Under $500K homes gain traction in tri-state area

Cost-conscious New York tri-state area buyers such as teachers have finally reentered the housing market, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a reversal, it may be higher priced sales that lag.

The number of buyers in contract to buy homes priced less than $500,000 in Westchester County rose by almost 40 percent in 2011 compared to a year earlier, according to a market report from residential brokerage Houlihan Lawrence. And a similar trend is apparent in New Jersey, the Journal said. Jeffrey Otteau, an appraiser in New Jersey, told the paper that the market there was like a “snowball, rolling down hill and gaining momentum,” and that he expected that snowball to keep rolling into 2012.

Meanwhile, the same Houlihan Lawrence report shows a 15.2 percent decline in pending contracts for homes priced more than $500,000 and an even larger decline for those priced at $1 million or more. [WSJ]