LI home prices continue downward
Home prices continued their slide in April, a May 2012 report indicates. Credit: iStock
Long Island home prices dipped again last month, as the local real estate market continues to stumble.
Home buyers in Nassau County paid a median price of $397,000 in April, 2 percent lower than the same period last year, the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island said in a report Monday.
In Suffolk the median price of $285,000 was 1.4 percent lower than in April 2011. The median is the midpoint.
April marked the seventh straight month of year-over-year price declines in Nassau and the 12th month of year-over-year declines in Suffolk, according to the report, which reflects the last year of home price activity.
Sales activity slowed in April compared to a year ago, too. The number of sales in Nassau was down 2.3 percent compared to last April, according to the listing service. In Suffolk the number of transactions was down by 3 percent.
While prices were down from year-ago levels, the median price in Nassau rose 8.8 percent from March to April, as the spring selling season took hold.
"Anything under a million is going very, very quickly; they're going into contract within days," said Nicholas Colombos, an agent with Prudential Douglas Elliman in Manhasset.
In Suffolk, the median price fell 3.4 percent from March to April. The MLS data may not include all sales on the East End of Long Island, especially for very high-priced homes.
Contracts signed in April suggest a somewhat stronger market on the horizon. For contracts signed last month, Nassau County's median price of $395,000 marked a 0.8 percent price increase compared to the same period last year, according to the listing service. In Nassau, the number of such sales, which haven't closed yet, was up nearly 15 percent compared to the previous April.
In Suffolk County the median price of these in-contract sales was $305,000, unchanged from the previous April. The number of in-contract sales was up nearly 21 percent compared to the previous April.
"There certainly seems to be a sense that the worst is behind us in terms of the broader economic picture," as well as in the local real estate market, said Steven Pagano, broker/owner of Pagano Properties in Huntington Station.
MEDIAN CLOSING PRICES
Nassau: $397,000, April 2012; $405,000, April 2011
Suffolk: $285,000, April 2012; $289,000, April 2011
Source: Multiple Listing Service of Long Island
