High city prices are spurring suburban bidding wars

Up to 44% of homes selling at or above ask in some Westchester towns

A for-sale home in Larchmont, asking $1.4 million (credit: Zillow)
A for-sale home in Larchmont, asking $1.4 million (credit: Zillow)

High residential prices in New York City are driving buyers to suburbs, where they’re bidding up prices on one- to two-million-dollar homes near train lines.

Towns like Larchmont, Irvington, Bronxville, White Plains and Pelham in Westchester seemed to be the central hub of activity, with homes selling at or above their asking prices between 23 and 44 percent of the time, according to appraiser Miller Samuel.

Sellers in Northern New Jersey, parts of Long Island and parts of Fairfield County, Connecticut have also seen brisk demand, the New York Times reported.

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“The city is this pot of water that’s spilling over on the sides, and that excess demand is going to the suburbs,” Miller Samuel president Jonathan Miller told the Times, “It’s all being driven by the lack of affordability.”

“Almost all our buyers are coming from the city, increasingly from Brooklyn,” Arthur Scinta, a broker at Houlihan Lawrence, told the Times, referring to Pelham.

More expensive homes, above $2 million or so, in contrast, have not received increased interest, real estate agents told the Times. [NYT]Ariel Stulberg