The Journal News from White Plains, New York • Page 68

SECTION Real Estate classifieds Pages H5-8 Sunday, September 2, 1990 The Journal-News, Rockland County, N.Y. Leases with options to buy on the rise REAL ESTATE BRIEFS BY GLENN BLAIN slumping real estate market. Henry Kaplan, president of Rockland Rentals in New City, said rental agreements with options to buy make up about one-fifth of his current business. Two years ago, he said, such agreements were not very common. "The whole idea is to solve two people's problems, the buyer and the seller," Kaplan said.

The options give sellers, who have not been able to sell their property, a steady cash flow, while still providing a chance for a sale. "I consider the leaseoption a bird-in-the-hand in this type of market," Kaplan said. "It is better than an empty house." The house that Marino has purchased was on the market for a year before he rented it. In addition to building equity, buyers benefit because they also get to know the By Glenn Blain Staff Writer One year ago Carl Marino and his wife searched the Rockland real estate market in vain for an affordable house. Finding "nothing that was a Marino decided to lease a split-level home in New City with an option to buy the property at a later date.

As part of the rental agreement, 50 percent of the Marinos' $1,300 monthly rent went towards the down payment. Marino, who has since entered into contract to purchase the house, said renting with an option allowed him the time to acquire the equity necessary to purchase the house. Leases with options to buy, like Marino's, are growing in popularity as uncertain buyers look for alternatives to buying homes outright, and sellers look for ways to make money on homes that don't sell in Rockland's expires. Some leaseoptions allow tenants to be refunded their rent money if they exercise the option to buy within a few months of signing the agreement, Kaplan said. But leaseoptions also involve risks for both the tenant and the property owner.

Tenants risk losing the money they gave as a down payment if they decide they don't like the property. But sellers also lose out in such a case because they have taken their house off the market, gambling that the tenants will purchase the house. Sellers can also lose money if the value of their property appreciates after they have agreed on a price with the tenant. Because of the risks to both sides, Kaplan said, it is important that tenants and owners Please see LEASE, H4 Coney Island stages a comeback rl fell rlf T-h Camille Post and Gay Carroll of Prudential Batjac Realty in Suf-fern. Batjac 'connections' The Prudential Batjac Realty in Suffern has joined Network 50, an international referral network that specializes in home sales and searches for people moving in and out of Rockland.

The network can match people with homes in any city in the United States, Canada, the Virgin Islands and Europe. The network provides computerized data to homebuyers and sellers that includes everything from the cost of housing in other cities to the name of qualified brokers who specialize in handling transfers or relocation. The network links more than 2,000 real estate offices and 45,000 sales associates throughout the country. It was involved in more than 65,000 relocations last year. "The firm's state of the art relocation network computer program will enable us to provide our customers with the most comprehensive and innovative relocation services in the industry," said Gail Posnack, president of Prudential Batjac.

Clubhouse opening The Hamlets of Rockland, a development of over 1,200 condominiums in Clarkstown, will officially open their community clubhouse next Sunday. The grand-opening celebration will run from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and include entertainment, refreshments, clowns and balloons for children. There will also be a mini tennis tournament.

Supervisor Charles Holbrook and Congressman Ben Gilman, R-Middletown, are scheduled to make appearances at the ceremony. Dante renovates shop Dante Tuxedos has completed a million-dollar renovation of its store in the Nanuet Mall. The renovations included the addition of imported Italian marble, new carpeting, two dressing rooms, and a modern lighting system. Vin Cresci, Dante's director of operations said the renovation was part of the multi-million dollar project undertaken by mall management and merchants to upgrade the center into an "upscale shopping showcase." Dante is located on the lower level of the mall, near Herman's Sporting Goods. "It's very modern, well lit and spacious," said store manager Vincent Cortesi.

News of promotions, hirings and other local real estate activity can be sent to Glenn Blain, real estate writer, The Journal-News, 200 North Route 303, West Nyack, N.Y., 10994 By Judie Glave The Associated Press NEW YORK A peeling, white sign it's once-crimson letters now a faded and melancholy orange stands on a weed-choked median in Brooklyn and boasts: "Welcome to Coney Island America's Playground." The aging sign is a sad reminder that the grande dame of amusement parks is grand no more and hasn't been since America liked Ike and the Dodgers called Ebbets Field home. Some blame it on changing times; saying Americans lost their fondness for frolicking at Coney Island when television and backyard swimming pools bloomed in the 1950s. The more direct cite government planners who brought in highrise housing projects that destroyed the small town ambience of the seashbre community. Coney Island today hovers somewhere between honky-tonk and seedy, a sepia-toned replica of its former self. The grimy Stillwell Avenue station is the terminus for the and trains and gateway to the amusements.

