A cooling real estate market in the Lower Hudson Valley is cooling business at local title companies as well.

Title companies investigate the deeds of properties to ensure the titles can pass cleanly from seller to buyer. They also sell insurance to cover buyers when unexpected claims emerge after the purchase.

Median house prices were lower in the three-county area in the second quarter, year over year, and sales data was mixed. Some local title companies say their sales have been affected.

Statewide Abstract Corp. in White Plains has seen the number of deals on its residential side fall 12 percent year to date, President Kenneth Meccia said. Residential real estate makes up three-quarters of Statewide’s business in the tri-state area, with commercial business making up the rest.

Title companies that are less diversified are struggling, Meccia said. He sees more consolidation in the area, and said he is talking with a few businesses he may acquire.

The commercial side is still strong, Meccia said. In fact, Statewide opened its first branch office in Manhattan about six months ago, chiefly to be closer to clients in the city, he said.

Jeffrey McCall, president of McCall Abstract Corp. in New City, said commercial refinancing business is helping his company as well. Business mortgages tend to be written for shorter terms than residential mortgages, and relatively low interest rates are keeping refinancing popular, he said.
Still, his business is down 20 to 25 percent year over year, he said. The residential real estate market is dogged in part by property tax increases that have outstripped growth in home incomes, he said.

“It’s pretty tough times,� McCall said. “You’ve got a tremendous amount of listings out there.�

One problem facing local title companies is competition from banks that write mortgages and are offering title services as well, he said.
Given the big runup in real estate in the region since the late 1990s, it’s not surprising that a soft market feels harder now, said Thomas DeCaro, president of Benchmark Title Agency of White Plains.

“When you’re racing along for that period of time, the slowdown seems more dramatic,� he said. “I don’t think there’s going to be much of a fall market in real estate.�

Westchester’s employment outlook is expected to be one of the weakest in the nation, with employers planning to hire at a stagnant pace during the fourth quarter, according to the Manpower Inc. Employment Outlook Survey released yesterday.

From October to December, 17 percent of companies surveyed expect to hire more employees, 17 percent plan to reduce their staffs, 56 percent expect to maintain current levels and 10 percent were uncertain.

“Employer confidence about hiring is much weaker as compared to one year ago,� Karen Eidelman, manager of the White Plains office of Manpower, said in a written statement. “For the fourth quarter of 2006, 27 percent of companies surveyed planned to boost staff levels and 3 percent expected to reduce payrolls.�

This year, employers in durable goods manufacturing and public administration plan to reduce staffing, while those in wholesale/retail trade and services have mixed intentions, the survey said.

Nationally, 27 percent of employers surveyed said they will see an increase in hiring and 9 percent expect a decrease. The survey is on www.us.manpower.

This news is probably no surprise to anyone who owns a business in New York: The Empire State is the second-most expensive for business, according to a new report from the Milken Institute, an economic think tank in Santa Monica, Calif. Only Hawaii was ranked higher in Milken’s Cost-of-Doing-Business Index, which measures the costs of wages, taxes, electricity and real estate for industrial and office space. Alaska, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut, rounded out the top five most expensive states. The least expensive state for business was South Dakota. New York had the highest office space costs in the nation, while Iowa had the lowest.

U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, has written a letter expressing her concerns about Allstate Corp.’s ongoing move to lessen its presence in the homeowners insurance market in Westchester County and the surrounding region. “It is my understanding that your decision was based on a ‘hurricane risk management strategy’ that your company implemented last year,� Clinton wrote in the letter dated Friday. “However, it is still not clear how the perceived risk justified your sudden decision to deny coverage to your customers in New York. Moreover, other insurers in the same areas and presumably exposed to the same risks, have not taken the extreme steps you have.�

Allstate, the largest insurer in downstate New York with 26 percent of the market, announced in 2006 that it would no longer write new homeowners’ coverage in Westchester, Long Island or New York City as part of a broader move to lower its hurricane risks in coastal states. It also said last year that it would not renew some homeowners’ policies in those areas as they expire, with total attrition of policies not to exceed a state-mandated limit of 4 percent a year.

Clinton’s letter was addressed to Thomas J. Wilson, chief executive officer of Allstate.

Workshop in Business Opportunities (www.wibo.org), based in Manhattan, has opened a branch at the iPark office complex at 28 Wells St. in Yonkers. A private not-for-profit organization, WIBO provides entrepreneurs and small business owners with 16-week workshops on marketing and sales, financial analysis, raising capital, financial management, human resource management, legal and ethical issues and personal finance.

