Encouraging real estate market signs seen in Douglas Elliman report

Scott Elwell, senior executive regional manager of Westchester and New England at the brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate, is encouraged by what he sees in today’s newly released report covering Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess sales for the third quarter of 2019.

“While the report showed a decline in sales in Westchester County, it was largely within the co-op market and we actually saw an increase in single-family contracts and pricing trends on the rise,” Elwell said.
“The news from across the region this quarter is encouraging with the sharp decline in mortgage rates helping to mitigate some of the uncertainty in the market following the SALT tax nearly two years ago.”

SALT refers to the change in the federal tax law passed under the Trump administration when the Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, which capped the deductibility of state and local taxes from federal tax returns at $10,000.

The brokerage noted that the report showed sales of single-family homes in Westchester rose 1.1% to 1,924 for the third quarter of 2019. The median sale price increased 3.6% to $699,000. The number of condominiums sold increased 3.8% to 414 units, while the median sale price went up 1.7% to $399,750. Co-op sales took somewhat of a hit, dropping 15.8% in the Elliman report to 454 units sold. Moderating the result was a 5.7% increase in the median sale price for co-ops to $180,000.

The market for two- to four-family houses was bright, with the number of sales up by 10.6% to 177 and the median sale price up 3.8% to $545,000.

The report, prepared by Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel Inc., showed that the luxury market in Westchester for single-family houses in the third quarter of 2019, which it defined as the upper 10% of the market, began at a threshold of $1,637,500, up 2.3% from the same period a year ago.

In Putnam County, the report combined statistics covering single-family houses and condominium sales.  The median sale price for those properties went up 3.5% to $361,000. In Dutchess County, the combined single-family and condominium median sale price was the same in the third quarter of 2019 as it was in the same period for 2018: $320,000.

Elliman reported that the average price for a single-family house in Westchester”™s Rivertowns area in the third quarter of 2019 was $774,262, up from $738,435 during the same period last year. In White Plains and vicinity, the average sale price was up only slightly at $1,439,434, compared with 1,428,646 in last year”™s third quarter. The Sound Shore area produced an average sale price of $656,368 in the third quarter, compared with $652,753 for the third quarter of 2018.