The big story in the Rye residential real estate market for 2013 was the number of homes sold.
By Robin Jovanovich
The big story in the Rye residential real estate market for 2013 was the number of homes sold. “It was a banner year,” said Nancy Neuman, manager of Coldwell Banker’s Rye office. “There was an unusual up-trend in multiple offers for high-end homes, and in people trading up fast and furiously in the most active months.”
Pati Holmes, Managing Broker of Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s International Realty, said, “2013 was a year when confidence overflowed in our local Rye market and buyers who had been tip-toeing around for the past few years actively participated.”
According to Multiple Listing Service (MLS) statistics, the number of Rye homes sold last year was up 14 percent over 2012.
The biggest gains, reported Judiann Smith, Manager of the Houlihan Lawrence Rye office, were “in the $4,000,000 and up category, which was up 46 percent in units sold.”
Last year, 174 Rye homes sold. The average sale price rose to $1,989,515, from $1,925,246 in 2012.
Based on MLS data, the median sale price for a single-family home in Rye City in 2013 was $1,487,000, a decline of close to 5 percent. But Smith says she believes that median number is understated, “largely owing to new construction homes that sold before they hit the market and are therefore missing from the MLS calculation.” She added, “We can account for sales equaling a median price of $1,510,000, which is closely aligned with median prices in 2011 ($1,514,900), and in 2012 ($1,570,000).”
The only segment of the market that wasn’t up in 2013 was in the $1.5-2 million range.
Michelle Coletti, the new Manager of Better Homes & Garden Realty, said the Rye office experienced one of its best years yet. “We’re poised for even greater success this year. We’ve already welcomed four new agents aboard.”
Business at William Raveis was up 69 percent last year, according to Marylin M. Hoffman, who manages the Rye/Harrison office. “We predict that this trend will continue in 2014.”
Notwithstanding the uncooperative weather, Holmes said, “All of our metrics point to a hot spring. We have felt the buyer activity heat up over the last two weeks.” The biggest difficulty in Rye for buyers and their agents remains low inventory.”
Buyers who want to live in Rye are lining up, added Smith. “Inventory is low. The demand is in place, and prices are at the very least stable. It will be a great year to buy and sell in Rye.”
Neuman is similarly sanguine about 2014. But she adds a cautionary note: “It is quite possible that the mortgage rate may go up in the second half of the year, and this will have an effect.”
Meanwhile, homes new and old have already hit the listing sheets.
