Spring bounce in Long Island housing market as prices soar

The Long Island market, which had lagged behind last year’s numbers in the first quarter, rebounded somewhat in April.

Despite a jump in mortgage rates, last month saw a rise in pending home sales, an increase in listings and record high prices of closed home sales.

There were 2,266 homes contracted for sale in Nassau and Suffolk counties last month, up about 5.7 percent from the 2,144 homes that were contracted for sale in April 2023, according to preliminary numbers from OneKey MLS.

Inventory is also on the rise. There were 5,083 homes listed for sale with OneKey MLS2,237 in Nassau and 2,846 in Suffolkas of Monday. That’s 5.2 percent more than the 4,834 homes that were listed for sale at the end of April 2023.

Still, the current inventory remains well below the average forthe last five years. The 5,083 Long Island homes listed for sale as of Monday is 33.2 percent fewer than the five-year average of 7,612 listings for the end of April between 2019 and 2023.

The historically constrained supply of homes for sale has contributed to higher home prices, which reached record levels last month. The median price of closed home sales in Nassau in April was $741,500, up 12.5 percent from the $659,000 median price recorded in April 2023.

In Suffolk, the median price of closed home sales last month climbed to$605,000, an increase of 12 percent from the $540,000 median price recorded in April 2023 and the first time the Suffolk median has eclipsed the $600,000 mark.

Meanwhile, mortgage rates, which many industry observers said would level off this year, jumped last month. The average rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage ranged from around 7.5 percent to nearly 8 percent in April, though this week the average rate is 7.4 percent, according to bankrate.com. By comparison, the average mortgage rate in April 2023 was around 6.4 percent.

Chris Roberti, director of strategic growth for Hartford Funding, a Woodbury-based mortgage lender, said homebuyersare now resigned to the fact that these are what the interest rates are.

“People have understood that if they have to buy a house,they can’t wait for the rates to get to where they hope they might be, whatever number they have in their head,” Roberti said. “These rates are cyclical. I think within the next couple of months you’re hopefully going to see rates a little bit more down-to-earth.”

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