AvalonBay Communities will break ground on its first apartment building in White Plains Tuesday. Avalon White Plains, at 27-29 Barker Ave., will have 393 luxury apartments in 14-story tower and townhouses. It will have an outdoor swimming pool and a parking garage with 535 spaces. It’s expected to be ready for occupancy next summer, said AvalonBay Development Director Rachel Loeb.

A ground-breaking ceremony will be held on the site at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday and will be attended by local officials and community leaders.

AvalonBay is an Alexandria, Va.-based real estate investment trust with rental apartment buildings in New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Bronxville, Elmsford, Nanuet and Pomona. This new development will differ in design.

“It’s unique to us because the development has a combination of high-rise apartments, but also we’re building townhouses that are wrapped around the garage and will conceal it from view,� Loeb said. “You won’t see the garage from anywhere on the street.�

For more information, visit the Web site: avalonwhiteplains.com.

The Hudson Valley is getting gray even faster than that, Michael J. DiTullo, executive vice president of Hillside Communities in Newburgh, said. About 500,000 of the 2.2 million residents of the region are 55 or older, he said.

DiTullo said that while many New Yorkers mark their retirement by moving to warm-weather places, many stay in the Northeast, moving to New Jersey, Connecticut of Pennsylvania because they can get housing easier there than they can in New York.

That trend is one of many that speakers at a meeting on eldercare discussed in an attempt to cast light on the economic and social problems and opportunities presented by the aging of the American population.

DiTullo said he believes many people whose children have grown up and moved out remain in their large homes because of a lack of smaller homes in the area. If the region had more smaller homes so that these folks could “downsize� that would free up their houses for young homebuyers, he said.

Meredith Oppenheim, who runs Oppenheim Real Estate Ventures LLP in Manhattan, said the government in Mexico is working to make it easier and safer for American retirees to move to that country. The government and developers see an economic opportunity in the influx of older Americans crossing the border in pursuit of a more affordable place to live.

Many health-care providers in Mexico are seeking partnerships with U.S. health-care institutions in order to establish credibility, said Oppenheim, who won a Congressional Medal of Honor for writing a cookbook for seniors donating all the proceeds to charity.

She said that though Americans who make the move surrender certain benefits, it can still be more affordable.

“It’s not a panacea,� she said of moving to Mexico. “It’s just what some people are seeking as an alternative.�

Provident Bank, Elant Inc. — which is a Goshen-based provider of services for senior citizens — and other sponsors were behind the summit. The audience of more than 100 included government officials, businesspeople, educators and experts on aging.

The cost of a market basket of food to feed a family of four for a week in the Lower Hudson Valley dropped this month by 7.7 percent from April, according to a survey by students at Rockland Community College. The market basket, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, totaled $190.92, down from $206.95. Prices dropped in nearly every category: fresh fruits and vegetables, processed fruits/vegetables, beverages, grain products, and meats/fish. Only dairy goods were higher for the month. The March inflation rate for food and beverages in the New York metro area was 3 percent year over year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The April inflation numbers will be released on May 15.

Robert X. Cringely, a noted technology columnist who writes “I, Cringely” for PBS.org, has written a weekly column that might be sending chills through IBM ranks. He said his sources are telling him that Armonk-based IBM Corp. will fire 100,000 or more Global Services staffers this year in the United States in a project called “LEAN.” Last week’s layoffs, which affected 15 people in Westchester County, and totaled about 1,300, according to the Communications Workers of America, are only the beginning, Cringely writes.

Cringely writes: “For two years Big Blue has been ramping up its operations in India and China with what I have been told is the ultimate goal of laying off at least one American worker for every overseas hire.”

Cringely believes the layoffs will occur before the end of 2007 and are a direct effort to boost IBM’s stock price.

IBM declined to comment.

Analyst Bob Djurdjevic, president of Annex Research in Phoenix and a longtime IBM watcher and expert, told Networkworld that he thinks Cringely’s ideas are “hogwash.”
In the meantime, Cringely advises IBMers who work in Global Services to ask their managers directly if their jobs are targeted for elimination.

We’d also like to hear from any IBM employee who has information about project LEAN and whether Cringely is off base or on target. Write to Julie Moran Alterio at jalterio@lohud.com or call 914-694-5228.

“New Americans — Tomorrow’s Workforce,� a conference on the regional work force, is slated for Friday at the Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center in Tarrytown.

A group of experts will discuss topics of relevance to the local work force, touching on economic, education, and legal and legislative issues. The conference proceedings will be published as a starting point for initiatives to meet the county’s need for skilled workers.

