Why home prices have risen during the pandemic
What's driving the rising home prices in LI communities?
Realtor Ramon Bonilla waits for potential clients at a Westbury open house on April 3. Credit: Danielle Silverman
During the pandemic, Long Island’s real estate market saw luxury homes suddenly sparking bidding wars and some first-time homebuyers scrambling to make offers of $30,000 or more over asking prices.
"If something comes on [the market] it’s gone immediately," said Ann Conroy, CEO of Douglas Elliman’s Long Island division. "There are more buyers than there are sellers at this point, and interest rates are extraordinarily low."
Demand is especially fierce for homes with plenty of space for remote work and school, along with land where children can play and adults can entertain safely, she said.
The surge of buyers leaving the city drove up the median home price on Long Island, outside of the East End, to a record high of $525,000 in the last three months of 2020, up 15.4% from a year earlier, Douglas Elliman and the appraisal company Miller Samuel said in their most recent report on the region.
Now that vaccines are becoming more widely available, it’s likely that homeowners will feel more comfortable putting their houses on the market, and increased supply could help ease competition, said Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of Miller Samuel.
Here's a closer look at six Long Island communities where prices have risen during the pandemic.
Use this searchable community-by-community chart to see how prices have changed in your area and across Long Island.
Despite vaccination effort, LI COVID-19 cases at recent highs
Freshman Alana Gill receives the Moderna vaccine at Stony Brook University on Tuesday. Credit: Raychel Brightman
Positivity rates continue to plateau and case numbers remain at a high level, with Nassau and Suffolk counties reporting hundreds of new positives each, the latest state data released Thursday showed.
Suffolk registered over 900 new cases on Wednesday — a daily count not seen since early February. Nassau had more than 800 new positives, a daily high since Feb. 12. Both counties reported relatively high numbers of test results that could have contributed to the spikes. The virus still presents a challenge to the state, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement.
"Even as we keep expanding eligibility, opening new vaccination sites and working to ensure the system is equitable, there's still more work to be done before New Yorkers reach the desired level of immunity," Cuomo said.
The number of new positives reported today: 810 in Nassau, 925 in Suffolk, 3,826 in New York City and 8,379 statewide.
This map shows the concentration of cases in Long Island communities.
This map shows the concentration of new cases in each community, with data as of Tuesday.
Search a map of new cases and view charts showing the latest local trends in vaccinations, testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.
Going on field trips again? Commack schools will take the risk
Clockwise from upper left, Newsday reporter Catherine Carrera speaks with Commack High School students Dillon Mortensen and Ilana Bedziner, and Principal Leslie Boritz. Credit: Newsday
As New Yorkers over age 16 get vaccinated and more COVID-19 restrictions loosen, at least one Long Island school district is bringing back field trips.
With concerns over students’ mental well-being, some Commack district leaders are allowing certain grades to go on regional and out-of-state field trips in hopes of returning to a sense of normalcy before the academic year ends.
"Anything to get back to some sense of, ‘Oh, these are the types of things we did before COVID,’" said Donald James, superintendent of Commack schools in Suffolk. Commack’s 494 fifth-graders, 542 eighth-graders and 578 high school seniors will get the chance between May and June to go on field trips with their respective classes.
Other school leaders said the risk of spreading the virus remains too high and worry too many would need to quarantine in the event of a positive case.
Schumer touts child care funds for LI in stimulus bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer interacts with children at Marks of Excellence Child Care in Amityville on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/Alejandra Villa Loarca
Long Island child care providers, who've struggled with declining enrollment and rising expenses since the start of the pandemic, can receive a portion of nearly $2 billion heading to the state from the federal stimulus bill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday.
The American Rescue Plan allocates $40 billion nationwide for child care providers and working parents. New York will receive $1.8 billion, with Long Island, based on its population, getting a significant portion of those dollars, said Schumer (D-N.Y.).
"Child care is so important on Long Island as it is everywhere else," Schumer said outside Marks of Excellence Child Care in Amityville. "It's vital to our lives. It's vital dealing with the COVID crisis and it's vital to getting out of the COVID crisis."
