good afternoon i want to thank everybody for joining us today for our six open house and key to the city part of our homeownership made easy in schenectady that each time we've tried to feature a different component or aspect of this community and so today we chose the rose garden here in central park which somewhat mirrors the history of this community it started out is a small public endeavor built to what was a recognized facility went through a period of decline where it needed a little attention was unable to have the grand tour that you see here today but  over a decade ago group of people got together did a little fund raising worked with the city in restored this rose garden to where it is now nationally ranked didn't last year was ranked as the third best rose garden in the country so we'll try and fine tune that and when we come back next year it'll be the best rose garden in the country and it is we continue to build our homes program we want schenectady to be the best community in the country and we're fortunate to have jane joining us today jamie for our o the new albany field director for the office of housing and urban development jamie is a great individual a good friend of schenectady you know i'm proud to welcome him here to schenectady today to be part of our housing initiative for that kind introduction and good afternoon everyone it's really great to be here on this beautiful afternoon with mayor mccarthy jonathan shares or i'm going to miss on someone i'm sure here eric schilling superintendent larry spring seattle and several members of the city council and so many of our civic business and educational leaders as we celebrate the importance of homeownership and giving people an opportunity to share in the american dream i know that our department has no stronger or more faithful partner than mayor mccarthy and the city of schenectady we have significant investments in the city ranging from your public housing authority here homeless programs your infrastructure improvements and project based developments so providing these needed monies to the city is obviously one of our important missions and helping the citizens of schenectady is equally as important to us so i'd just like to spend a few minutes talking about one of our priorities this year and that is to help troubled homeowners who are having a difficult time paying their mortgages or who are underwater where their mortgage is worth more than the price of their home are departmental data and clues indicates that from june two thousand and eleven to june two thousand and twelve the number of homeowners in schenectady county who are delinquent or in foreclosure jumped one hundred percent to one thousand six hundred twenty five loans this represents nine point five percent of all home loans in schenectady county which is also above the national average of seven point seven percent that's why we're so proud that our secretary shaun donovan played such a key role in the recent twenty five billion dollar national settlement agreement among the federal government lenders and state attorneys general where a certain portion of monies will be used to fund counseling and legal legal help for people desperate to remain in their homes in fact about a month ago secretary donovan met with new york state attorney general  schneiderman announced that sixty million dollars from the settlement agreement will be used to help struggling new york homeowners including here in schenectady this is so important because our own studies have shown that people who receive either pre purchase counseling or foreclosure counseling become smarter homeowners and are less likely to default or lose their homes of course as many of you know the settlement agreement is only one of the many measures being taken by this administration in trying to strengthen a fragile housing market that is slow to recover while u s foreclosure activity has decreased for twenty straight months it is still an issue in many new york counties like schenectady and may continue to depress housing prices for some time confounding the problem is the fact that south of us in the new york city metropolitan area about twenty percent of homeowners are underwater but this is an administration is working hard and has proposed numerous programs to help troubled homeowners across the country but the headwinds have been strong and this has been a painfully slow process fortunately we did get some good news recently when the u s department of commerce announced that american home sales climbed to a two year high and that home prices rose between march and april nineteenth in one thousand know of america's largest cities and just recently the new york times reported that the pace and the number of permits for the construction of single family homes are up to so just maybe we're at the beginning of a sustained housing recovery but i can assure you this administration is not resting because of historic low interest rates the administration is calling on congress to give every responsible homeowner the chance to save an average of three thousand dollars a year by refinancing their mortgage as you know when families are underwater which means the home prices currently lower than what they owe on it most lenders won't let homeowners refinance the only homeowners who are allowed to do so are typically those with government backed loans or an f h a backed loan hence the pool of homeowners who can refinance right now when their homes are underwater is far far too small so the administration is working hard to persuade congress to allow people whose mortgages aren't government backed the opportunity to refinance we hope the congress understands the benefits of when people have more disposable income and what that could mean to local businesses right here in schenectady so that's what we're engaged in now why we are so supportive of the bold initiatives that the mayor and schenectady the rest the city government business and civic communities in schenectady are delivering and what we feel make a real difference in people's lives we live in schenectady county and you know as i talk to them and their friends they you know they sort of surprise me talk about wanting to come back and live here right so all us old folks are trying to get to florida for half the year anyway as the kids now are talking about coming back and living here so this  these programs we're announcing today and the partnership between the city key bank credential and others you know as we get other other banks and and real estate companies to come and participate in this grow this program and as it grows across the country it's a great thing because it's these kids that are going to thank you jamie again we started this told people that this is not a one day event a one month undertaking it is a long systematic process to turn this community around in restore the value to our neighborhoods and the housing stock one of those challenges has always been the image of the schenectady city school district it is a district that has tremendous programs it has opportunities that are on equaled in a lot of the suburban districts but it has a set of students and a student population that is more diverse and has more challenges than some of our neighbors and friends in the suburban districts the great job that is done in this district is a lot of times overlooked by a simple analysis where they will look at simple parameters to do not really tell the story of the schenectady city school district that i'm proud to have our superintendent here today larry spring who is a full partner in this program is the city the school district the county our friends at other levels of government work together to systematically again break