9 Rhinebeck,NY homes sold between August 2012 and January 28, 2013. The price range for these homes is $500,000 - $900,000.

83 homes sold in 2012 in the Rhinebeck Central School District.

The housing market is on the slow road to recovery. The one thing standing in the way of a more robust housing recovery, is tight credit.

Appraisals are generally ordered by banks so they can verify the value of collateral before granting a mortgage. Before the housing crash, when home values seemed only to rise, appraisals were almost an afterthought. But now, with banks far more cautious about lending, a low appraisal can torpedo a deal.

Come dine and sample the prodigious bounty of the Hudson Valley in the hands of the best chefs when Hudson Valley Restaurant Week returns for an encore this fall.

In September 2012, 7 of the 7 Rhinebeck homes sold for less than the Original List Price. 

Some housing analysts are concerned that the housing recovery so far has been driven so much by all–cash investors that as these supplies dwindle, due to continuing bank delays and more loan modifications, the overall home sales numbers will drop going into the end of the year.

The long–awaited recovery in bank lending to consumers is well under way in some smaller U.S. cities but remains depressed in large metropolitan areas on the East and West coasts, according to an analysis of data by The Wall Street Journal.

As lenders plow through a backlog of over five million delinquent mortgages, short sales are becoming an ever more popular escape route. A short sale is when the bank allows a home to be sold for less than the value of the mortgage. The bank takes the loss, but that loss is generally less than a more costly foreclosure.

Home prices typically are strongest in the summer, the busiest season for home sales, before declining later in the year. But the 5.9% rise far surpasses the 0.4% gain seen through the same period last year and the 2% gain in 2010.