SI sees jump in summer home sales

Sales of Staten Island one- and two-family homes shot up significantly between July and September, according to new statistics from the Staten Island Board of Realtors, with the rolling average for the three months showing a 16.3 percent increase in sales over the same period in 2010.

Listings going into contract increased in September, by 21 percent, compared to August, with listing prices down an average of 1.7 percent.

However, the median home price in the borough declined 3.8 percent in the month of September compared with that month in 2010. The median closing price for a one-family home was $298,000 in September, 2011, compared with $323,500 in September, 2010. For a two-family home it was $399,950 compared with $438,000 in 2010. Days on market also increased by 10.2 percent to 167 days for sold properties.

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“After two sharply higher months in sales [in July and August], September was even with the same time last year,” said Sandy Krueger, CEO of the Staten Island Board of Realtors. “This seems to indicate that the variations due to the 2010 federal tax credit for the first time homebuyers may be over, and we are back into a period where the year-to-year analysis is comparing ‘apples to apples.'”

As The Real Deal previously reported, the first-time homebuyer’s tax credit and record-low interest rates helped nudge a comeback from the depths of the recession in Staten Island. The median home price rebounded after hitting a low point in the second quarter of 2009 at $365,000. — Katherine Clarke