By Nicole Falco
"Valley Stream is close to the city, close to airports. Everybody wants to live here," said Lou Gazzola of Lou Gazzola Realty in Valley Stream. "There are very few homes coming into the market so the demand is great. If they [houses] are priced right they are gone in a few days."
Gazzola, who grew up in Valley Stream, said there is a "line waiting outside [his] office" of people wanting to move into the community. Last year, Gazzola said he closed sales on over 50 homes in Valley Stream and currently has about 15 homes available.
Bob Lear's Millbrook home sold in a mere two weeks after it was listed. The 12-year Valley Stream resident sold his home in October 2001 after he realized he wouldn't have enough room to accommodate his growing family.
"We lived in Valley Stream and remodeled our home twice. My mom, who is 87, needed a place to live so we invited her to live with us, but didn't think we could make it through another remodeling," Lear said.
Lear and his wife looked in Valley Stream, and nearby Cedarhurst and Woodmere for a new home. Lear often conducts business in Brooklyn and did not want to move too far on Long Island. The Lear family finally chose a home on the Woodmere/Hewlett border.
"I loved [Millbrook]. I never thought I'd live in another house, but then again I never thought my mother would come live with us," Lear said.
According to real estate agents, Lear appreciated Valley Stream for many of the same reasons prospective buyers do.
Carol Gallo-Turschmann, of Bill Gallo Realty in Valley Stream, helped Lear sell his home and said, "Valley Stream is hot, hot, hot. It's a very hot market for sellers and prices are still escalating."
According to Gallo-Turschmann, who has been in the business 25 years, Valley Stream's desirability has to do with its close proximity to the Long Island Rail Road and the Southern State Parkway as well as its excellent school districts and shopping enclaves. Gallo-Turschmann's theory on why people leave the community is that some are upgrading because of a growing family or downsizing after retirement, but the average homeowner, who, she says, is a babyboomer like herself, is not ready to move.
Hot pockets right now include the Gibson and Westwood communities, which both boast their own LIRR stop, Gallo-Turschmann said.
Bill Gallo Realty sold almost 90
homes in Valley Stream last year to
make it one of the top five agencies in the area. Gallo-Turschmann said homes in Gibson and Westwood cost an average of $295,000.
Helen and Frank Vendome just purchased a home in the Westwood section of Valley Stream in School District 13. The young couple, married only three years, had been renting in Valley Stream before making their first purchase.
Frank works in Jersey City, New Jersey, so one important aspect of purchasing a home for the Vendomes was access to public transportation. They found that in the Westwood LIRR station.
"So many [LIRR] lines come into Valley Stream. That was a big thing for [Frank]," Helen said. "We wanted the Long Island suburbs, but still did not want to be too far from the city."
The Vendomes both work in the financial industry and searched quite some time before making their purchase. "Either the price wasn't right or the price was right, but the rooms weren't big enough," Helen said.
The couple is now set to move into their four-bedroom home that should be perfect for starting a family.
In general, median prices in Valley Stream and Long Island have been on the rise in recent years. According to the Long Island Board of Realtors, Inc. Multiple Listing Service of Long Island Inc., Valley Stream homes showed a 5.3 percent increase in value. In 2000, MLSLI reported an average sale price of $254,691 in Valley Stream based on 751 sales reported. In 2001, MLSLI reported an average sale price of $268,320 based on 409 sales reported. However, Valley Stream's rise was less than half of Nassau County's average price increase. On the whole, Nassau County showed a 12.7 increase from 2000 to 2001 from $284,873 to $321,098 according to MLSLI.
Increases in prices make this a seller's market, agents said, but interest rates are at 6.75 percent making it easier for buyers, too, according to Faith Leicht of Heinemann Realty of Valley Stream. Leicht has been in the business over 20 years and has lived in Valley Stream for 30 years.
"Right now I'd say the prices are still going up. We have a lot of customers and we don't have enough houses to sell."
Edith Heinemann, owner of Heinemann Realty, said, "I'm shocked at the prices, they've gone up so high in Valley Stream. They've been going up steady for a couple of years."
