In what was the best year for residential real estate since 2007, home sales in the lower Hudson Valley region increased 20 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to a new report.
Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors Inc., said a total of 13,761 residential sales were closed in 2013 in Westchester, Orange, Putnam and Rockland counties. Orange saw the largest increase in sales at 23 percent, with Westchester, Putnam and Rockland seeing 21 percent, 17 percent and 14 percent increases, respectively.
The numbers were the second year in a row of improvement, which Hudson Gateway said was evidence of continued recovery from the recession”™s low-water marks in real estate sales from 2008 and 2009. And even though sales cooled off in the fourth quarter of 2013, the numbers still marked a 16 percent improvement from 2012”™s fourth quarter, the report said.
With the increased sales, prices have slightly risen in some areas. In Westchester, the median sales price increased 3.9 percent, according to the report, from $587,000 in 2012 to $610,000 in 2013. But the average home sale price increased only 1.4 percent, which Hudson Gateway attributed to a steady pace in high-end real estate sales.
Putnam”™s median sales price grew to $308,500, a 2.8 percent increase, while Rockland”™s 2013 median was $390,000, a 2.6 percent increase over 2012. Orange County, though, saw a decrease in median sales prices from $240,000 in 2012 to $235,000 in 2013. According to the report, the decreases began in 2007 and may have several causes.
“One of them is that Orange is a growth county that has long hosted significant new development, but with new housing generally costing more than existing stock,” the report said, “a recession-generated reduction in new development would have the effect of lowering average prices for the county as a whole.” Orange is seeing some urban redevelopment projects that led to vacated properties sold at “bargain basement prices,” the report said, which could have reduced the average. Nearly 10 percent of home sales in Orange were below market of $99,000.
“Whatever the causes, Orange County”™s affordable housing stock appears to be driving the best performance in the region as to sales volumes,” the report said.
Inventory in the region decreased for the second straight year. A total of 8,942 residential units were available in the region by the end of 2013, which was 7.1 percent fewer than 2012.
Some real estate organizations noted a slowdown in the market in 2013, but slight growth is expected in 2014, according to Hudson Gateway. Mortgage rates steadily below 5 percent mean a sustained market even after expected increases in the interest rate. An overall improvement in the economy also could be an outside factor to improved sales, the report said, with unemployment down in all four lower Hudson counties from 2012. Westchester”™s unemployment rate was 5.5 percent for 2013, Rockland”™s was 5.3 percent, Putnam”™s was 5 percent and Orange had a 6.3 percent unemployment rate.
