In a statewide slowdown in the single-family housing market in 2007, Westchester County fared better than most counties with declining sales for the year and saw a modest increase in its median sale price, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.
In the first month of 2008, though, Westchester”™s sluggish housing sales were more in line with the sharp statewide slump that saw January sales of single-family homes drop by more than 25 percent from the previous December and nearly 24 percent from January 2007. In Westchester, January housing sales dropped 20.9 percent from the previous month and, exceeding the statewide average decline, dipped 29.4 percent from January 2007.
Realtors attributed the January decline to the traditionally slow winter housing market combined with tighter mortgage lending practices. “New York State like most of the nation is feeling the credit pinch caused by the fallout from the subprime market,” said New York State Association of Realtors CEO Duncan R. MacKenzie.
Both in Westchester and statewide, the median sales price of a single-family home rose in January from the previous month in contrast to the slump in sales volume. In Westchester, the January median of $642,500 was up 5.3 percent from December and a 4.5 percent increase from January 2007.
Statewide, 27 of 58 counties included in the housing survey reported gains in median sales prices compared to January 2007 and 23 showed price gains this January compared to the previous month. The statewide median sales price of $233,000 in January was up 5.9 percent from December but was down 21 percent from the January 2007 median.
For all of 2007, Westchester”™s median sales price of $685,000 for an existing single-family home was a 2.2 percent increase from 2006 and by far the highest median price in the state. Queens County, with a median sales price last year of $580,000, was next highest, followed by Suffolk County, where the $410,000 annual median was unchanged from 2006, and Putnam County, where the 2007 median of $400,000 was a 2.4 percent drop from 2006.
The statewide median sales price of $237,000 in 2007 was a 4.4 percent decrease from 2006.
Statewide sales of existing single-family homes in 2007 fell below the 100,000 mark for the first time since 2003 and dipped 8.5 percent from 2006. Still, as the state Realtors group noted, the number of sales reported in the state last year, 92,635, was the sixth highest on record.
In Westchester County, 5,119 existing single-family homes were sold in 2007, down .9 percent from 2006. Last year”™s sales volume was down 15 percent from the housing boom year of 2005. Six upstate counties were the only local markets that had increased home sales in 2007 compared to the previous year. Rural Montgomery County in the Mohawk Valley, where 310 homes were sold last year, led the state with a 15.2 percent annual increase, followed by Jefferson County, home to Fort Drum and the Army”™s expanded 10th Mountain Division, with a 12.5 percent increase in home sales last year.