down those poor image problems and to reestablish the value that is in this community and tell the message of true opportunity solarium thankful which are here today and again welcome you part of its effort thank you mary mccarthy just a couple words about the role of the school district in this partnership we in this connected city school district fully recognize the value that quality neighborhood schools play in a quality of life in neighborhoods and the overall quality of the school district in helping city grow and become more and more vibrant we're fully engaged and we look forward to strengthening this partnership more and more every month we're excited by this program and i'm excited to do everything that i can to help in this effort so thank you very much and i appreciate being here with you today today we're excited to add a new partner to the sundered taking our friends at the capital district transportation authority made available a new and innovative idea to increase the greenness of not only schenectady but the capitol region and doing a little experiment here we're welcoming jonathan scherzer from c t a who has an announcement about a new program and part of our key to the city undertaking homeowners that are vetted through the process of the program free years worth of transit subsidy so that applies to any individual household will have the ability for basically up to about fifteen hundred dollars worth of reimbursement full twelve months with multiple passes up to two per household so there's equivalent of almost two hundred dollars per month of transit subsidy that combined with the other great exciting things happening in the city in the county here other projects e d t a super involved with the rehab of the train station and the inclusion of bus plots in the city of albany and partly the city's connectivity and all the other elements that everyone else is providing here in this program today c t a is proud to be a partner to help  and help grow the continued resurgence of the homeowner market here in schenectady county and in the city itself so thank you to the mayor thank you ever who came today and they get all the parties here today helping to make the homeowner process a little bit smoother little be easier and provide a little bit more resurgence here as we keep the economic return going in the right direction thank you very much remarks updates as we can move through the process of dealing with some of the housing stock that is more challenging you mary good morning i am the building inspector my name is eric showing and i've been charged with the task of evaluating the properties that the city will be foreclosing on and preparing them for rehabilitation we've had a little bit of time to go through the stock we have an initial valuation on most of the properties and it is our hopes that by the end of the summer and certainly by labor day we will have the opportunity to announce the first home that will be put out to bid for the public contractors private contractors of the city and beyond to have a home and hopefully provide a continuing inventory of homes that we're going to rehabilitate in some concentrated neighborhood efforts and there is the availability for all to go on the city website and look at the homes icon and you can see the contractor qualifications that we are now accepting into the application process and we are experiencing and we're full confidence that this can be done and we're very excited about that so this fall we should have our first homes rolling out we're going to look forward to seeing those completed this year of how do you market's going to be and it was really that first meetings we had that evolved into key to the city and homeownership made easy in schenectady and so jay i thank you for your vision your patience and for your partnership in our great undertaking  here have some very positive news about the local real estate market the city of schenectady has seen a nineteen percent increase in written business that's the number of units pending january first through today when compared to the same period last year schenectady county as a whole has seen a thirteen point two percent increase in written business this is very positive news and we're very optimistic about the direction of the local real estate market i'd like to recognize mar joe right behind me here for all of her efforts on behalf of prevention manor homes and also for key bank and mayor mccarthy mary will be updating you in upcoming future conferences on how the real estate market is doing and we have license representatives at all of the open homes on the tour today thank you very much thank you jay and with us the last speaker is jo reed hammer of key banc and we thank bank for their aggressive innovative mortgage product which has been the center of this program in terms of attracting people to this community and just really highlighting the opportunity to exist here in the real estate market one of things that i want to emphasize to people when you see the summaries of real estate transactions that occur sometimes are going to show us up sometimes are going to show us down the real value in this program is not just selling properties it is attracting homeowners to these houses people that are going to buy the house they're going to live there they're going to take pride in the neighborhood it's so that when we have those people buying houses even though sometimes our numbers may be down it's a greater value and it has a greater long term impact than if you just have quick sales and again some of the things that would go to landlords and investor properties that i do not consider necessarily the highest and best utilization of property in the city of schenectady and so  want to thank you for your participation help thank you maybe carthy thank you for everyone for coming out today let me first start by thanking the city of schenectady and all their fine leadership as well department development who continue to make this program a success it is often said that from small things big things one day will grow the key to the city partnership is a perfect example of just this over a year ago a fledgling partnership between the city of schenectady potential major homes and key bank began today this partnership has grown ten fold as now compromise composed of many city departments local businesses and interested citizens who should all share the expressed desire of seeing the city return to its great prominence key to the ship key to the city is a partnership that works it is a partnership where everyone brings something special to  matter holmes brings an outstanding selection of homes as well as years of professionalism the city of schenectady brings outstanding leadership and a visionary pramanik approach to improving life here in schenectady key bank is proud to provide the program that enables all of this to be possible working together we have been able to contribute to the revitalization of this great city just a little quick update on some of the numbers since inception of this program fifty two homeowners have closed under this program we've had over seven hundred ninety eight inquiries of interested parties looking at this program and looking at the city of schenectady we currently have sixteen loans in progress taken together you can see the revitalization happening right in front of your eyes and i thank you all for coming out and thank you again to the city of schenectady for their great leadership take care  well i thank everybody for being here today and the eighteen houses that are on the open house list are now officially open so hopefully you will stop by view then we'll close some real estate deals today everybody have a pleasant day