous time to buy because of the variety of apartments on the market and low interest rates. “If they have the down payment it makes all the sense in the world to buy,” said Gus Perry, of Stein-Perry Real Estate. He’s seeing people lock down 30-year mortgages at interest rates between four and six percent. Buying an apartment is more reasonable than people think, he said. Often they’ll see the maintenance fees and the amount of the mortgage payment and think they can’t afford to buy. Thirty to 50 percent of that maintenance fee is tax deductible, Perry said. That, coupled with the normal tax breaks homeowners get, means a significant discount that’s not immediately obvious. The first time homebuyer is in a particularly good place right now, he said, because they can buy whenever they find the right apartment. “They’re free to pull the trigger whenever,” he said.
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