Low mortgage rates and first-time buyers spurred by the federal stimulus tax credit drove second-quarter house sales volume in Westchester to levels not topped since 2007. Putnam County too saw a second-quarter rise in sales of existing homes.
In Westchester, the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service Inc. reported 2,073 closed sales in the second quarter, a 69 percent jump from “exceptionally low” sales numbers in the second quarter of 2009. Putnam County had a nearly 40 percent year-to-year increase in second-quarter residential sales volume.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, total second-quarter sales in Westchester ran at a rate of about 8,200 units per year, a 20 percent increase from the first-quarter rate. Seasonally adjusted sales for the quarter were up 74 percent from the second quarter of 2009 and up nearly 18 percent from the same period in 2008.
The median sale price for a single-family house in Westchester was $607,500 in the second quarter, up nearly 8 percent from the second quarter last year. The listing service said nearly half of that increase was due to a reviving market for high-end houses priced at $1 million and more, which accounted for 20 percent of all second-quarter house sales.
Excluding those high-end properties, the median sale price of a Westchester house was $530,000 in the second quarter, a 4 percent year-to-year increase.
In his market analysis for the listing service, Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors CEO P. Gilbert Mercurio said the federal tax credit for first-time home buyers was an important factor though not the only one in the quarterly sales surge, spurring buyers to sign contracts before an initial April 30 deadline and close on deals by June 30. He said Congress”™ recent deadline extension on closings to Sept. 30 had little to no effect on purchase deals in progress in the second quarter.
The condominium and co-op markets, most affordable for first-time buyers in Westchester, had year-to-year sales increases of 83 percent and 72 percent, respectively. That activity was buoyed by a 6 percent drop in the second-quarter median sale price of a condo, to $352,250, and a 5 percent drop in the median price for a co-op unit, to $169,500.
Few Realtors, however, reported house sales that needed the stimulus tax credit to be viable, Mercurio said. “Rather, the overwhelming message from the field is that prospective purchasers were out in force for a variety of reasons and the tax credit served to amplify their readiness to buy and to accelerate their timing for doing so,” he said.
Buyers also were driven into the market by interest rates that have dropped below 5 percent on 30-year conventional loans and down to nearly 4 percent on adjustable-rate products.
Mercurio said both the Westchester and Putnam housing markets have been spared the negative effects of rampant foreclosures on inventory and property values. In Westchester, foreclosure judgments averaged 62 per month through the first half of this year and foreclosure filings at the county clerk”™s office were down 27 percent from peak numbers in the second half of 2009.
The second-quarter sales activity suggests a “jump start” and “intrinsic recovery” for the region”™s housing market, Mercurio said in the report.
