LI home sales down, but signs 'encouraging'

Home sales figures on Long Island last month dropped across the board from a year earlier, when the federal home buyers tax credit pushed sales to artificial levels, said the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island.

The median price for home sales fell 2 percent to $342,000, said the report, which covers Nassau, Suffolk and Queens. The number of closings fell 9.3 percent to 1,902, data show.

But a 9.3 percent drop in contracts was "encouraging," the trade group said. The number of contracts, which forecast future closings, fell to 2,589 from 2,856 last year, data show.

"The number of contracted sales . . . is encouraging because current numbers reflect activity in an unsubsidized market without federal incentives in place," Multiple Listing Service of Long Island chief executive Joseph E. Mottola said in a statement. "To have current [pending] sales be off less than 10 percent from an artificially stimulated market a year ago signals that purchasers are somewhat more confident in the economic future."

While house hunting usually begins warming up in March, last month's contracts figure was a substantial 38 percent jump from February's 1,876. Several agents said they've been busy with buyers who have held off for a year or two and now believe prices are at the bottom.

The "dead" market has morphed into just a "difficult" one, said Manon Compitello of Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in Sayville. With multiple offers on some homes, she's busy.

But she has one question: "How long is it going to last? Is it going to be another month . . . another two months?"

Eric Sparwasser expects to close on a St. James house in two weeks and hopes his Sayville high ranch will get buyers biting at $465,000, down from $495,000 a month ago.

"I don't know when, but one thing I can guarantee -- it's going to get better," he said. "People who held off a year or two are ready to move now that the economy is leveling off and unemployment has at least stopped growing."