Third Quarter Home Sales Climb 34 Percent In Greenburgh

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, N.Y. -- Real estate sales painted a positive picture for Westchester County during an unusually busy third quarter.

Single family home sales increased by 5.7 percent in the third quarter in Westchester County compared to the same time period last year.
Photo Credit: *File*

Tom Renner

10/15/2015 6:00 a.m.

Total closed sales rose 5.7 percent for single family homes in Westchester County compared to the third quarter last year, with the median selling price climbing 2.4 percent according to the report from Better Homes & Gardens Rand Realty. Condominium sales shot up 21.6 percent in the third quarter.

“We’ve now seen sustained sales growth for almost four years,’’ said Joe Rand, Managing Partner with Rand Realty. “Sales totals are slowly returning to ‘seller market levels,’ with the 2,060 quarterly closings the highest since 2003 and the 5,570 yearly sales the highest since 2006.”

Unit sales rose 34 percent in Greenburgh compared to the same quarter last year, according to a report from Julie B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty. Pelham showed a 50 percent rise. New Rochelle (16 percent), Valhalla (14 percent), White Plains (5 percent) and Yonkers (1 percent) also showed growth while Mount Vernon was flat.

The median selling price soared 17 percent in Pelham, while all of the other communities saw an improvement or decline of about 3 percent or less.

"The trends we have been seeing for quite some time are continuing,'' said Robert Vannucchi, Executive Vice President of Douglas Elliman. "The numbers are very stable, which is important. Low inventory and a lack of quality inventory continues to drive our market."

Rand said that across the Hudson Valley, the real estate landscape is shifting towards a “sellers’ market.”

“The 4,500 single-family regional sales were the highest quarterly total since 2005, and the 13,000 rolling year transactions were the highest since 2007,’’ Rand said. “To put this in perspective, those 13,000 rolling year transactions are about 20 percent below the 16,000-sale rate at the very height of the seller’s market in 2004-05, but about 60 percent higher than the 8,000-sale rate we experienced at the very bottom of the market in 2008-09. When it comes to transactional levels, we’re a lot closer to 2005 than 2009.”

Rand believes the real estate market will close the year strong, and finish with one of the best years in this century.

“Going forward, we expect that the Westchester market will continue to outpace sales levels from last year, and that prices will eventually start to gather momentum,’’ he said. “With inventories tightening and interest rates near historic lows, we believe that the market is poised to finish the year strong.”