At Century 21 Wolff in White Plains, President Nicholas R. Wolff was pleased last week with his company”™s third-quarter house sales in the Westchester market.
Those results largely came from negotiated unions of “realistic” sellers and buyers who had overcome any fears of seeing their purchased home”™s value decline in what has been widely reported nationally as a continued housing slump, he said.
“We had a very strong August and September,” Wolff said. “We”™ve seen in four out of five of our offices increases in what we did a year ago.” Century 21”™s Yonkers office showed the largest sales increase, he said.
His company”™s third-quarter results reflect a wider trend in the Westchester housing market entering the fourth quarter. Except for sales of multifamily houses, the market appears to be in “a recovery mode,” according to analysts at the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listings Service Inc. in their third-quarter residential real estate sales report. Though Putnam County is six to nine months behind its southern neighbor in that market rebound, Westchester”™s sales volumes and prices by year”™s end could surpass those of 2006, they reported.
That apparent recovery began in the historically strong market of late spring and summer, when properties sold in the third quarter were listed. Though average 30-year conventional mortgage interest rates rose then from about 6.4 percent to 6.8 percent, it was not enough to slow the Westchester market, analysts said. Impressive stock market gains, steady job growth and low unemployment in the lower Hudson Valley aided the positive data, they said.
Third-quarter sales of single-family homes rose 5.5 percent in Westchester from a year ago, with 1,679 sales reported among more than 1,000 real estate offices in the region included in the listing service. Sales of 397 condominiums amounted to only a slight increase of 0.5 percent, while the 562 cooperatives sold amounted to a 2 percent decrease from a year ago.
Sharply offsetting those third-quarter increases, sales of houses with two to four family units dropped more than 43 percent in Westchester from a year ago with 102 houses sold. Multi-family housing sales were at about half of peak levels in 2004 and 2005, indicating investors had shifted from real estate to other investment opportunities, Westchester-Putnam analysts said.
Through the first three quarters of 2007, sales of single-family homes in Westchester were 3.9 percent ahead of last year”™s pace, while condominium sales showed a 1.4 percent increase for the year to date. Co-op sales lagged 2.7 percent behind last year”™s volume through September, while this year”™s sales figure of 351 multifamily houses was nearly one-third less than last year”™s volume at this time.
The third-quarter median sale price of a single-family house in Westchester was $730,000, a 1.9 percent increase from a year ago. Analysts said the increase was partly due to a steady increase in the percentage of high-end sales. The market share of properties selling for $1 million or more has risen from about 21 percent at the start of 2006 to 28 percent in the first two quarters of 2007, they reported.
For condominiums, the third-quarter median sale price of $397,500 was a 3.2 percent increase from a year ago. The median price of a co-op was $198,500, a 1.8 percent increase from a year ago. The median price for a multifamily house decreased by 0.3 percent, to $570,750.
The third-quarter mean sale price for a single-family home in Westchester was $966,987, a 1.8 percent increase from a year ago. Condominiums fetched an average price of $435,308, a 1 percent increase, while the $218,553 average price for a co-op was down 0.3 percent from a year ago. The third-quarter mean price of a multifamily house dropped from $606,663 a year ago to $578,819 this year, a 4.6 percent decrease.
At the end of the third quarter, Westchester”™s sale inventory of single-family houses stood at 3,934, a 7.9 percent drop from a year ago. The stock of co-ops on the market also dropped, with 1,291 listings that amounted to a 4.1 decrease from a year ago.
Condominium inventory stood at 964 at the end of September, a 3 percent increase from a year ago. There were 803 multifamily houses listed at the end of the third quarter, up 4.2 percent from the previous year.
Analysts said prospective sellers who chose to wait out the market for conditions more in their favor largely accounted for Westchester”™s overall end-of-quarter drop in housing inventory of 4.6 percent.
At Century 21 Wolff, Nick Wolff said he thinks “there”™s a lot more inventory on the market” than in previous quarters. “If sellers are realistic, we”™re selling homes,” he said.
With current mortgage interest rates, “There”™s no impediment to buying,” he said. “But buyers are afraid they”™re going to lose money,” influenced by publicity about a housing slump in other parts of the nation that does not reflect the local market. “Some are hesitating and some are a little nervous and on the fence,” he said.
For sellers, “Everywhere the prices are a little soft,” Wolff said. “But people are not losing any money. Sellers have to be realistic. They have to realize there”™s a little more competition today” compared with “the bidding wars” on Westchester homes in the boom market of 2004 and 2005. “They”™ve got to make some adjustments. They”™re not going to get what they got two years ago.
“We find if they”™re being realistic, we can sell in 30 to 60 days,” said Wolff. “If anyone”™s house is on the market for more than 60 days, they”™re not being realistic.
“I think the fourth quarter is going to be about the same pattern. I think we”™ll have a strong end of the year,” he said.
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