Rae Rosen, a senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, will speak on the subject, “Labor and Workforce Trends: The Regional Economic Climate and Projections for the Future.�

Jose Antonio Tijerino, president and chief executive of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, will speak on “Diversity Enriches the Leadership of Tomorrow.�

A series of six interactive roundtables with expert panelists are planned for the following topics:

• “Work Locally, Compete Globally – Building the Regional Skilled Workforce.� Panelists: Dr. Peter A. Creticos, president and executive director of the Institute for Work and the Economy and senior research associate at Northern Illinois University Outreach; John M. DeMarco, senior VP and corporate counsel for Lowe Enterprises; Timothy Indiveri, section manager of recruitment, Con Edison; and Jon B. Schandler, president and chief executive, White Plains Hospital Center.

• “Access to Success – Higher Education, Language and Literacy.� Panelists: Tara Colton, associate research director, Center for an Urban Future; Dr. Suma Kurien, director, LaGuardia Community College Center for Immigrant Education and Training; and Tarrytown School Superintendent Dr. Howard W. Smith.

• “Economic Development – Innovation and Partnerships for Business, Education and the Community.� Panelists: Julian L. Alssid, executive director, Workforce Strategy Center; Christopher Bruhl, head of the Business Council of Fairfield; Dr. Timothy Dowding, associate professor-in-residence & director, University of Connecticut; and William M. Mooney, Jr., president, Westchester County Association.

• “Immigration Policy and Legislation – Creating Policies that Work.� Panelists: Hon. Jose Alvarado, Westchester County Legislator, District 17; Robin Bikkal, senior partner, Silverman, Bikkal & Sandberg LLP; and Chung-Wha Hong, executive director, The New York Immigration Coalition.

• “The New Talent Pool – Diversity, Leadership and International Professionals.� Panelists: Manuel Boado, president and chief executive, SPANUSA; Nikki Cicerani, managing director, Upwardly Global; and Elizabeth McIsaac, executive director, Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

• “Cost of Living – Building the Infrastructure for the New Workforce.� Panelists: Jerry Mulligan, Westchester County Planning Commissioner; Dr. Brian Nickerson, director, Pace University Edwin G. Michaelian Institute for Public Policy & Management; and Isabel Villar, executive director, El Centro Hispano Inc.

For more information, please call the Westchester Community College Foundation office at (914) 606-6804 or visit www.sunywcc.edu/forum to register online.

Economic power doesn’t respect municipal borders. With that in mind, groups of businesspeople in Westchester and Putnam counties and neighboring Fairfield County, Conn., are exploring regional growth strategies.

It started last year when The WorkPlace, a Fairfield center providing services for job seekers, obtained a $500,000 federal grant to research ways to boost economic growth that involved participation among the three counties.

About 70 people in business, government and education are now working on committees to make that happen. If the U.S. Labor Department likes their ideas, there’s another $4.5 million available to get them started over the next three years.

It’s called WIRED, for Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development.

Jo Shute, director of marketing, communication and planning at The WorkPlace, said regional economic solutions are becoming more necessary to ensure global competitiveness.

Fairfield and Westchester are “practically mirror images� in their economic profiles. Financial services, IT and software development, biomedical and health care services, advanced manufacturing, and business and professional services both play important parts in each county’s economy, she said.

Both counties also face problems in attracting a qualified work force, Shute added.

The teammates on the New York side of the project include William Mooney Jr., president of the Westchester County Association, and Marsha Gordon, executive director of the Business Council of Westchester.

The 70 people in the group are divided into five areas of research: work force and education alignment, skills and competencies, economic analysis and agenda, innovation capacity and capital formation, and entrepreneurship. The goal is to have plans ready in June.

Gordon said some projects already recognize the regional dynamic, such as the MetroPool commuter service sponsored by transportation departments of New York and Connecticut. Health-care services also look beyond municipal boundaries.

“I think a regional solution is extremely important…There’s a larger picture here,â€? Gordon said.

A survey of six supermarkets in the Lower Hudson Valley showed that the price of a sample basket of food increased by 3.5 percent between February and March. The survey, conducted by students at Rockland Community College, showed the cost of the food basket increased by $7, to $206.95. The basket components were: fresh fruits and vegetables, $33.60, up 5.8 percent from February’s level; processed fruits/vegetables, $21.95, down 7.8 percent; beverages, $4.56, down two-tenths of 1 percent; grain products, $46.38, up 4.2 percent; meats/fish, $58.86, up 12.5 percent; dairy, $41.60, down 3.2 percent.

