Home Sales Slowed In 2017: Hudson Gateway Real Estate Report

Residential real estate sales in Orange, Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties grew by 4 percent in 2017, according to the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Inc.. That's a lot slower than the 12.5 percent growth reported in 2016.

HGAR officials said there could be two reasons for the decline: sales reaching a more sustainable level or hampered by increasingly lower inventory levels.

The statistics were released by HGAR in its 2017 Annual And Fourth Quarter Real Estate Report for Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties.

A trend across the 4-county region looks to continue in 2018, officials said: Multi-family housing (2-4 family homes) actually showed significant strength in all counties with increases in sales of 31.3 percent in Rockland, 16.8 percent in Orange, 9.7 percent in Westchester and 4.3 percent in Putnam.

For the second year in a row, Orange County posted the highest sales gain as well as the most significant gain in median sales price. Sales of single-family residential units, by far the housing of choice in Orange County, went from 3,485 units in 2016 to 3,818 in 2017, a jump of 9.6 percent.

But Orange County is still a bargain compared to 10 years ago. The median cost of a single-family home increased by 6.2 percent to $243,250 from $229,000 in 2016. That's still far below the median price before the housing recession, which was $322,500 in 2007.

Rockland, the second best performing county, experienced a bump of 5.5 percent in single-family residential sales for the year, from 2,050 in 2016 to 2,163 in 2017 while also experiencing an increase in the median sales price of 3.5 percent to $440,000.

The strongest housing sector in Westchester County was in cooperative housing. Co-op sales rose 7.9 percent over 2016.

Bucking the trend, Putnam County experienced a 6.8 percent drop in sales of single-family houses.

"The only immediate cloud on the horizon appears to be the low inventory levels being experienced in the entire market area. At year-end, inventory for Westchester was down 12.1%, Putnam was down 11.9%, Rockland down 17.9%, and Orange down 20.3%," officials said.

However, they singled out tax reform as an unknown factor, given the new $10,000 cap on deductions for property and state and local income taxes.

TABLE/ HGAR