Westchester County Business News (11/5)
Q3 Real Estate Numbers Paint Mixed Picture
The Q3 market reports from Westchester County’s leading real estate firms show interesting trends in both the residential and commercial real estate markets.
“New York City’s northern suburbs continued to exhibit the same pattern in Q3 which prevailed during the first half of 2014 – with modest declines in home sales offset by moderate gains in home prices. The market is leveling off following strong growth in 2012-2013, which returned us to historically normal levels of home
sales activity,” explains Houlihan Lawrence’s market report. The report shows that 1,955 single-family homes sold in Westchester in Q3 2014, down 2.4 percent from 2013. The median single-family home price in Westchester rose about 5 percent to $680,000 in Q3, while the average home price increased nearly 7 percent to about $917,000. While the number of homes for sale increased modestly, inventories remain quite low by historic standards, contributing to the slowdown in home sales, notes the report. This lack of inventory is reflected in the bidding wars that continue to be prevalent across many communities, especially in southern Westchester. Interestingly, the single-family luxury market (defined as the top 10 percent of all sales) increased 5.4 percent to $2,300,000 from the prior year quarter, according to Douglas Elliman’s Q3 report for Westchester and Putnam counties. “The entry threshold for the luxury market increased 7.5% to $1,680,000, marking the highest level achieved in three years. Consistent with the gains of the luxury market, larger single-family sales showed higher price gains than entry-level sales,” the report notes.