Question about Warwick (New York, Port Jervis, York: for sale, real estate market, 2010)

[Nbrakern]

Hello! First of all... I've read some posts here about flooding in Port Jervis. Does Warwick flood bad like that when it rains? Second question is... Would buying a house there be a good investment? Are property values going up? Is that a desired place to live?? Thank-you for any opinions.

[Jason_Els]

Answers:

1. Very rarely. Downtown Warwick was mostly under water at one point in the early part of the last century. I saw the pictures and was pretty amazed at the water levels but I think it was spurred by ice floes jamming the Wawayanda Creek.

The most recent was just last year but it was nothing in comparison to the one from the 1900s:

http://albertwisnerlibrary.org/~wisn...2005_04_06.pdf

Warwick is very hilly and unlike some places, we don't build on flood plains. We don't have houses swept away. Other than the Wawayanda, and then only in certain small areas, we don't have problems. The most you might get is water in your basement.

2. Buying a house anywhere is a crapshoot right now. I am seeing more For Sale signs, but right now the price cuts are hitting the houses in the $500k and above range. Much will depend on the direction of the national economy and the economy of the City of New York. I hope you've been tracking house prices via realtor online listings because that will tell you about the trend for houses in your specific price range. Property values, in general, may not be going up, but they aren't crashing either.

3. If the growth of the town is any indicator of desirability, then the answer is, "HELL YES!" We've built more schools, are building a bigger library, doubling the size of the hospital, built a new town hall, installed 4 new traffic lights, expanded the police and fire departments, are refurbishing four parks (and even made a new one), yet still only one overpriced grocery store, and a post office built to service 3,000 people and only has 10 very tight parking spaces. In 20 years the town's population has tripled and will likely nearly quadruple, by the 2010 census, to 40,000. People rave about how beautiful the town is and, frankly, it is. Too many McMansions, but all in all a nice place.

The village has been very lucky to have a very active Historical Society which, due to the generosity of its members, has been able to preserve a number of landmark buildings including an 1810 chruch with a wineglass pulpit, a house from the 1760s, the old village hall, a house from 1810 complete with a Revolutionary-era garden, and a stone tavern that once belonged to an ancestor of mine where George Washington entertained his officers and Martha slept (really!). Check them out here:

http://www.warwickhistoricalsociety.org/v1/

More than that, however, the residents and merchants have worked to make the village a pretty place with lots of restored buildings and a thriving business district. We have the inklings of a miracle mile and a CVS and a Burger King, but on the whole, residents go out of their way to shop Warwick whenever possible. Warwick realizes the value of keeping a livable downtown and it's a point of pride (and income) that residents keep Warwick as nice as it is.

I can see from your other posts you have a lot of questions and concerns about moving to Warwick. Maybe it would be best to rent a house for a year, see what happens to the real estate market, and live in Warwick on a trial basis; particularly if you can't fly out to visit first. It's very nice to be able to shop for a house at some leisure, talk to the local realtors face-to-face, and get a feel for the town. The town is HUGE. It has a total area of 105 square miles and has three incorporated villages and numerous hamlets. There are mountains, meadows, lakes, and woods. It's a lot of living choice.