Good home sale numbers for the first quarter are certainly a welcome jolt for the spring real estate season, but Realtors report that inventory is low and new listings are sorely needed.
Agents say they hope the sales numbers will motivate sellers to put their homes on the market.
“We are moving into a seller’s market. When inventory is down and buyers are up this happens and we are experiencing it now. We need a few more quarters to tell for sure. Home sales is a situation of supply and demand. And right now demand is up and supply is down,” said J. Philip Faranda, broker/owner of J. Philip Real Estate LLC in Briarcliff and president of the Hudson Gateway Multiple Listing Service.
That said, the region is nowhere near prerecession levels.
“Just because some of the numbers are positive it doesn’t mean happy days are here again,” he added.
Warren Messner is one homeowner who is replenishing the inventory.
After waiting four years following his mother’s death, he decided this week was the time to list the Thornwood house where he was raised.
“I was not in a rush and thought the market was a little soft,” he said. “I thought, too, I’d wait a bit and do a bit of sprucing up since my mother had lived there for 40 years.”
The four-bedroom house at 804 Warren Ave., is on the market for $429,000. Listing agent Margaret Collins of Better Homes Gardens Rand Realty said it is priced well and she expects it to sell quickly.
“We have more buyers than houses, for sure. This is the time to list a house you want to sell,” she said.
The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors reported Monday that home sales in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties for the first quarter exceeded that of the same quarter last year. And this is particularly surprising because of the wintry weather that shut business down during frigid weeks in January and February.
At the end of March, 10,014 homes were listed for sale in the region; 3.9 percent less than last year, Hudson Gateway reported. In Westchester, the decrease was 3.2 percent, followed by Putnam at 2.6 percent and Rockland at 0.7 percent.
Low inventory and high demand helped to increase median sale prices, as expected in a market with a tight inventory.
The median price for a single family house in Westchester was $600,000, an increase of $85,000 or 16.5 percent over last year’s median. In Rockland, the $380,000 median sale price of a single family house is up from $358,000. And in Putnam there was an 11 percent increase bringing the median price to $318,000.
“Sellers should be encouraged by these numbers,” said Wayne LaFranco, senior vice president at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. “Once the foliage comes in and everything blooms and the pool is open, I anticipate an active market. Sellers who have been on the sidelines should move into the market.”