There’s finally a bit of good news for the local real estate market, according to statistics compiled by Hampton Bays-based Suffolk Research Service Inc.
In a recent press release, George Simpson, president of Suffolk Research Service, wrote that real estate activity on the East End is showing strong signs of a turnaround from the first four months of this year.
Mr. Simpson reported that all three of the market indicators—median price, unit sales and dollar sales—showed an uptick in the second quarter of 2009, compared to the first quarter of this year.
According to Mr. Simpson’s calculations, median sales price grew by 2.3 percent, from $576,800 in the first quarter to $590,000 in the second quarter. Dollar sales increased by nearly 33 percent, from $298 million to $396 million, and unit sales increased by 34.4 percent from the first quarter of the year, with units sold, compared to 256 in the earlier quarter.
But the local real estate economy still has far to go to reach the figures of this time last year.
Second-quarter dollar sales of single-family homes for 2009 were down by 54 percent from the $860 million in the second quarter of 2008. Additionally, the median price of single-family residences decreased 19.7 percent to $590,000 in the second quarter of 2009. Unit sales for second quarter 2008 were down 40.3 percent to 344 units sold during the same time frame this year.
The strongest year for real estate on the East End was 2007, when the median price for a single-family home was $825,000 and the total dollar sales for 815 units sold for the year was $1.24 billion.
on Jul 28, 2009