Visitors pass a liquor store and cigarette stand, topped by a faded billboard featuring a sunburned woman with a 60's flip hairdo. Across the street is a fast food store and a graffiti-covered U.S. Army recruiting shack, padlocked and unused. But Nathan's Famous, where devotees swear the hot dog was born in 1916, is still there. The grills beneath the trademark lemon and green sign are hot at work, sizzling up to 1,500 Coney red hots an hour.

And the beloved Cyclone roller coaster, with its 3,000 feet of wooden track and cars hurtling down 90-foot inclines at heart-thumping speeds of 68 mph, is still going strong. It's a designated city landmark. Not so Faber's Sportland a dingy video and pinball hall or the Surf Motel, which caters to the by-the-hour crowd. There are countless stands with Coney Island staples like cotton candy, french fries with vinegar and sticky caramel and candy apples. T-shirt and toy vendors sit in the shade of their plastic awnings waiting for visitors leaving Astroland, the New York Aquarium and the beach.

"Coney Island once was about as close to death as a community could get," says Horace Bullard, who owns a neighborhood fast food store and hopes to build a major, Disneyland-type amusement park there. But now, he and others insist Coney's on the comeback trail. "There's no doubt about it," says Herb Eisenberg, of Coney Island's local community board. "The resurgence is starting. We're climbing out of the bad old days." The evidence is there.

Five hundred new single-family homes built since 1985 were snapped up at prices that started at $90,000 and have climbed to $140,000. In two years, attendance at the New York Aquarium has doubled to 800,000. area they will be living in. Many leaseoptions require the tenants to pay an up-front fee, usually between $3,000 and $10,000, in addition to the security deposit and one month's rent. The up-front fee as well as a portion of the monthly rent usually go toward the down payment on the house.

The money is usually not refundable if the tenant decides not to buy the property. The tenant then has an option to buy the property at an agreed-upon price at any time during the lease. Another form of leaseoption allows the tenant the right of first refusal in which the owner, at any time during the lease, will offer the property to the tenant at a price set by the owner. If the tenant refuses, the owner would still have to honor the lease, but could sell the property to anyone after the agreement The Associated Press store on Coney Island, is one of many who on the rise again. any beach in the world," says Brooklyn Parks Commissioner Julius Spiegel.

"The cleanliness and attractiveness of the sand is second to none." Eisenberg, who was born in the area 56 years ago, agrees, "I can tell you, it's a lot cleaner today than it was 35, even 40 years ago." Indeed, on a sultry, summer day, nary a Please see CONEY, H2 declines were more than offset by increases in the other 18 cities. The largest jumps in prices were recorded, as usual, on the East and West Coasts. But they weren't in Florida or California. They were in Rochester, N.Y., and Pittsburgh, of all places, and in Seattle, Wash. The 36.2 percent increase registered in Seattle from $133,400 to $181,700 is spurred ironically by Californians who, in an attempt to escape the Golden State's super-high housing costs, are bidding up prices in the Pacific Northwest.

But the big boosts found in Rochester up 49.2 percent from $107,600 to $160,500 and Pittsburgh up 41 percent from $94,600 to $133,400 must be read as aberrations. Obviously, housing prices aren't rising nearly that rapidly. But folks in these two cities and many others are trading up to larger, more expensive homes. The average price paid in Minneapolis-St. Paul in the second quarter was $178,300, a 32 percent increase from $135,100, a year earlier.

Louisville's average is now $149,700, up 21.4 percent from $123,300, while the average price in Geve-land rose 20.6 percent, from $99,700 to 'Dreamer' pushing for resort's resurgence By Judie Glave The Associated Press NEW YORK Horace Bullard doesn't come from Coney Island, and he never went to the famous amusement area as a kid. "I was too poor, couldn't even afford the nickel subway ride," says Bullard, a 52-year-old self-made millionaire who grew up in the streets of East Harlem. Yet Bullard, who began his career with a shoe shine box and now owns 35 Kanas Fried Chicken fast-food stores, wants and yes, expects to be the man who will once again make Coney king. His $350 million Steeplechase Park project has been on the drawing boards for nearly eight years buCwith city approval in hand and a 99-year lease close to being signed, Bullard is confident the. park will be open by 1993.

