Sales of single-family homes in Westchester County rose more than 19 percent in the first quarter from a year ago and house prices in the county kept pace with surging sales, the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors reported today.
Realtors in the four-county Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service reported 925 closings on single-family homes in Westchester in the first three months of 2014, up from 775 sales in the first quarter of 2013.
For the first time since the Great Recession, the median or midpoint sale price of a single-family home in Westchester climbed back to the $600,000 level, a 16.5 percent increase from the median price in the county market a year ago.
With activity in the county”™s high-end residential market returning to pre-recession levels, the average price of a single-family house was $849,102 in the first quarter, a 19.5 percent increase from the first three months of 2013. Properties priced at $1 million or more made up 23 percent of this year”™s first-quarter house sales, compared with a 16 percent share in 2013.
At the start of April, 2,981 single-family houses were listed for sale in the Westchester market, down 3.2 percent from a year ago. Overall, 5,255 residential properties were on the market at the start of this month, a 2.6 percent decline from brokers”™ sales inventory in April 2013.
The county”™s overall residential market ”“ which also includes condominiums, cooperatives and two-family to four-family buildings ”“ totaled 1,526 closings in the recently ended quarter, a 13.8 percent increase from the previous year.
Quarterly sales of co-op apartments in Westchester jumped 21 percent from 2013, with brokers reporting 340 deals closed.
With the surge in single-family house and co-op sales, demand for condos has dropped in the county. Brokers reported 178 first-quarter condo sales in Westchester, a 15.2 percent decline from the first quarter of 2013.
Realtors reported 83 first-quarter sales of two- to four-family residences, a 10.7 percent increase from the same quarter in 2013.
Westchester accounts for about 60 percent of housing sales in the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service”™s core region, which includes Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties. Realtors in the four-county region reported 2,552 closed deals in the first quarter, a 10.8 percent increase in sales volume from a year ago.
