Pandemic bidding wars boost LI home prices

Report: Long Island home prices the highest they've ever been

The skyrocketing home prices come in the wake of the pandemic shutdown, which banned in-person showings by real estate agents from March until June 10.

In Nassau County, homes sold for a median price of $595,000 in August, up 7.6% from a year earlier, OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service that includes Long Island, reported Tuesday. Suffolk County homes traded for a median price of $456,000, a 10.1% annual increase.

Those were the highest sale prices ever reported by the listing service. Last month, the number of contract signings soared by 45.6% in Nassau and 42.4% in Suffolk compared with the previous August.

The hot market caught the attention of Long Beach resident Sonia Dale, who listed her two-bedroom bungalow last month for $559,000. Dale said she received four offers in two days, and signed a contract to sell for $575,000.

"I wasn't looking to sell … but money talks," said Dale, 48, who plans to move into a nearby rental and eventually shift her home and small-business consulting firm to North Carolina. "For me, it was a no-brainer."

The chart below shows the median home sale prices in Nassau and Suffolk during the past several months. Search a map of cases, and view more charts showing the latest local trends in economic data, testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.

The number of new positives reported today: 77 in Nassau, 71 in Suffolk, 306 in New York City and 766 statewide.

More COVID-19 cases emerge at Long Island schools

At least five schools across two Nassau County districts were closed Tuesday due to new positive cases among students at each building, district officials said.

In Port Washington, a student at Paul D. Schreiber High School and another at John J. Daly Elementary School tested positive for the virus, prompting the district to close the buildings Tuesday, according to a letter from Superintendent Michael Hynes. Students and staff from those schools will follow remote instruction plans for the day, he said.

The Nassau County Health Department had initiated a contact tracing investigation, Hynes said.

A student at each of the three schools in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich district also tested positive for the virus, Superintendent Laura Seinfeld said. Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School, James H. Vernon School and Oyster Bay High School were closed Tuesday "as a precaution" and the students were following a remote plan, Seinfeld said in a letter.

The county health department was investigating, Seinfeld wrote.

College students stuck at home are transforming bedrooms into dorms

Sydney Grant had been planning to head to her freshman year at the University of Pennsylvania when the call came in mid-August saying the school was canceling all in-person classes because of the pandemic.

Like thousands of other college students across the country, her fall semester will be spent taking courses from home.

Some students had already purchased décor, computers and even small items of convenience for their dorm rooms. But some found a way to repurpose those items and create personal learning spaces at home — and that means making their childhood bedrooms feel like a dorm.

"We had already bought a lot of college stuff, so it was easy to set things up ‘dorm-style,’" said Sydney Grant, 18, of Dix Hills.

An SOS for stages across Long Island

The vast majority of Long Island’s live venues could fail in the coming months if the federal government doesn’t step in to bail them out, Sen. Chuck Schumer and a number of industry leaders said Monday.

Schumer’s bill, called the Save Our Stages Act, seeks $10 billion in government grants to live venues around the country, including comedy clubs, concert halls and music festivals. The bill, which Schumer said has bipartisan support, would allow large venues, such as Broadway theaters, to ask for up to $12 million in relief.

The executive director of the National Independent Venue Association, who goes by Rev. Moose, said that of its 2,000-plus members, 90% said they would likely be forced to fold if there is no relief in the coming six months.

The "enormous overhead'' of these venues put them in danger, Rev. Moose said. "We’re at the precipice of that disaster, with some venues having already closed."

High Holy Days will look different during pandemic

Across Long Island and the world, the millennia-old services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year and anniversary of Adam and Eve’s creation, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, are being modified for the pandemic.

The holiday begins Friday night and ends Sunday night, and Yom Kippur begins the following week, from Sunday night to Monday night.

Services in the Reform movement — the least ritually strict of the three major Jewish denominations — are planned to be held almost exclusively online, with some congregations making recordings in advance, others streaming live and others doing a blend, said Rabbi Joel Levenson, president of the Long Island Board of Rabbis.

"I have never missed an in-person High Holiday service my entire life," said Stephanie Honig, 41, one of Levenson’s congregants, who lives in Syosset and began changing her family’s Jewish traditions for the pandemic in the spring. Read more.

More to know

Squire Cinemas in Great Neck has closed permanently, six months after shutting its doors for the pandemic, leaving Long Island with one less independent movie theater.

Amazon will hire another 100,000 people to keep up with a surge of online orders, the company said Monday.

The World Series will be played entirely at the Texas Rangers' new ballpark in Arlington, Texas, as part of a bubble agreement between Major League Baseball and the players' association.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that students will return to schools next week as scheduled, even as 55 New York City Department of Education employees had tested positive for the virus.

News for you

Outdoor dining in the fall. Cool nights are nearing with the fall, which could mean a change to outdoor dining. But Long Island restaurateurs have been preparing for this — from fire pits to outdoor igloos. See what's in store.

First drive-in movies, now a drive-in haunted house. Gateway’s Haunted Playhouse is pivoting its traditional Halloween attraction this year to a safe — yet spooky — experience. That includes a new drive-through haunt and other outdoor elements. Here's the plan.

An election year like no other for LI villages. Elections that normally take place in March and June were pushed to Tuesday. Voters will find polling places stocked with hand sanitizers, Plexiglas dividers, fresh pens, face masks. Read more, and check back for results.

Takeout Rosh Hashanah dinners on LI. Traditional foods for your holiday meal can be found at Long Island delis, restaurants and caterers. Take a look at this list.

Flower delivery business flourishes. While retailers have struggled with being shut down during the pandemic, Hometown Flower Co. has seen a demand for its products. Read about how they adapted and the changes they made.

Plus: Join us for Newsday's next virtual event on Wednesday for a discussion on how COVID-19 is changing education policy now, and what it could mean for the future. Save your spot.

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Commentary

Readers react to student's protest at William Floyd. Reader Regina Thornton, of Sayville, writes: I found the story on the senior who showed up in protest at school sickening. It epitomized exactly what’s wrong with this nation: selfishness.

We are in a pandemic. Who is he to force himself into school five days a week, saying it’s what makes education work? Of course it does. But it’s something that we all have to adjust to for the better of everyone. What about the teachers who have health issues or their families?

Another example is people who don’t wear masks. They are not patriotic and are selfish. One could give the disease to someone without knowing it. To me, this student seems to think he’s some kind of hero. Unfortunately, I see a lot of young Americans who don’t like to hear the word "no." Patriotism is caring about your fellow countrymen. Even if it doesn’t affect you, you care about someone besides yourself.

Read more reader letters in response to the student's protest.