Choosing a management team and financing are the last obstacles. Designs for the 25-acre park, which includes the site of the old Steeplechase Park, are impressive. Bullard hired Bat-taglia former Disney designers, to develop and lay out the three-tier, family-style park. The 65 rides include the usual carousel, flume rides, and loop-the-loop roller coaster, but there's also flying winged "contraptions" that will glide above the park on suspended cables, a Batman coaster complete with a jumping Jack Joker, and a futuristic space ride. It also has a distinctly New York flavor.

There will be bumper cars with Dead End kids faces painted on them, yellow taxi cars that cruise through cobblestone streets of Old Greenwich Village. Two of the 14 theaters will depict the history of Coney Island and Broadway greats and a museum dedicated to Dem Bums, the Brooklyn Dodgers. "A lot of people recognize the potential this project has," Bullard says. "The time is right. We believe we're going to do it." Some skeptics say he's a dreamer.

Bullard, a beefy-man with jet black Please see BULLARD, H3 can mislead $120,200. None of these hefty price hikes were large enough, however, to enable any of these markets to break into the ranks of the nation's five most expensive cities, a list that is once again headed by Honolulu. The average price paid for a house in the Hawaiian capital at the end of June was $231,700, a scant 0.8 percent lower than the $233,500 recorded a year earlier. San Francisco is second at $229,600, up 9.1 percent from $210,500, followed by Washington at $213,600, up 18.5 percent from Los Angeles at $208,600, up 4.5 percent from $199,700, and San Diego at $195,300, down 6.1 percent from $207,900. Rounding out the top ten are: New York at $194,700, off 0.5 percent from Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston at $172,500, up 1.2 percent from $170,700, and Rochester, $160,500.

At the other end of the price spectrum, the average price is now below $100,000 in just two markets Greensboro, N.C. at $70,400, off 23.8 percent from $92,400 a year ago, and Columbus, Ohio at $93,100, down 0.2 percent from $93,300. vp6Lew Sichelman's syndicated column appears Sundays. Homeownership comparison studies Horace Bullard, owner of a fast-food believe the down-and-out resort area "A whole new generation is starting to come out," says Rick Miller, spokesman for the New York Aquarium. "They don't know what Coney Island was, or anything about it's decline." The turnabout began when the city started spending money tens of millions over the last decade to clean up the three-mile beach and rebuild 23 blocks of the dilapidated boardwalk.

"Today, I would compare our beach to ON THE HOME FRONT BY LEW SICHELMAN more so. Certainly, quality is the major factor that drives today's market, as the latest survey of housing costs by the Federal Housing Financing Board attests. While housing costs have moderated in many localities, the average price of both new and used homes sold nationally continues to climb, meaning that buyers are still moving up to larger, better equipped homes. The average price of houses purchased in 32 markets during the second quarter was $147,600, up 5.1 percent from $140,400 a year ago, according to the government's latest figures. The typical price paid for a house in 14 markets fell during the period.

But these is MORTGAGE UPDATE RATES OF AREA LENDERS Lander Torm Down Rat Point Access Fund 30 10 10 2V Century Cap. 30 10 10Va 3 Chemical 30 20 10 2 Citibank 30 20 10 2'2 Comm Mutual 30 5 10tt 2 Dry Dock 30 10 lOVfa 2V First Highland 30 5 10 0 Marina Md. 30 5 10.65 0 Provldant 30 10 lOVfc 2ft Sibley Corp. 30 5 1014 2 State Savings 30 20 10V4 2 Union State 30 10 10 2ft Williamsburgh 30 20 10ft 2 WASHINGTON The rate of homeownership is one of the benchmarks traditionally used to measure how well people live. And in 1981, the year the U.N.

focused on when it looked at housing worldwide, 65 percent of the U.S. population lived in homes of their own. For most countries, that, indeed, is an enviable ratio. But the ownership rate here is not nearly as high as it is in Spain, where 77 percent of the population own their homes. The ratio also is higher in Ireland, 74 percent; Greece, 72 percent and Norway, 67 percent.

Another way to gauge the housing well-being of a nation is to look at the average number of persons per room. In this country, the U.N. study found, there were a mere 0.5 persons per room in the average house. That's the smallest number of any country, but it's an average that's also matched by Belgium and Canada. By contrast, the most crowded house, which can be found in Ireland, has 0.9 inhabitants per room.

Unfortunately, the U.N. study doesn't speak of the quality of housing in other countries. And quality, most observers believe, is just as important as quantity, if not NOTEi Conventional mortgages only, unless otherwise Indicated. AM Adjustable mortgage loan. AR Adjustable rate mortgage loan.

Some banks may offer other types of mortgages in addition to that listed. Date compiled 82490 by HSH Associates, Riverdale, N.J. CaH lenders for latest rates, as they are subject to change..