Long Island home prices hit record highs amid “insatiable housing demand”

Home prices hit record highs in Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, as low interest rates and intense competition for suburban housing pushed up the cost of housing.

Homes in Nassau County sold for a median price of $ 645,000 in June, up 16.2% from the same period last year, OneKey MLS service reported Thursday on Thursday. ads that includes Long Island. Suffolk County homes traded at a median price of $ 510,000, up 18.8% per year, the listings service said.

These were the highest prices on record in the two counties and the biggest year-over-year gains, OneKey reported.

However, there are signs that the Long Island real estate market may become a little less competitive.

One broker said the frenzy of auction wars was starting to subside and it was becoming less common to see long lines at open houses.

“The Long Island market has definitely cooled down a bit,” said Johnson John, owner of North Star Homes in Garden City. “If there were 30 buyers [for each house] before, now you’ve got 20. ”Some buyers have given up after losing in too many bidding wars, he said.

Even so, he said, “20 buyers per home is more than enough to get the job done.”

The price of homes that were contracted last month rose by a slightly less impressive amount than the trends in closed sales, according to OneKey figures. In Nassau, buyers signed contracts for homes at a median price of $ 657,000, up 12.3% per year. In Suffolk, homes were contracted for a median price of $ 525,000, up 15.4% from the previous year.

In addition, the median price for pending sales was lower in June than it had been the month before. In May, the median pending sale price was $ 665,000 in Nassau and $ 539,500 in Suffolk.

Tracking home sales month-to-month – rather than comparing them to 2020 numbers – can provide “a more realistic picture of current housing market conditions,” said Jim Speer, CEO of OneKey. The effect of last year’s pandemic shutdown, he said, “is still reflected in housing reports and I expect that impact to persist for a few more months.”

Comparing last month’s housing market to June 2020 may give a distorted picture of home sales trends, as the nearly three-month COVID-19 real estate shutdown ended in mid-June of the last year. The almost total halt in home sales was quickly followed by an upturn in buying activity.

The current real estate market remains tilted in favor of sellers. At the rate homes entered into contracts last month, selling all homes on the market would take 2.3 months in Nassau and 1.9 months in Suffolk, according to figures from the Listing Service. A balanced market has a five to eight month supply, brokers say.

While prices could fall moderately, brokers say the market is unlikely to crash as interest rates are low, demand remains strong, and lending standards have been strict. The average mortgage rate was 2.9% last week, mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported.

The rise in prices has prompted some homeowners to put their properties on the market, especially those moving out of the area, John said. He said four clients who sold their homes recently moved to Colorado, Texas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

“If they are leaving New York State, especially if they are closer to retirement… they are extremely anxious to leave town,” he said.

But for those who wish to stay on the island, it is difficult to sell one property and buy another, as prices have skyrocketed across the market, he said.

“To be honest, it keeps people from selling, ‘Where do I go? ”John said.

Indeed, the supply of new listings has plummeted, according to a separate report.

Brokers last month brought 4,022 new listings to the Long Island market, excluding the East End, down 4.8% from the previous June, the company reported. Miller Samuel valuation and the Douglas Elliman brokerage house.

However, while new listings have declined overall, with a particularly sharp drop for homes under $ 400,000, the stock of homes from $ 500,000 to nearly $ 1 million has increased, reported. Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. In the price range of around $ 600,000 to $ 800,000, listings have jumped 32% year over year.

This disparity reflects the greater ability of high-income homeowners to pay for their next home purchase on the island or to leave the area, real estate experts have said.

“Equity significantly higher than many [homeowners] enjoy the money on paper… unless they leave the area, ”said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel. In addition, he said, the supply of listings “has not kept up with the insatiable demand for housing.”

Maura McDermott covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island.