Westchester Real Estate Closings Jumped by 31% June-August

By the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors

Third quarter residential real estate closings soared by nearly 29% over last year’s counts in the four counties serviced by the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.

The percentage increase was the greatest in Westchester County, at 31%, followed by Rockland (26%), Orange (24%) and Putnam (22%). In most cases the increases among the various property classes brought the sales counts to pre-recession levels. In Westchester, for example, the 1,991 reported closings of single family houses during this third quarter were the most for any quarter since 2005. In all of the counties except Rockland, sales of condominiums and cooperatives outpaced single family houses as a percentage increase over last year. 

The region is beginning to see modest price increases more often than not. In Westchester, the third quarter median sale price - $652,050 – was 3.5% more than last year. The average (mean) sale price of $$862,356, however, was almost 8% higher and signaled the insertion of more high end properties into the sales mix. More than 24% of Westchester’s houses sold for $1 million or more in the third quarter in comparison to a range of 16% to 22% throughout last year.

All the faster paced activity has driven inventory to low but not market-killing amounts. New listings just haven’t been keeping pace with sales. In Westchester at the end of the quarter, inventory was down 11% from last year.

The supporting framework for continued recovery in our region’s real estate market includes mortgage interest rates that have remained at relatively low levels. The average rate on a conventional 30-year mortgage was less than 4% during much of the period that generated the third quarter sales. Rates are now hovering around 4.6%-4.8%, still very attractive. Of course that could all change if the current political dysfunction in Washington causes a debt crisis. Actions of the Federal Reserve could also drive rates up, but for now the interest rates are stable and affordable.  

Also supporting the real estate market is the steady though painfully slow improvement in the rate of unemployment. All four counties in the MLS region have experienced a decline in the unemployment rate in the past year. The most recent rates available from the N.Y.S. Department of Labor are 5.8% for Putnam, 6.0% for Rockland, 6.3% for Westchester, and 7.3% for Orange – all at least one percentage point less than last year, and all lower than the national and state rates.  

The third quarter data largely reflect closings that followed upon listing and marketing activity in the spring and early summer months. There was, and remains, a great deal of pent up demand since the 2008 recession and its greatest impact on our local real estate market in 2010. It appears there is enough demand to continue to power the market going forward as long as there is no national self inflicted economic convulsion.