Third Quarter Real Estate: Low Mortgage Interest Rates and Affordable Selling Prices Increase Sales

The Westchester Putnam Association of Realtors, Inc. (WPAR)'s latest report lists numbers that give local experts reason to be cautiously optimistic.

Westchester saw an 8-percent hike in third-quarter home sales from 2010 to 2011, according to the association, which reports low mortgage interest rates and affordable selling prices as the driving forces of the increases.

Though the number of transactions was higher, the median sale price of a Westchester single family house was $684,005 or about 6 percent below last year’s level of $730,250—when there was a higher proportion of million-dollar-plus properties in the mix.

Stronger sales in New York City have also contributed to the local market's performance, according to the WPAR. As volume and prices rise in Manhattan, Westchester begins to look more attractive.

Locally, by the third quarter, sales had jumped to 59 units, with an average selling price of $442,231 and a median of $410,000, according to data provided by Bill Primavera, realtor with Coldwell Banker in Yorktown. In the first quarter, 33 single family homes were sold in Yorktown with an average selling price of $380,505, with the median priced home being $355,000. In the second quarter, 42 units were sold with an average selling price of $401,985 and a median price of $380,000, so more homes in the upper category sold.

"I would say that both home buyers and sellers should be optimistic about this report," Primavera said. "It's true that the first and second quarters were rather lackluster, but very locally in Yorktown, we've increased business each quarter."

As for whether the real estate market has bottomed out, the association notes that—barring a second national recession—the region’s third quarter results "point more to an emerging recovery than to backsliding into a moribund market."

A copy of the report is posted with this story, or you can view it on the association's website.