Bloomberg on Market Conditions and Zoning

Today's Bloomberg Article is a very good overview of some important market issues.  First, prices have fallen by about 25% so

“If you can identify the value of something in 2004, you can be pretty certain that that would be the value today,” says Michael Daly, founder of brokerage True North Realty Associates in North Haven and author of Hamptons Real Estate Blog.

In my weekly analysis for my columns I have noticed three consistent exceptions: the best land, waterfront property, and good modern homes are all scarce and have all held their value.  

The article also mentions the importance of finding out whether structures pre-exist zoning, in which case they may be very valuable, or have been built illegally, in which case they have little or no value:

Even rotting docks and seawalls--vestiges of a more permissive waterfront construction era--can add to the worth of the property. In the town of Southampton, which includes Westhampton Beach, docks built from scratch can be no longer than 100 feet, while the presence of an older dock grandfathers in the potential of building a bigger one.

The whole article is worth reading.