Local real estate giant Houlihan Lawrence has released their 2017 Luxury Market Report, revealing that sales of luxury homes — those with a selling price of $2 million or higher — hit a ten-year high in Westchester County.
Over 350 homes were sold in that price range, nearly a 5 percent increase from 2016. Those homes then sold for an average of $2.6 million, about a $40,000 increase over that same period. Total sales, however, surpassed $1 billion after a 6.2 percent increase from 2016. Homes specifically priced $3 million to $4.9 million saw the largest increase of 16 percent (93 homes sold in the past twelve months), while sales of homes over $5 million remained fairly steady.
The top market by sales volume was, somewhat unsurprisingly, Scarsdale, with Rye City a close second and Mamaroneck a distant third.
Trends for the year, according to Houlihan Lawrence’s top agent since 2014 for all ranges of single-family homes, Pollena Forsman, included sleek and modern design, renovated and updated spaces, open floor plans, and larger properties amenable to development.
In speculating on the coming 2018 market, Senior Vice President and Head of Private Brokerage Division Anthony Cutugno says changes to the tax code should result in two distinct trends:
Corporate tax cuts, he says, “[are] forecasted to help fuel the bull market yet another year.”
Meanwhile, “For homeowners, tax reform reduces the amount of property tax that can be deducted, increasing the after-tax cost of homeownership. Buyers’ purchasing power is reduced as well, and the impact is greatest in the luxury market — higher home values equate to a larger reduction in purchasing power. We anticipate that declining purchasing power will exert pricing pressure on luxury inventory to offset the new math of tax reform.”
In other words, average selling price on many of these multi-million-dollar estates may well see noticeable reductions come next year’s report.