Hudson Valley Home Prices Up: New Report

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — The constricting supply of housing in the lower Hudson region served by the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service, Inc. has brought about some long-expected price increases, the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors reports. The price bump was seen in the second quarter of 2017 in most areas and in most property types.

For example, in Westchester, the second quarter median sale price of a single-family house was $670,000, an increase of $20,000 or 3.1 percent over last year`s level. Westchester condominiums and cooperatives also enjoyed median price increases of 5.3 percent and 3.9 percent respectively.

The mean sale price of $900,000 was 7.0 percent more than last year, indicating that the high-end sector may be reinserting itself into the sales mix, HGAR officials said.

Orange County, long characterized by high sales volumes but flat prices, posted a second quarter single-family median price of $235,000, an increase of 5.6 percent from last year. Rockland County’s median price at $441,387 represented a 2.6 percent increase, and Putnam County’s median price at $345,000 was a significant 9.9 percent increase over last year.

Prospective homebuyers were operating in a market that has seen tremendous reductions in the supply of for-sale housing over the past four years, HGAR officials said.

At the end of 2014 there were 12,153 active listings posted with HGMLS in all its service territory and among all of its property types – single-family houses, condominiums, cooperatives, and 2-4 multi-family units.

By the close of the second quarter of 2017 that number has plunged by more than 3,440 units to 8,713 or 28.3 percent fewer active listings. The double-digit percentage rate of shrinking inventory is continuing as new listings barely make up for high rates of sale.

The real estate experts concluded:

There appear to be no obstacles to a continuation of a healthy Hudson Valley real estate market except for the shortage of inventory which may inevitably drive prices higher or may diminish the volume of sales, or both. Those are the internal machinery of the market; we do not have negative external factors right now that are threatening. Some external factors in good standing with real estate include low mortgage interest rates, low unemployment, good job growth, and reasonable and well-paced increases in the Federal Reserve rates. Some negative factors include possible changes to the tax code affecting real estate, and chaotic governance that causes consumers, i.e., prospective homebuyers, to lose confidence in executing their homebuying intentions. Overall this report points to a thriving four-county housing market.