Report: More houses for sale on Long Island

The inventory of homes for sale has gone up recently on Long Island despite huge jumps in number of closings, driven by the home buyers tax credit.

The bigger the supply, the bigger the discount off listing prices – usually.

But that was not the case during the second quarter, said the Manhattan-based appraisal firm, Miller Samuel, in a report commissioned by Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

Island-wide, the spread between closing and listing prices was smaller than in the first quarter and way smaller than the spread a year ago.

The Hamptons discount was 6 percent, compared to 12.2 percent in the first quarter of the year and 16.2 percent a year ago, figures show.

North Fork was 8.5 percent off listing, down from the 8.8 percent the first quarter and 15.5 percent a year ago, Miller Samuel said.

For the rest of the Island, closing prices were 6.2 percent off listing prices, while it was 6.7 percent in the preceding quarter and 7.4 percent a year ago, the report said.

Appraiser Jonathan Miller explains why in Thursday’s Newsday.