House prices and listings rise in Westchester County
The third-quarter median sale price for single-family homes rose along with the inventory of homes on the market in Westchester County, though the volume of closed sales in the recently ended quarter was down nearly 3 percent from a year ago, according to the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.
In the four-county region serviced by the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, 4,545Â housing units ”“ including single-family, condominiums, cooperatives and two-to-four-family houses ”“ were sold in the third quarter, down 1.9 Â percent from the third quarter of 2013. Total housing sales in Westchester dropped 2.7 percent for the quarter, and sales of single-family homes were down 2.8 percent in the county.
Market analyst P. Gilbert Mercurio, former Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors CEO, in HGAR”™s quarterly report said the sales pace from July through September “was just a shade slower than it was in 2013 when there was a very strong post-recession recovery underway.” The regional residential market ”“ including Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties ”“ is on pace to end 2014 with total sales of about 13,300, the second best year for sales since 2008, according to the report. Total sales in the region through the first nine months of this year amounted to 10,180 units, a 3.5 percent decrease from 2013.
In Westchester, 1,935 single-family houses were sold in the third quarter this year, 56 fewer homes changing owners than in the third quarter last year. But the county”™s quarterly median sale price of $682,500 for a single-family house was 4.7 percent higher than a year ago and the highest third-quarter level since 2011.
The average third-quarter sale price of $914,059 for a single-family house in Westchester was a 6 percent increase from 2013.
In the next-highest-priced county in the region, Rockland, the third-quarter median sale price of a single-family house was $415,000, up 2 percent from last year. The average sale price for a single-family home in Rockland was $439,666, down 4.1 percent from the third quarter in 2013. In Putnam County, third-quarter sales volume rose 3.1 percent from a year ago, the only quarterly increase in house closings in the region. Putnam”™s median sale price of $320,000 for the quarter was down 3.8 percent from 2013. The average price of a single-family house in Putnam County was $251,723, a 4 percent drop from 2013.
In Westchester, the third-quarter median price of a condominium rose 5.5 percent to $375,000. That midmarket price rise came in a quarter in which condo listings with the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service increased 13 percent from last year. A total of 330 condos were sold in Westchester in the third quarter, down 11.3 percent from last year.
The multiple listing service ended the third quarter with 12,359 housing units on the market throughout the region, an 9.5 percent increase from a year ago, according to the HGAR report. In Westchester, the 3,618 single-family houses listed at the start of October amounted to an 8.7 percent increase from last year”™s quarterly inventory. The county”™s condo inventory was up 13 percent from a year ago.
Mercurio in the report noted the increased sales inventory “may actually reflect consumer confidence in the real estate market by previously reticent potential sellers who, observing a healthy market around them, become motivated to list their property.”
The HGAR analyst said the third-quarter market was driven by “ample but not excessive inventory, steady but bubble-free price increases, low mortgage interest rates and overall improving economic conditions.”