REAL ESTATE

Number of home sales up; prices flat: Q2 report

Bill Cary
wcary@lohud.com
The volume of real estate sales is way up, but prices have remained relatively unchanged compared to last year. Here is a home for sale along North Broadway in Upper Nyack.

The Lower Hudson Valley real estate market continues to charge ahead, with the number of second quarter residential sales in Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties outperforming the same period last year by 15 percent, according to a report released Friday. Prices, though, have remained relatively flat.

Realtors participating in the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, reported 3,669 closed residential transactions in the MLS's four-county service territory, 474 more than last year.

This comes on top of the 12 percent first quarter gain from 2014 that the HGAR MLS group reported in April.

Second quarter residential sales outperformed the same period last year by 15 percent. Here, a home for sale along North Broadway in Upper Nyack.

Flat home sales prices

Yes, the volume of sales is way up, but prices have remained relatively unchanged compared to last year. In Westchester, the year-over-year median sales price for a single-family house ticked up 1.4 percent to $660,500.

The median sale price of a single-family home in Rockland was $410,000, just a third of a percentage point above last year. Putnam followed the same pattern, with a 1.6 percent rise, to $289,500.

"It didn't feel like a surge to me," said Leah Caro, president of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service and president and principal broker of Bronxville Real Estate. "Median sale prices and mean sale prices are basically flat. To me, it shows slow, steady growth."

Orange County is leading the charge in sales volume, with a 30 percent increase in the number of year-over-year sales in the second quarter. Putnam had a 12 percent increase, followed closely by Rockland at 11 percent.

Westchester, which accounts for about 60 percent of the four-county sales volume, also had an overall second-quarter increase of 11 percent, including an 8 percent increase in the number of single-family houses sold.

"Overpriced houses are not selling, period," Caro said. "There is some over-exuberance from a seller's standpoint. They see the 'Real estate is surging headlines,' and then overprice their house."

"The ones that are priced well are the ones having multiple offers and bidding wars," she added.

Barry Graziano, branch manager for the Houlihan Lawrence office in Chappaqua, agrees with Caro's analysis. "The buyers are out there, but they're being very selective on what they're moving forward on. They're not just buying to buy — they're buying to fall in love."

He compares the second quarter of this year to 2013, another strong year in Chappaqua, where the number of housing units sold is up 54 percent for April, May and June compared to 2014.

Caro said that she was happy to see that multi-family house sales in Westchester shot up 59 percent in the second quarter. "Those really appeal to first-time home buyers," or to those who can only afford a house if they rent part of it out to another family.

Inventory up in Rockland

The end of quarter inventory of single-family houses in Rockland rose 34 percent, according to the HGAR report, while the inventory in Westchester remained essentially unchanged compared to the same period last year.

"It feels like the inventory is up, but again some of that product is overpriced inventory that's going to sit," Caro said. "The well-priced inventory is really short and really tight."

Pause in the luxury market

Inventory in the $2 million-plus market in Westchester is up by 21 percent. "Demand is particularly weak in the $4 million-plus segment," according to the Second Quarter Market Report by Houlihan Lawrence. "There is plenty of competition, and buyers have a wide selection to choose from."

Mixed bag for condos, co-ops

In the Westchester co-op market, the median sales price dropped 3.3 percent, to $145,000, while the number of sales rose 8.2 percent, according to the HGAR report. Median condo prices in the county dropped 0.5 percent to $362,000, with a 17 increase in the number of sales.

By the numbers

Volume

The volume of sales are up, year over year, according to a report by the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. Here's the breakdown of the increases.

11 percent: Westchester

12 percent: Putnam

11 percent: Rockland

Price

Prices have remained mostly steady, with a median sales price for a single-family house going up 1.4 percent in Westchester; .3 percent in Rockland and 1.6 percent in Putnam. Here's the median price per county.

$660,500: Westchester

$410,000: Rockland

$289,500: Putnam