A first-quarter rise in housing sales in Westchester and the lower Hudson Valley region has reduced the inventory of listed homes here, although sale prices in Westchester have shown little change except in the luxury homes market.
The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors reported 2,861 housing sales closed in the recently ended first quarter, a 12.1 percent increase from the first quarter of 2014. The association”™s Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service tracks member brokers”™ sales of single-family homes, condominiums, cooperative apartments and two- to four-unit multifamily buildings in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties.
In Westchester, there were 1,620 first-quarter sales across all housing categories, a 6.2 percent increase from a year ago. The increased activity in the county was driven by closings on condos, which rose 36 percent from a year ago with 242 sales, and demand for two-family to four-family homes, which saw a 43 percent year-to-year increase with 119 sales in the region.
Despite the rising demand in Westchester for condos, the median sale price for condos in the county dropped slightly from a year ago to $335,000. The first-quarter median sale price for a two- to four-family house rose 5.9 percent to $410,000.
Sales of single-family houses in Westchester were down about 1 percent from the first quarter of 2014. The median sale price of a single-family home in the county was unchanged from a year ago at $600,000.
- Chart courtesy Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors
The Elliman Report, Douglas Elliman Real Estate”™s quarterly market analysis, said Westchester”™s median sale price for a luxury home ”“ one priced in the upper 10 percent of all single-family house sales ”“ rose 5.4 percent from last year to $2,386,625. The Westchester market”™s luxury price threshold slipped 1.4 percent in the first quarter to $1,600,000, Elliman reported.
Though fewer in number than the Westchester market, housing sales in the rest of the four-county region were marked by double-digit increases in the first quarter.
In Putnam County, 196 sales across all housing types represented a nearly 30 percent increase from a year ago. In Orange County, 618 sales were closed in the quarter, a nearly 24 percent increase. In Rockland, sales rose 13.6 percent, with 427 sales closed.
Market analysts said the brisk market activity has been felt in the region”™s inventory of house listings. The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors (HGAR) reported a 6.4 percent decrease in listings for the entire region, where 9,962 units were on the market at the close of the first quarter.
Westchester had the steepest drop in inventory, with 4,706 housing units listed at the start of April, down more than 10 percent from a year ago. Listings for single-family homes in the county were down 8 percent.
The lower inventory, however, did not drive up sale prices in the first quarter, analysts noted.
Fierce winter weather might have discouraged potential sellers from listing their properties, according to analysts at HGAR and Westchester Real Estate Inc. And sellers also might have been “more cautious about interpreting the economic environment” when deciding whether to list their homes and enter the market for a new home, HGAR”™s analyst said.
Westchester Real Estate Inc., a consortium of independent real estate firms based in Eastchester, noted that buyer demand for housing is reportedly twice as high as the same time last year. But the brokers group cautioned sellers not to be “unrealistic” when pricing their homes.
“Homes that are selling are well-priced, not overpriced, and are prepped to present favorably to buyers,” the consortium”™s analyst said.
Despite buyers”™ and sellers”™ “nervousness” about committing to the housing market, said HGAR”™s analyst, the lower Hudson Valley market “has made a good start for 2015 with high sales volume, stable prices and adequate if not ample inventory.”
