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 Passaic County housing market continued to strengthen in the second quarter of 2015, with increases in both sales and prices that reflect a sustained increase in buyer demand. Going forward, we expect that this will continue through a seasonably strong third quarter.
Sales. Passaic County sales were up in the second quarter, rising 5.1% from last year. That marked the third straight quarter with year-on-year sales increases, demonstrating sustained growth in buyer demand. You can see that in the longer-term trend, with sales up 5.4% for the rolling year. Clearly, buyer demand in Passaic County is strong and getting stronger.
Prices. These sustained increases in buyer demand are having their expected impact on pricing, with prices up across the board from last year: 3.3% on average, and 3.1% at the median. For the year, we saw a mild but meaningful 1.1% increase in the average sales price, indicating that Passaic pricing is slowly but surely moving in a positive direction.
Negotiability. The negotiability indicators, though, were decidedly mixed, demonstrating that sellers are still struggling to gain negotiating leverage with buyers. The days-on-market indicator was essentially flat for both the quarter and the rolling year, and the listing retention rate was actually down a bit. In other words, homes were taking just about as long to sell, and were being discounted a little more heavily.
Going forward, we expect that Passaic County buyer demand will stay strong through the seasonally robust third quarter, and that we will continue to see price appreciation through the end of the year. With home prices at affordable levels, interest rates near historic lows, and a generally improving economy, we expect the Passaic market to stay strong.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE COMPLETE REPORT
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