Long Island home prices surge to record highs in August in country's 'strongest seller's market'

Long Island home prices surged to record highs in August, as the region retained its place this summer as the strongest seller’s market in the country.

In Nassau County, the median price was $911,000 among single-family home sales last month, or 4.7% higher than in August 2025 when the median was $870,000.

In Suffolk, the median climbed 7% to a record $760,000 last month, up from $710,000 in August 2025, according to new OneKey MLS data released Tuesday.

The previous record median price in Nassau was $890,000 in May. Suffolk County’s previous high was $750,000 in June and July.

Long Island’s shortage of available homes contributed to Redfin recently dubbing Long Island the strongest seller’s market in the country based on the degree to which the estimated number of buyers in the market outweighed the number of sellers in July.

"By and large across the country, it’s really a buyer’s market," said Chen Zhao, head of economics research at Redfin. "The six seller’s markets are disproportionately concentrated in the Northeast and Long Island is the strongest."

Northern New Jersey and Providence, Rhode Island, were also among the top seller’s markets, while Miami, Nashville and parts of Texas were most tilted toward buyers, according to Redfin.

Mortgage rates have climbed this year, increasing the cost of a monthly mortgage payment. The average 30-year fixed rate increased to 6.76% for the week ending Thursday, according to Freddie Mac. The average had been just under 6% in February before the start of the Iran war.

"Even with headwinds, buyers are not abandoning the market," said Richard Haggerty, CEO of OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service that covers Long Island.

However, the effect of higher mortgage rates isn’t reflected in August closed sales because many of those deals were agreed to months earlier when rates were lower, Haggerty said.

In the years since the pandemic, the number of houses on the market has been cut in half, spurring competition. That dynamic has gotten slightly worse over the past year, as the number of houses on the market fell about 2.4% in August compared with a year earlier to about 5,400.

Fewer listings have yielded fewer sales. There were 2,000 closed sales in Nassau and Suffolk last month, which was down 1.8% from the same month a year ago.

In New Hyde Park, real estate agent Grace Desiderio counted 55 listings in her area earlier this week. She recalls twice as many options for buyers before the pandemic.

Desiderio said she recently listed a house at $699,000 — below the typical price for the area — that received 17 offers, including multiple over the asking price and several from potential home flippers.

"The inventory is the key, and that’s where the issue lies," Desiderio said. "No matter what the interest rates are, you’re still going to have a problem if supply is not there for the demand."

A key missing ingredient in the market has been homeowners looking to trade up to larger houses but stay on Long Island, said Bryan Karp, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker American Homes in Smithtown. 

Homeowners haven't been enticed to buy a bigger house when it means abandoning a mortgage rate that could be around 3%.

"People who are selling are leaving Long Island," Karp said. "There’s really not that many people trading up and down because everyone’s handcuffed to their interest rate."

But Karp said the experience of multiple offers over asking price is not universal, and homes that require significant renovations can take longer to sell, as buyers shy away from costly projects.

That means sellers must be careful not to ask too high a price, he said.

"The best real estate is still getting a lot of looks and excitement," Karp said. "Some of the more bruised real estate is just not."