From Vanessa Saunders, MBA, MIMC , Broker Owner, Global Property Systems Real Estate.

April 22, 2020

The Novel Coronavirus has all but put the Hudson Valley real estate market “on pause” with Realtors forced since March 22 to navigate a myriad of regulations, including virtual showings only, to close residential transactions.

A recently released report by OneKey Multiple Listing Service indicated that the market area of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors entered the pandemic that took hold in March on a very strong note, with mostly higher sales and higher sale prices.

Westchester County experienced a 7.2% increase in single-family home sales with 1,055 sales compared with 984 sales in the first quarter of 2019. Rockland County had an increase of 15% with sales of 452 units compared to 393 units in the first quarter of 2019. Putnam County sales were up 8.7% at 224, Sullivan County single-family sales rose 6.1% to 209 units and Bronx County (not officially a OneKey service area) had an increase of 6% at 123 single-family unit sales. Orange County sales dropped 3.5% to 737 sales from 764 sales in the first quarter of 2019.

Below is a chart showing first quarter statistics for new listings, which shows the start of a precipitous drop in March as the pandemic's effects took hold.

Number of Homes for Sale shows the gradual slide that characterized the market from 2017 to 2019, which were just starting to show an upward turn until Q4 2019. First quarter 2020 shows a sharp drop off similar to new listings.

Closed Sales were on the way up until Q1 2020, again a shift downward.

The drop in sales for Q1 only serves to predict significant losses in Q2 as we enter the quarter with little in the pipeline. Hopefully our battle with the virus will progress well enough to lift the pandemic restrictions sooner rather than later. It's hard to sell a house when you aren't allowed to view it in person.

Global Property Systems says: Stay home safe.

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