Housing sales up, prices largely stable in Westchester and region
Westchester County”™s residential market saw stepped-up activity for all housing types at the start of this year, as total sales for the first quarter rose 14 percent from a year ago, the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors reported.
An increase in buyers closing on homes in the county ”“ 1,847 in the first quarter, up from 1,620 in 2015  ̶  did not drive up sale prices here except for cooperatives, whose median price of $148,250 was up nearly 10 percent from a year ago. Sales of co-ops, an increasingly popular choice of Westchester homebuyers in recent years, were up 17.5 percent from the first quarter of 2015 with 402 units sold, according to Hudson Gateway.
The median price of a single-family home dropped 5 percent in the first quarter to $569,950, down from $600,000 in the first quarter of both 2014 and 2015. The 1,020 single-family homes sold in the first three months this year amounted to an approximately 11 percent increase in sales volume from a year ago.
First-quarter condominium sales in the county rose nearly 16 percent from a year ago with 280 condos sold. The median or midlevel sale price of a condo, $335,750, was virtually unchanged from the first quarter of 2015.
The county”™s smaller market for two- to four-family properties had the highest percentage increase in first-quarter closings, with the 145 buildings sold amounting to a nearly 22 percent increase from the same period last year. The median sale price for a two- to four-family building was almost unchanged from a year ago at $408,000.
Realtors in the region covered by the Hudson Gateway association ”“ Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties  ̶  reported a total of 3,391 closed deals in the first quarter, an 18.5 percent increase from the first quarter of 2015.
Orange County saw a 33 percent increase in first-quarter sales volume from a year ago with 822 units sold. That overall percentage increase was matched in the county”™s single-family housing sector, where 681 homes were sold from January through March.
Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors CEO Richard Haggerty in the first-quarter sales report said the “backbone” of the Orange County market is its inventory of single-family homes listed at $200,000 to $230,000, “a pricing level that is the most affordable in the region.” The county”™s median sale price in the first quarter rose slightly more than 2 percent to $215,000 and its mean or average sale price rose at nearly the same modest rate to $231,170.
By comparison, the average first-quarter sale price of a single-family home in Westchester was $768,767, down nearly 7 percent from a year ago.
Homeowners in Westchester County had 4,856 residences listed on the market at the end of the third quarter, a 3.2 percent increase in inventory from the same period last year. Inventory shrank in all sectors in the county except for single-family homes, 3,105 of which were for sale at the start of April, up more than 13 percent from a year ago.
Inventory in Westchester”™s co-op market dropped nearly 11 percent, with 950 units listed at the end of the first quarter. The county”™s dwindled stock of two- to four-family properties, with 292 listed for sale, was down 23 percent from this time last year.
Real estate consultant and appraiser Jonathan J. Miller, in his quarterly Westchester report prepared for Douglas Elliman Real Estate, said the 3,814 residences listed on the market at the start of this year was the second-lowest level for a first quarter in 11 years in the county. That inventory by the close of the first quarter rose 27 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015, he reported.
Miller in the Elliman Report said prices of Westchester luxury homes ̶ the upper 10 percent of single-family home sales ̶ “continue to remain soft.” The average price of a luxury home was $2,365,910 in the first quarter, down more than 3 percent from the first quarter of 2015. The price threshold in Westchester for inclusion in that luxury category dropped to $1.4 million in the first quarter, down from $1.6 million a year ago, according to Miller.
The decline in luxury-home prices could be due in part to a surge in listings of high-end properties. There were 915 houses listed in the luxury category at the end of the first quarter, up from 586 listings in the first quarter of 2015 and 623 listings at the end of last year, Douglas Elliman Real Estate reported.
At Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Haggerty said the four-county market “is running smoothly and at high speed. The supply of housing seems adequate to support the high volume of sales. Price increases are not outpacing inflation and are falling back in some areas and among some property types. That easing of prices probably is one of the major factors driving prospective purchasers to enter a local real estate market where buyers”™ and sellers”™ expectations are in accord.”