The Long Island housing market is showing the impact of higher mortgage rates, as home sales and prices have declined.
There were 2,297 Long Island homes contracted for sale in September, down 19 percent from the 2,825 homes contracted for sale the previous month and nearly 22 percent fewer than the 2,931 homes that were contracted for sale in Sept. 2021, according to preliminary numbers from OneKey MLS.
Pending home sales in Suffolk County have now fallen for the last 16 months when compared with the previous year and pending sales in Nassau County have dropped year over year for the last nine months.
Long Island home prices are also retreating. The median price of closed home sales in Nassau last month was $699,000, the first time since May that the median price was under $700,000. In Suffolk, the median price of closed home sales last month was $550,000, down 2.7 percent from the $565,000 median recorded in August and the lowest median price since April.
Brokers attribute the sales and price declines to rapidly rising mortgage rates. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.88 percent this week, according to bankrate.com, that’s double the rate from just nine months ago.
Meanwhile, inventory remains lower than a year ago. There were 6,778 homes—3,140 in Nassau and 3,638 in Suffolk—listed for sale with OneKey MLS as of Tuesday. That’s slightly more than the 6,760 Long Island homes that were listed for sale at the end of August, but 3.5 percent fewer than the 7,044 homes that were listed for sale at the end of Sept. 2021.
By: David Winzelberg
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