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 Rockland County housing market continued to strengthen in the second quarter, with sales up significantly and inventories tightening. Even with these sustained increases in buyer demand, though, we’re still not yet seeing any meaningful price appreciation.
Sales. Rockland sales rose 9.7% compared to last year, with the 386 closings representing the second-highest second-quarter total since 2007. Similarly, the rolling year sales total approached 1,600 for the first time since 2007, at the height of the last seller’s market. All this activity had its expected impact on inventories, with the average months of inventory over the past year falling below 10 months for the first time in almost ten years.
Prices. Even with all this buyer demand, pricing was a little mixed, with average price falling 2.4%, the median flat, and the price-per-square-foot up just 1.6%. For the year, pricing is sluggish, a bit of a disappointment for Rockland homeowners given the more encouraging results of the first quarter.
Negotiability. The listing retention and days-on-market indicators showed that sellers were gaining a little bit of negotiating leverage, with homes selling a little more quickly for for slightly closer to the asking price. We expect this to continue if buyer demand stays strong and inventories tighten.
Condominiums. The condo market surged in the second quarter, with sales up 23.5% and inventory falling 16.4%. Even with these spikes in demand, though, we’re still seeing mixed results in pricing, with average up but the median down slightly.
Going forward, we believe that Rockland 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 drive pricing up by the end of the year.
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