Home Sales Continue Rebound; Prices Remain Flat in Lower Hudson Valley

Coops in Westchester and single family houses in Orange County were the most active markets in the lower Hudson Valley in the first quarter of 2016, according to the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service.

According to the new report issued by the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Realtors operating in the four-county lower Hudson region reported 3,391 closed residential transactions during the first three months of 2016, an increase of 530 sales or 18.5 percent from the same period in 2015. The burst of closings largely resulted from market activity that took place during the winter months of 2015 and the first few weeks of 2016.

First quarter closings are not only increasing but are accelerating -- year-to-year increases of 10.8 percent from 2013 to 2014, compared to 12.1 percent from 2014 to 2015, officials said.

However, the sales activity in 2016 was accompanied by relatively flat average prices.

Here are some of the other highlights from the report:

• Westchester County, typically accounting for 50-60 percent of the region’s real estate sales, posted a 14 percent first quarter gain in sales over 2015. Setting aside its relatively small multi-family sector, cooperatives were the best performing sector with a 17.5 percent increase over last year. Condominiums followed at 15.7 percent and single family houses at 11.2 percent. Altogether there were 1,847 sales, an increase of 227 units over last year’s first quarter total.
• Orange County continued its high volume sales activity of the past several years with a remarkable 33 percent increase this past quarter: 822 units in 2016 versus 618 in 2015. The backbone of the Orange County market is its concentration of single family houses in the range of $200,000 to $230,000, a pricing level that is the most affordable in the region.
• Lightly populated Putnam County posted 255 sales, a 30.1 percent gain over last year.
• Rockland posted the lowest overall increase among the four counties, 9.4 percent, although its single family house sector stood out with a respectable 16.6 percent increase over last year.

The region’s supply of for-sale housing continues sufficient to support increasingly high volumes of sales without undue upward pressure on prices. In fact, median and mean sale prices actually decreased year to year in most cases, the report said.

"The lower Hudson Valley real estate market is running smoothly and at high speed," the report said. "That easing of prices probably is one of the major factors driving prospective purchasers to enter a local real estate market where buyers’ and sellers’ expectations are in accord.

"The environment that has enabled this performance has been relatively stable for the past several years. High unemployment, which makes consumers fearful for their own jobs and thus dampens their enthusiasm for acting on their own real estate needs, has steadily dropped to 4.5 percent or lower in all four HGAR counties. Mortgage interest rates remain at historic lows. The recent action of the Federal Reserve to raise its base rate to 25 basis points is not perceived to have any meaningful impact on the real estate market. Volatility in the equity markets could put a damper on enthusiasm for real estate in the short term. So could chaotic post-election government in Washington. But for the time being there is every reason to expect that our local real estate market will do well for at least the next two quarters of 2016."