Listen to this articleThe Long Island housing market is showing some signs of improvement, though the pace of the advance is slow.
There were 2,030 homes contracted for sale in Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, an increase of 9.5 percent from the 1,854 homes contracted for sale in Sept. 2023, according to numbers from OneKey MLS.
Though there have been year-over-year gains in pending Long Island home sales for the past few months, the number of closed home sales in the first three quarters of the year are fewer than the same period in 2023. In the first nine months of this year, there have been 16,928 closed home sales on Long Island, down about 2.4 percent from the 17,332 closed home sales recorded in the first nine months of last year.
Another sign of slight improvement in the market is the number of available homes for sale, which has been on the rise. There were 5,761 Long Island homes listed for sale with OneKeyMLS—2,460 in Nassau and 3,301 in Suffolk—at the end of September. That’s up 13.8 percent from the 5,062 homes that were listed for sale at the end of Sept. 2023.
And because inventory remains historically low, home prices remain high. The median price of closed home sales (single-family, condos and co-ops) in Nassau last month was $799,000, down from the previous month’s median price of $815,000, but still up 9.3 percent from the Sept. 2023 closed median price of $735,000.
In Suffolk, the median price of closed home sales last month was $652,000, just slightly higher than the previous month and 10.2 percent higher than the $590,900 closed median price of Sept. 2023.
Prices of condominiums continued to rise in September. The median price of closed condo sales in Nassau last month was $949,500, up 28 percent from the $740,000 median price of closed condo sales recorded a year ago. In Suffolk, the median price of closed condo sales was $525,000 last month, an increase of 16 percent from the $452,500 median price of closed condo sales in Sept. 2023.
Mortgage rates have ticked up slightly. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage in New York was 6.35 percent as of Monday, according to NerdWallet.com. Two weeks ago, the average rate for a 30-year fixed loan was just under 6 percent.
Industry observers are still optimistic about a housing market recovery, especially after the release of the latest jobs numbers.
“There is no national economic recession on the horizon. The net payroll job addition in September strengthened to 254,000 after adding much lighter job gains in the previous months,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. “The annual wage gains also accelerated to 4 percent after softening to 3.6 percent just two months earlier. More jobs mean more real estate demand, from retail spaces to apartment leases. Home buying will also increase, provided the conditions are right, and more inventory choices and lower mortgage rates will help.”