Westchester Home Listings Plunge With Sellers Wary of Virus
Westchester Home Listings Plunge With Sellers Waiting Out Virus
(Bloomberg) -- New Yorkers looking to move to Westchester are short on options.
The number of single-family homes listed for sale in the county plunged the most on record in the second quarter, according to data going back to 1995 from appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate.
With in-person showings banned as part of measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, buyers also pulled back in the three months through June. Sales in Westchester dropped 21%, the biggest quarterly fall since 2009.
Westchester and other areas just outside New York are seeing increased demand as city dwellers wary of dense urban living look for more space. While many buyers and sellers were on the sidelines during the lockdown, the market is now poised to bounce back, according to Scott Durkin, president of Douglas Elliman.
“I think in the next couple of weeks, we’ll see a spike in listings,” he said. “Everything froze and now it’s just thawing.”
There were 2,270 single-family homes listed for sale in Westchester County at the end of the second quarter, a 32% decrease from a year earlier.
The brokerage Houlihan Lawrence, which released its own report on the Westchester market, said that after New York shut down in late March there was a surge in requests for furnished short-term rentals, followed by inquiries about single-family homes with offices and outdoor space.
Many sellers decided to wait, but the pent-up demand means it’s a good time to put homes on the market, according to Debbie Doern, a senior vice president at Houlihan Lawrence.
“We’re crazy busy right now,” she said.
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