Report: Residential Real Estate Sales Growth Continues

Statistics for residential real estate sales in Westchester County showed a 13 percent year-over-year increase for the second quarter of 2012, according to the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service.

Realtors participating in the Westchester-Putnam division of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service reported 1,788 closed residential sales in Westchester County, and 177 sales in Putnam County, during the second quarter of 2012.

The local market is a reflection of the uptick in county activity, said a number of brokers including Mark Boyland of Bedford's

"In Lewisboro, Pound Ridge and Bedford, there's an increase in the percentage of homes going to contract—from about 5 percent last year, to 8-10 percent this year," he said. "It's not big enough, but it's a step in the right direction."

That activity is exciting to Diane Tynan, branch manager at in Bedford Village, who said it helps in getting houses sold.

"For a long time there were so few comparison homes, we had appraisal issues," she said. "It's nice to see the energy and confidence in the market."

Tynan also said in Bedford, local sales to date showed incremental year-to-date increases over last year. "Some demand has been created because of the combination of less inventory and lower interest rates," she said. "We're even seeing a few multiple-offer situations, which we haven't seen in a while," she said.

HGAR attributed the fact that there are fewer homes for sale largely to the "reticence of property owners" to enter the housing market under shaky economic conditions.

Overall, the feeling about market conditions is generally optimistic among local brokers.

"This is the best year we've had since 2007," said Nelson Salazar, a real estate professional at . 

"Many of the transactions that were consummated in the spring will be closing in July and August," he said. "The third quarter will be even stronger, and there should be an even stronger year-over-year increase."

By the numbers

• In Westchester, single family house sales led the improvement with a 16.7 percent increase.
• Condo sales were up by 12.8 percent and co-op sales by 7 percent.
• On a seasonally adjusted basis, the second quarter sales in Westchester were equivalent to an annual sales rate of some 6,810 units, an increase of about 2 percent from the prior quarter.
• Taking the first quarter of 2012 into consideration, the likely year-end total if this pace of sales persists will be in the range of 6,700 – 6,900 units in Westchester.

Prices started to level out

HGAR's report shows the second quarter median sale price of a Westchester single family house was $619,000, a slight decrease of 0.6 percent from last year; the $156,250 co-op median was also down slightly and the condominium median of $338,000 was down by 3 percent from a year ago.

The mean (average) sales prices were down by roughly the same percentages; for example, the mean sale price of a Westchester house was $852,636, a decrease of half a percent from last year.

When all the averages track in the same direction together, it often signifies that all price ranges and property types are being affected the same way, in this case, by ever more gradual price reductions that appear close to bottoming out, according to HGAR.

High-end properties, defined as those selling for $1 million or more, amounted to 22.7 percent of all single family house sales in Westchester, nearly the same ratio as was posted during the second quarters of 2011 and 2010, according to today's report.

There were 7,081 residential units listed for sale in the Multiple Listing Service in Westchester at the close of the quarter, 11.5 percent fewer than last year. The closings that are the subject of Monday's report were largely listed and negotiated during the 2011-2012 winter months and early spring. At that time, mortgage interest rates were quite low—in the range of 4.2-4.3 percent for 30-year conventional loans, according to the HGAR report.