The prices of Long Island homes sold last month reached record highs amid a drop in sales and low inventory.
The median price of July’s closed home sales in Nassau County climbed to $722,500, up 5 percent from the previous month and an all-time high, according to numbers from OneKey MLS.
In Suffolk County, last month’s median price of closed home sales was $575,000, up 1.8 percent from June and tying the record high last reached in July 2022.
Sales activity in the Long Island housing market has been slower this year, challenged by higher mortgage rates and continued low inventory. There were 2,139 homes contracted for sale in Nassau and Suffolk last month, down 12 percent from the 2,429 homes contracted for sale in July 2022 and the lowest number of July pending sales since 2012.
So far this year, there have been 15,061 homes contracted for sale in Nassau and Suffolk. That’s the lowest number of pending sales from January through July since 2014, when there were 14,278 homes contracted for sale in those seven months.
The number of available Long Island homes listed for sale remains historically low. There were 5,068 homes listed for sale with OneKey MLS as of Thursday, 2,401 in Nassau and 2,667 in Suffolk. That’s down a whopping 30 percent from the 7,236 Long Island homes that were listed for sale at the end of July 2022.
By comparison, in July 2012, the last July that had lower pending sales than last month, there were 20,850 homes listed for sale in Nassau and Suffolk, more than four times the current supply.
Mortgage rates in July 2012, averaging about 3.5 percent for a 30-year fixed loan, were nearly half the average mortgage rate last month, which was just under 7 percent. The current average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan in New York is 7.4 percent, according to bankrate.com.
Brokers say the higher mortgage rates have kept inventory low, since most homeowners have mortgages with much lower interest rates. Consequently, fewer Long Island homeowners are eager to sell if they will end up with higher monthly payments on their next home purchase.
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Image and article originally from libn.com. Read the original article here.