MLS report: LI home sale prices on the climb
For the first time in more than two years, the median closing price for
Long Island homes shot past the figure from a year ago, the Multiple Listing Service of
Long Island said in its January report.
The $365,000 median price, up 4.3 percent from $350,000 a year ago, could be the start of a fresh trend. More and more agents are saying "balance" and "moderation" have started to return to the housing market.
At the same time, Frank Dell'Accio Jr., president of the trade group, cautioned that one month might just be a fluke. He said the price jump was driven by
Nassau, where the $417,500 median figure was an 8.4 percent increase from a year ago.
Suffolk's went down 1.2 percent to $317,000.
"At a minimum . . . we can start to look at it and say there's a possibility that prices have stopped declining," Dell'Accio said. "I think we're going to have to go through a couple of months like this, a small little up, a small little down."
January's higher price might be good news for sellers and agents, but is it good for buyers? Real estate broker Bethany Marten, who represents only buyers, said yes.
"We've pretty much hit bottom - that's what it really means, these numbers," the
Baldwin broker said. "That was the issue that was going on in all of 2008 and 2009. The market never found bottom, so buyers were still scared to death to buy because they thought 'It could keep going lower and lower.' "
It was another era, a halcyon one, when the July 2007, median closing price of $455,000 was above the $452,300 from the preceding year.
For at least the past three months, entry-level house hunters with eyes on lower interest rates and a buyers' tax credit have been the driving force in pushing up sales by double-digit percentages. For January, 2,023 closings were logged in, a 25 percent increase from 1,512 a year ago, according to the report, which also covers
Queens.
MLSLI had 33,417 listings in January, down about 14 percent from the 38,897 homes in July.
Nationally, the
Commerce Department said sales of new homes fell 11.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 309,000 units, the lowest level on records that go back nearly 50 years, The Associated Press reported.
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