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Long Island home purchases lag amid low inventory

Median sales prices up at least 9 percent year-over-year

November ended a five-month streak of year-over-year prices increasing by at least 10 percent (iStock)
November ended a five-month streak of year-over-year prices increasing by at least 10 percent (iStock)

The housing market on Long Island has slowed from a year ago in terms of sales volume, but a lack of inventory is likely the culprit.

Home sales on Long Island dropped 16.9 percent year-over-year in November, according to data from OneKey MLS reported by Newsday. Home sales in Nassau County fell 19.2 percent, while Suffolk County sales decreased by 14.9 percent.

As home sales dropped, so did availability of homes on the market. A 1.9-month supply of homes were for sale in Nassau last month and a 2.1-month supply of homes were available in Suffolk. The counties’ supply numbers in November 2020 were 3.3 months and 2.4 months, respectively.

Low supply could continue to hamper the market for the near future.

“We’ve had low inventory for quite a while now,” OneKey MLS CEO Jim Speer told Newsday. “I would expect it to stay at a pretty low level, hopefully not at this low a level, but I expect we wouldn’t see a great increase in the coming months.”

While listings are dropping and prices remain high, they aren’t soaring to the heights seen in recent months, a likely relief for homebuyers.

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In Nassau, the median sale price was $655,000, a 9.3 percent increase year-over-year. But it was only an 0.8 percent, or $5,000, increase from October. November also ended a five-month streak of year-over-year prices increasing by at least 10 percent, according to Newsday, suggesting a slowing in price growth.

In Suffolk, the median sale price in November was $520,000, a 10.3 percent increase year-over-year, but only a 0.2 percent gain month-over-month, $1,000 in all.

The median sale prices in both counties are down from the historic highs hit during the summer, when Nassau reached $670,000, while Suffolk hit $531,000. The median pending sale in November for deals that hadn’t closed were for $650,000 and $515,000 in each county, respectively.

“I have definitely seen the market become more realistic,” Keller Williams Realty real estate agent Maria Wilbur told Newsday. “The offers coming in the last month or two have been closer to what the value of the house should be. They’re not so inflated.”

[Newsday] — Holden Walter-Warner

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Housing MarketLong Island