Westchester real estate sales down in first quarter

Westchester Real Estate Inc., a consortium of independent real estate brokerages serving Westchester and Putnam counties as well as New York City, has issued a report on activity in Westchester during the first quarter of 2019. Its conclusion: the luxury market lags behind other segments.

“Significant price drops are prevalent and buyers are few. Those high-end properties that are selling are the ones where the price drop is sizeable enough to make buyers think they MUST make an offer,” the report says.

Overall sales were down 3% for the first quarter, with 1,841 properties changing hands versus 1,897 in the same period last year. Single-family home sales dropped 5%, condos were down 1.5% and co-ops were down 1.3%.

The report said overall inventory was up 4.3% compared with the first quarter of 2018, but the co-op segment showed a 20% drop in inventory. Single-family inventory rose 6.9%, the number of condos on the market was up by 10% and multi-family inventory rose by 18%.

On average, single-family homes sold for 97.6% of the listing price in the first quarter of 2019, according to the report. The median single-family home price was down from $611,250 in the first quarter of 2018 to $604,900 this year. The median sale price for co-ops was up by 9.7% at $170,000 from $155,000 a year ago, condos were up 2.5% at $360,000 compared with $351,250 and the multi-family median price was up by 14.1% at $535,000 compared with $468,750 for the first quarter of 2018.

In Scarsdale, the median sale price of a single-family home in the first quarter of 2019 was $1,125,000, down 29.71% from 2018”™s first quarter. In Somers, the median sale price was $505,000, up 29.2% from the first quarter of last year. White Plains showed a 5.72% drop in the single-family median sale price as opposed to Yonkers which showed a 2.71% increase, Port Chester with a 22.87% gain and Peekskill with an 18.42% increase. The median price for single-family homes with a Purchase address was up a whopping 66.13% at $1,797,500.

Single-family homes were on the market an average of 88 days during the first quarter of 2019, the same as the comparable period last year. Condos averaged 81 days, compared with 79 in the first quarter of 2018. Co-ops posted 79 days on the market versus 92 in the first quarter of 2018. Multi-family homes averaged 69 days on the market in the first quarter of this year, compared with 84 days during 2018”™s first quarter.

The report predicted that mortgage rates would remain in the same range as they are now for the foreseeable future due to the Federal Reserve Bank suggesting no need for short-term interest-rate hikes. The report noted that after coming close to 5% toward the end of 2018, mortgage rates have been holding in the 4.125% to 4.25% range.