Long Island Cheat Sheet: Douglas Elliman ranks as top resi brokerage in LI, three Smithtown sites move toward redevelopment … & more

Clockwise from top left: Construction jobs on Long Island are down slightly, home prices in Nassau and Suffolk Counties rose, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone wants to develop a "new suburbia," and apartments are planned at the now demolished Nassau-Suffolk Lumber and Supply Corp. in Smithtown.
Clockwise from top left: Construction jobs on Long Island are down slightly, home prices in Nassau and Suffolk Counties rose, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone wants to develop a "new suburbia," and apartments are planned at the now demolished Nassau-Suffolk Lumber and Supply Corp. in Smithtown.

Douglas Elliman leads all residential brokerages on Long Island
With $4.24 billion in sales in 2017, Douglas Elliman remains the largest residential brokerage on Long Island, even as cutthroat competition for top agents brings new challengers to the market. Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty and its $2.54 billion in sales placed second on The Real Deal’s annual ranking, which used MLS data to rank firms in Nassau and Suffolk counties — excluding the Hamptons and North Fork. The top two firms closed nearly 25 percent of all single family home sales last year. [TRD]

Development plans considered at three Smithtown sites
Smithtown could soon see two new car dealerships and a 62-unit residential project, Town Supervisor Edward Wehrheim told Newsday. Although no plans have been submitted yet, Italian car company Maserati is considering moving onto a 6-acre site on Smithtown’s “Car Row” on Route 25. Used-car retailer CarMax is planning to demolish the Smithtown Concrete Products plant and build a $20-million-dollar dealership. A multifamily residential development is nearing town approval for the now-demolished Nassau-Suffolk Lumber and Supply Corp. on Main Street. [Newsday]

Home prices jump in Nassau and Suffolk as available inventory drops
Home prices in both Nassau and Suffolk Counties rose in February compared to the year before, according to the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island. The median price of a home in Nassau County was $505,000 last month, a 12.5 percent jump from 2017. In Suffolk County, the median price was $360,000, up 9.4 percent year over year. The number of listing fell by 14 percent in Suffolk and 2 percent in Nassau, the report found. [Newsday]

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Long Island construction jobs fall slightly
The latest report from the Associated General Contractors of America found that 74,100 people were employed in construction on Long Island in January. That’s a decrease of about 200 jobs from the same time the year before. Meanwhile construction jobs in New York City ballooned by 4 percent with about 6,300 new jobs, the report found. [LIBN]

Citing developments in Wyandanch and Ronkonkoma, Suffolk Co. Exec says ‘a new suburbia is on the horizon’
The very nature of Long Island needs to change, Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone wrote in an op-ed in the Long Island Press. A lack of “quality, affordable rental housing, mixed-use development, and public transit” has led to young people from Long Island to move elsewhere, Bellone wrote. Citing the $650 million Ronkonkoma Hub mixed-use project and $600 million project near the Long Island Rail Road station in Wyandanch, Bellone says “a new suburbia is on the horizon, and Suffolk County is leading the way.” [LI Press]