In slipping suburbia, the strongest shine. With foreclosures rising and home sales falling, the tristate area’s suburban housing markets did not hold up well in 2007 — certainly not as well as New York City’s. However, when The Real Deal took a microscope to the highest end of the suburban market in five of the counties closest to New York City — Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester in New York; Fairfield in Connecticut; and Bergen in New Jersey — it became apparent that luxury niches can sometimes perform very differently from their more pedestrian surroundings.
This month we took a look at the top 10 home sales in each of these counties, and the performances were impressive. The lists for Suffolk, which includes the posh Hamptons, and Fairfield fell entirely in the eight-digit range, as did three homes in Nassau and four in Westchester.
While Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties both posted declines in overall median price in 2007, they excelled in the luxury market. In addition to a record-setting $103 million sale in Suffolk, there were other milestones in the Hamptons in 2007, including a Bridgehampton home that fetched $37.5 million, a Montauk home that yielded $35 million, and two Southampton homes that went for over $32 million.
The Gold Coast (what brokers call Nassau County’s tony North Shore), accounted for six of its top 10 sales, with homes in Kings Point and Sands Point ranging from $5.8 million to $12.5 million.
In Westchester County, half of the top 10 priciest homes were in the northern town of Bedford, known for its vast estates that often draw Manhattanites with the one thing the city can’t provide — space. Bedford’s most expensive home, which went for $17 million, sits on 34 acres; several Bedford estates that remain on the market come with in excess of 100 acres.
Closer to Gotham, the more suburban Westchester towns of Scarsdale, Purchase, Mamaroneck and Rye also made the top 10, with prices from $5.5 million to $12 million.
Connecticut’s Fairfield County housing market was also sluggish in 2007, although the historically uber-wealthy town of Greenwich, home to many finance execs, broke the mold and filled the county’s entire top 10 list, with home sales from $12 million to $30 million. The troubles that plagued Wall Street since this summer didn’t seem to hurt the highest echelon of the town’s residential market; brokers seem hopeful that they won’t in 2008 either.
The town of Alpine led the high end in northern New Jersey’s Bergen County, taking seven spots in the top 10. Bergen’s list trailed the other counties looked at, however; its highest prices ranged from $6 million to $8 million. Read on for a closer look at the top-performing enclaves in each of these five counties:
Feeling Golden Apple’s glow in Westchester
Fairfield enjoys mostly fair weather