This week, Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty is releasing its Quarterly Market Report for all the counties it services: Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, and Dutchess Counties in New York; and Bergen, Passaic, and Morris Counties in New Jersey. Below is an excerpt from the report, but you can get the full Report here.
The Dutchess County housing market continued to strengthen in the second quarter, with sales up significantly. Even with these sustained increases in buyer demand, though, we’re still not yet seeing any meaningful price appreciation.
Sales. Dutchess County single-family home sales surged in the second quarter, with transactions up 21.4% from last year. Indeed, the 494 sales represented the highest second-quarter total since 2007, at the height of the last seller’s market. Similarly, the 1,866 rolling year sales is the highest total we have seen since early 2008.
Prices. Even with this torrid activity, pricing was still mixed, with the average up 1.6%, the median down 2.0%, and the price-per-square foot falling over 20%. Over the longer term, we’re seeing some pricing challenges, with the average price down about 2% over the past 12 months.
Negotiability. The negotiability indicators also show that Dutchess sellers are still struggling to get some leverage, with the listing retention rate flat and the days-on-market actually rising 11.5%. As the market heats up, we would expect homes to sell more quickly and for closer to the asking price, but that’s not happening yet.
Condominiums. The condo market was more sluggish, with both sales down and prices falling across the board both in the second quarter and for the last rolling year.
Going forward, we believe that Dutchess demand will continue to surge through the seasonally strong third quarter, and that these increases in demand, coupled with the tightening of inventory, is bound to eventually drive pricing up.
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