Prices are up, sales are down: That’s the lowdown in the Hudson Valley real estate market for the first few months of 2018, according to first-quarter data.
“The record-setting 2017 housing market is proving to be a tough act to follow as the continuing decline in listed homes is slowing down eager buyers,” says Duncan R. MacKenzie, CEO of the New York State Association of REALTORS®. “The 2018 first quarter sales total is the second highest on record, providing unmistakable evidence that buyer demand is still high as we move toward the typically busy spring and summer markets.”
Median sales price increased for most of the 10-county region compared to the first quarter of 2017, according to data provided by the NYS Association of REALTORS and Better Homes & Gardens Rand Realty*. The biggest jump occurred in Greene County, where the median price rose 10 percent to $175,000, and Putnam County, where the median price spiked more than 10 percent to $311,000. Rockland County, on the other hand, saw the median sales price of homes there fall slightly to $384,250.
More homes sold in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the same time last year. Greene County again was at the top of the list, proportionately, with 152 home sales closed, an 18 percent increase. Rockland’s closings fell by 14 percent, with 501 homes closing.
The total number of homes for sale dropped, percentage-wise, by double digits for most of the Hudson Valley except Westchester, where the number of homes for sale dropped by just about 0.1 percent.
Demand across the board is high, due to the general lack of inventory, and that’s been a factor in the higher median sales price. Those rising prices will most likely lure those homeowners who are on the fence about selling into putting their homes on the market.
*Data included Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Ulster, and Westchester counties. Data for Albany and Rensselaer counties were unavailable at press time.