The median price of homes sold in Westchester County dropped 6.1 percent to $615,000 in January compared to $655,000 a year earlier, the New York State Association of Realtors said in its monthly survey. The price in Rockland dropped 3.9 percent to $470,000 from $488,975, while in Putnam County the price dropped 9.9 percent to $350,000 from $388,250, the survey found. The number of homes sold in all three counties also dropped. In Westchester, buyers and sellers closed 360 deals in January, compared with 371 in January 2006. In Rockland, there were 103 deals, down from 110, and in Putnam, there were 45 deals, down from 50.

High-rise condominiums are on the market for $750,000 to $10.49 million at a 44-story story tower scheduled to be completed this fall in downtown White Plains.

The prices at this complex, known as The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester, are well above the median $375,000 price for a Westchester condo as tracked by the Westchester County Association of Realtors. But there have been plenty of buyers willing to pay a premium for an address inside the county’s tallest building. In fact, the project’s developer says that condo sales are occurring at a “sizzling� pace with 70 percent of the units selling during the past four months.

“I never dreamed that it would happen this quickly,� developer Louis R. Cappelli said in a telephone interview. “We didn’t expect to be at this sales point until the end of 2007.�

Cappelli credited the brisk sales in part to the strength of the New York economy, record Wall Street bonuses and surge of empty nesters. New York’s luxury real-estate market also appears to be holding up better than some overheated markets around the country, including Florida and Las Vegas.

“In the high-end market of New York, I don’t know if there is a real estate slowdown,� he said. “Whatever correction there was, it seems to have corrected itself.�

The tower features 181 condominiums in what is billed the tallest building between Manhattan and Boston. The residences, which offer views of Manhattan, Long Island Sound and the Hudson Valley, range from 1,028 to 5,243 square feet with versions that include one to three bedrooms. The tower is expected to be ready for residents to move in by September or October.

Still available for nearly $10.49 million is the complex’s most expensive unit—a 5,243-square-foot penthouse on the 40th floor that features views of both the Manhattan skyline and Long Island Sound.

Young professionals and empty-nesters from Westchester, Manhattan and southern Connecticut are the typical buyers of the condos. Some buyers have also been attracted by costs per square foot that are about half the prices of similar-sized units in Manhattan.

“There was need in the marketplace for this product,� Cappelli said.

The development in downtown White Plains is the latest project to transform the city during the past five years through an influx of new retailers, restaurants and condos.

The Residences at The Ritz-Carlton will be next to a 10-story Ritz-Carlton hotel expected to open in early 2008. Owners of the condos will have access to amenities such as maid service, room service, concierge and a luxury spa.

Up to 300 youths in Rockland County are expected to find jobs this year under a county-sponsored program that offers incentives for businesses to hire young people.

County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef has appropriated $350,000 for the year-round youth employment program, targeted at youths between 14 and 18.

The program, now in its 14th year, offers pre-employment job training by University Cornell Cooperative Extension in conjunction with SUNY Rockland Community College.

Youths hired under the program are paid the state minimum wage, which increased to $7.15 per hour on Jan. 1. The program will reimburse the businesses at $3.58 per hour throughout the year, or 50 percent of the wage costs.

Applications for the 2007 program are available at the Rockland County Youth Bureau. For youths who would like to be considered for spring employment (April 15 – July 7), the application and required paperwork must be returned to the youth bureau by March 9. The deadline for summer employment applications (July 8 – Sept. 1) is May 24.

For more information about becoming an employer or an employee in this program, contact Marianne McCarney-Haesche or John Dolan at 845-638-5166.

The price of a market basket of food barely budged over the past two months, according to a survey of food prices at regional supermarkets conducted by students at Rockland Community College.

The price of feeding a family of four for one week was $199.94, down one-tenth of 1 percent from the December survey. Students reviewed prices for 40 items at six supermarkets in the three-county region during the weekend of Feb. 3-4.

The Consumer Price Index for food and beverages in the New York metro area rose 2.1 percent in December, year over year, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The January CPI report will be released on Feb. 21.

So after four and a half years of economic growth, a recession has to be just around the corner, right?

Don’t be too sure, economist Nicholas Perna said at yesterday’s luncheon sponsored by the Building Owners and Managers Association at the Crowne Plaza in White Plains.

An economic adviser to Webster Bank, Perna said there is no such thing as an average length of time for an economic recovery. Time periods between recessions can last as short as one year or as long as 10 or 11 years, he said.

Recoveries are interrupted by the unforeseen, Perna said. The recession that started in March 2001 was extended by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The massive recessions that plagued the 1970s followed the OPEC decision to quadruple the price of a barrel of oil in the wake of the Six-Day War.

“It’s surprises that tend to produce recessions. And surprises, by definition, are impossible� to predict, Perna said. “I think we’ve got the wherewithal here, if we don’t have a big spike in interest rates, to ride this thing out for a while.�

Some traditional signals of recession need to be looked at more closely, Perna said. Take the inverted yield curve situation that investors currently find themselves with, in which the yields on short-term bonds are higher than those of long-term bonds.

