Home prices dip in Suffolk, stay flat in Nassau
Long Island home prices fell in Suffolk County from a year earlier, and stayed flat in Nassau County last month, as the number of homes on the market climbed. Credit: AP
Long Island home prices fell year-over-year in Suffolk County and stayed flat in Nassau County, as the number of homes on the market climbed last month.
Suffolk County homes sold for a median price of $315,000 in October, down 4.5 percent from the same month last year, according to a report released Friday by the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island.
In Nassau, the median price was $420,000 last month, essentially unchanged from a year ago.
Nassau's South Shore is still feeling the impact of superstorm Sandy, and the anemic economy doesn't help, said Patricia McDonnell, broker and owner of Lido Beach Realty. The storm devastated the region on Oct. 29, 2012.
Sandy-damaged homes continue to sell for a discount, and some families are still waiting for federal funds to help repair their houses, McDonnell said.
"The recovery has come a long way, but there still is a lot for people to do," she said.
The storm threw Nassau home sales into turmoil for well over a year, with transactions falling off in early 2013 and then rising toward the end of that year.
Last month, 999 homes changed hands in Nassau. That marks a 13 percent drop from October 2013, when 1,147 homes were sold. However, aside from 2013, last month was the busiest October for Nassau home buyers since 2005, before the real estate bubble burst.
In Suffolk, home buyers closed on 1,245 purchases last month -- up 0.6 percent compared with a year earlier, and the busiest October since 2003.
Across the Island, home shoppers had more to choose from last month, with 17,286 homes listed for sale, nearly 5 percent more than a year earlier.
Throughout the Island, it would take 7.7 months to sell all listed homes at the current pace of sales. A housing market balanced between buyers and sellers has a six- to eight-month supply of sales, according to brokers.
Maura McDermott is a reporter on the investigations desk. Since starting at Newsday in 2012, she has also covered real estate and the business of health care.
