The lower Hudson Valley’s residential real estate market continues to show good health and “sustainability” through the first half of 2015, with housing sales in the four-county region up more than 12 percent in volume from the first half of last year, according to market analysts at the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.
Second-quarter property sales were up nearly 15 percent from the second quarter of 2014 in Westchester, Putnam and Orange counties, where 3,669 residential deals closed from April through June, 474 more than last year.
The strong second quarter followed an active first quarter for the region’s housing market, when sales jumped 12.1 percent from last year’s first quarter.
Through the first half of the year, brokers with the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service reported 6,460 sales of single-family houses, condominiums, cooperatives and two- to four-family buildings.
Westchester County brokers closed 2,183 sales in the second quarter, an 11.4 percent increase from the same period last year, and accounted for about 60 percent of the region’s total real estate sales for the quarter.
Sales of single-family homes in Westchester were up 8.4 percent from the second quarter of 2014. The county’s strong condominium market recorded 311 second-quarter sales, a nearly 17 percent increase from the previous year. The 116 multifamily buildings sold amounted to a nearly 59 percent jump from a year ago.
Westchester single-family homes again far outpaced neighboring counties in sale prices, with the second-quarter median price of $660,500 representing a 1.4 percent rise from the second quarter of 2014. By comparison, the second-quarter median price of a single-family home was $410,000 in Rockland County, $289,500 in Putnam County and $209,950 in Orange County.
In Westchester, a single-family home fetched a mean or average sale price of $866,707 in the second quarter, an increase of less than 1 percent from the same quarter last year. Analysts at the Hudson Gateway Association said the county’s median and mean prices together “suggests that the Westchester market was in balance as to a smooth distribution across the pricing spectrum.”
The region’s second-quarter sales surge was led by the Orange County market, where the 742 housing units sold in the three-month span marked a more than 30 percent increase in sales volume from 2014.
HGAR analysts noted the Orange County market for several years has been driven by “an abundance of moderately priced properties.” The county’s second-quarter median sale price for a single-family house was down nearly 10 percent from a year earlier, while the mean sale price of a house fell more than 8 percent.
HGAR analysts noted that housing inventory in Orange County has stayed roughly proportional to the rate of sales, “indicating a balanced market with ample choices for prospective purchasers.”
At Houlihan Lawrence, a leading brokerage in the lower Hudson Valley’s luxury homes market, brokers have seen a 21 percent jump in Westchester’s inventory of homes priced at more than $2 million. Pending sales in the luxury market have declined 8 percent, Houlihan Lawrence reported in its recent second-quarter report.
Brothers Stephen Meyers, president and CEO of Houlihan Lawrence in Rye Brook, and Chris Meyers, the company’s managing principal, in their second-quarter executive summary said demand from buyers is especially weak in the $4 million-plus segment of the market. “There is plenty of competition, and buyers have a wide selection to choose from,” they wrote. “It may be time for sellers to re-think the value proposition offered by their property.”
At the other end of the Westchester market, demand is surging for starter homes, with many communities seeing double-digit increases in sales levels for homes priced below $500,000, according to Houlihan Lawrence.
And homes sold at prices closer to their asking price in the second quarter than they did a year ago in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, according to the Meyers brothers.
They noted the market could see higher mortgage rates, which in recent years have stayed at historic lows, as soon as September. A rise in rates “gives an edge to well-positioned homes that are marketed correctly,” they wrote. “They will find the right buyers, who are motivated to lock in sooner rather than later, and beat the clock on rate hikes.”
The principals at Houlihan Lawrence see new prospects for Westchester’s real estate market in the millennial generation of 18- to 34-year-olds. “New people are looking to put down roots and finally have the resources to be serious buyers,” they said.
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