Investors normally expect a bigger return on longer-term instruments to compensate for the greater risk inherent in such securities. The opposite can occur if the bond market sees a recession on the horizon; expecting a slower economy with lower interest rates, investors will grab the shorter-term instruments.

But other factors are playing out in the bond market, Perna said. They include the extensive purchase of long-term U.S. government bonds by overseas central banks and other institutions. The effective financing of America’s debt acts to lower the yields of long-term Treasury notes.

Perna doesn’t see the inflation-conscious U.S. Federal Reserve moving to raise short-term interest rates soon, given the relatively low inflation that the nation is experiencing. Inflation rose 2.5 percent in December year over year; inflation has averaged about 3 percent over the last 20 years.

Perna said he was delighted to recently buy a laptop computer for $650 that would have cost $1,500 two years ago.

“If we look stable at under 3 percent … the Fed can, if not declare victory, at least relax,â€? Perna said.

In the meantime, consumer and business spending remain strong, American exports are picking up thanks to a weaker dollar, and job growth is strong. At a 4.6 percent jobless rate, the nation is at full employment, he said.

“If you breathe, you can get a job. If you can’t breathe, we’ll resuscitate you and get you a job,� Perna joked.

Acorda Therapeutics of Hawthorne said this morning it has received a second $5 million payment as part of its agreement with an affiliate of Paul Capital Healthcare.

The agreement called for the company to receive $10 million to increase the staff of people selling Zanaflex Capsules from 32 to 65. The company received the payment for meeting certain sales goals last year.

The drug treats spasticity, a disorder in which muscles are continuously contracted.

Acorda’s shares closed yesterday at $19.13, up 32 cents.

Yonkers continues to lead other large cities in New York state in economic criteria such as lower unemployment, although City Hall has backed away from an earlier assertion about its prowess as a producer of locally based jobs.

Mayor Phil Amicone’s office this week released an announcement comparing Yonkers with New York City, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse. The criteria was the jobless rate, the labor force, and employment.

The city’s 4 percent unemployment rate for December was the same as New York City’s, and lower than those of the other three cities.

The announcement incorrectly said, however, that Yonkers had added 4,600 jobs between January 2004, when Amicone’s term began, and December 2006. The number was the difference between the employment figures for both periods.

While those numbers reflect how many Yonkers residents are working, they do not reflect where the residents are working. The state Labor Department has no data on the number of jobs based with Yonkers.

David Simpson, director of communications for the mayor’s office, re-issued a corrected release yesterday after a Journal News reporter pointed out what the numbers meant.

However, he stood by the office’s decision to measure labor force and employment growth using January 2004 and December 2006 endpoints, despite a common view that the two months do not represent apples-to-apples market comparisons.

January employment levels historically are lower than December’s, when the holiday shopping season boosts payrolls. Simpson said that “three years into a (mayor’s) term is a good time to take a little snapshot.�

The Westchester County Association has tapped four business leaders to lead task forces on the newly formed Property Tax Reform Commission.
The commission, which is led by Alfred DelBello, a former Yonkers councilman and mayor, Westchester county executive and New York State lieutenant governor, is charged with examining Westchester’s increasing property tax burden and making reform recommendations.

The task force chairpeople are:
• Howard Klein, managing partner, Eisman, Zucker, Klein & Ruttenberg, a White Plains accounting firm. He will a task force on public education in kindergarten to 12th grade.
• Tara Meenan Lansen, founder, president and chief executive officer of Compufit Inc., a Pleasantville information technology services company. She will lead the task force on county government and services.
• David C. Wilkes, co-founder and partner of Huff Wilkes LLP, a Tarrytown law firm specializing in commercial property tax appeals. He will lead the task force on property assessment and valuation.
• Arnold Linhardt, owner and president of Strategic Services, a White Plains public affairs consulting firm. He will lead the task force on municipal and other taxing entities.

The association said last October that it would create the commmission because business leaders fear that Westchester’s property taxes, ranked the highest in the nation, are hurting the county’s competitiveness.

DelBello also announced that eight local colleges will help the task forces with research and support, including Iona College and College of Westchester (property assessment/valuation); Mercy College and Westchester Community College (public education); Manhattanville College and Berkeley College (county government services); and College of New Rochelle (municipal and other taxing entities)

Brian J. Nickerson, director of the Edwin G. Michaelian Institute for Public Policy and Management at Pace University, will oversee and coordinate the research.

The commission plans to issue an interim report this spring.