Hot Real Estate Market in Rockland

ROCKLAND COUNTY, NY — The constricting supply of housing in Rockland County has brought about some long-expected price increases, according to a report about the 2nd quarter of 2017 from the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. The price bump was seen in the second quarter of 2017 in most property types, with the highest jump in multi-family houses. The number of sales also increased, with condos far outpacing all other housing sectors in the county.

Prospective homebuyers were operating in a market that has seen reductions in the supply of for-sale housing over the past four years. As of the end of the second quarter of 2017, the Rockland inventory was 1,358 homes for sale. At the end of June in 2015, there were 1,836 residential properties for sale.

The median sale price for 2-4 family homes jumped 18 percent over last year, to $339,000. For single family homes, Rockland County’s median price at $441,387 represented a 2.6 percent increase from the second quarter of 2016. The median condo sale price went up 3.3 percent to $216,900. Cooperative prices declined sharply however, by 13 percent.

While Rockland County had a fair 3.8 percent increase in single family sales, its best second-quarter achievement was in its condominium sector where it posted a 33.6 percent increase in sales. There were 25 sales of 2-4 family houses in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 14 in the second quarter of 2016. There were 19 sales of co-ops, compared to 23 sales at that time last year.

Realtors participating in HGMLS, a subsidiary of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Inc., reported a grand total of 705 closed residential transactions in Rockland during the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 9.8 percent from last year.

The double-digit percentage rate of shrinking inventory is continuing as new listings barely make up for high rates of sale, HGAR officials said. In Rockland:

With the inventory in all four sectors down, real estate officials said, "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."