More to know
Tenants and housing activists rallied for rent relief in Brooklyn in July. Credit: LightRocket via Getty Images/Erik McGregor
The state budget reserved $2.4 billion for a rent relief program that will cover up to 15 months of expenses for tenants who suffered a financial hardship due to COVID-19.
New York City public schools will be required to close if there are four or more virus cases in different classrooms within seven days that can be traced to exposure inside the school, officials said. The new procedure takes effect Monday.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to 744,000 from 728,000 a week earlier, signaling many employers are still cutting jobs.
NYS will continue to fully tax unemployment benefits despite a federal exemption on the first $10,200 received by some workers who lost their jobs last year due to the pandemic.
Keri Stromski, a beloved kindergarten teacher in Riverhead who so missed embracing her students during the pandemic that she inspired one to build a "hugging machine," died Tuesday of breast cancer.
The Stony Brook football season came to an abrupt end on Wednesday when the University of Rhode Island shuttered its season because of multiple positive COVID-19 tests.
The recent increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans and creating a memorial for victims of COVID-19 will be the subjects of two resolutions at Huntington’s next town board meeting.
News for you
Heidi O'Riordan, regional fisheries manager for the D.E.C., checks the temperature of a pond in the Massapequa Preserve on March 24. Credit: Corey Sipkin
Start fishing at LI's freshwater lakes and ponds. It's the unofficial start of the fishing season, an activity that has built-in social distancing. Approximately 18,000 trout are deposited across more than 20 locations in Nassau and Suffolk counties each year. Learn how to get started.
Playgrounds worth the drive. Prep to take a ride and have fun, while socially distancing, at these playgrounds, which have unique opportunities for kids to play.
The story behind the Garden of Bacon. Harry Schwartz survived three heart attacks and stomach cancer. Then, during the pandemic, he opened a cozy Glen Cove emporium that sells almost nothing but bacon.
Should your teen get a COVID-19 vaccine? A panel of experts, during the latest Newsday Live webinar, said there was no plausible reason not to. Watch the full discussion and read more.
How COVID-19 might have improved the workplace. It took a pandemic to convince employees not to show up to work when sick — one of the few welcome changes brought on by COVID-19, experts said. The pandemic has raised awareness of how disease is spread and the need to protect yourself and each other.
Plus, next week on Newsday: Experts answer questions and teach you how to use job networking sites and build the best profile to advance your career and more. Here's where you can register.
Sign up for text messages to get the most important coronavirus news and information.
Commentary
Looking forward to saying 'goodbye pandemic, hello Italy!' Reader Dianne Guarino, of Northport, writes: Just as generations past were asked, "Where were you when Kennedy and/or Lennon was shot?" years from now, people will be asked, "What did you do to pass time during the pandemic quarantine?"
Some might say they had no free time since working from home was harder than going into the office. Others might say they binged on Netflix series or baked sourdough bread. Me? I learned Italian.
Fifteen years ago, I traveled to Italy with my husband. A few family members joined us. I learned a few words and phrases beforehand. Basics, like asking directions to a bathroom or the cost of something, didn't have to pass through my lips too often since most of the country gladly spoke English to us. It didn't hurt that my husband's aunt was with us and took on the heavy lifting of the language when needed. But I liked the language and wished I had chosen it instead of German in high school or French in my senior year of college. I never became proficient at either one.
So why take on learning another language? The easy answer is I retired in December 2019 and planned to travel until COVID-19 hit — and I couldn't. The hope of being able to move freely about the planet in the future inspired me to use my free time exercising my brain even if I couldn't go to the gym to exercise my body. (A return to Italy is on our bucket list, and we can't count on Aunt Anna to be there for us.)
I got started with an online language app. The one I picked has a little green owl to provide encouragement along the way. Keep reading.
Erin Serpico is an assistant web producer who joined Newsday in November 2018. Originally from New Jersey, she now covers community events and produces local content for newsday.com while also helping run the homepage.
