The Tudor home at 596 Purchase Street offers good value in a pricey market.
By Robin Jovanovich
Whether it’s Rye, Rye Neck, Rye Brook, Mamaroneck, Harrison, or Purchase real estate, the story is the same, says Susanna Cronin, Brokerage Manager of Houlihan Lawrence in Rye.
“Inventory is low. In Rye, the number of active listings is down 29 percent this year.” Despite rising inflation and mortgage rates and the stock market dropping 30 percent, Cronin is not seeing a falloff in buyers.
“Buyers are savvy, and they recognize that interest rates aren’t going down next year, so if a well-priced and well-maintained house comes on the market, it will sell.”
Fiona Dogan, a longtime realtor at Julia B. Fee Sotheby’s, believes 2022 will continue to be an unprecedented year. “The volume of buyers is constant. Many have already sold their homes and are renting while they search for their next home; many of them can purchase that next home with the cash they’ve accumulated. That drives up prices, too.”
Buyers who need financing are getting it, adds Dogan. The only sellers who are suffering in this frenzied market are those whose homes are unrenovated or in poor repair. “That’s where good brokers come in! What we stage, we sell.”
Dogan is excited to have four very saleable listings coming on the market in the next few weeks.
Michele Flood, one of the most successful agents in Rye and environs for several decades, says we’re still at the top of this enormous wave. “Normal negotiations are gone; every listing is ‘best-and-final offer by 5’ that day or weekend. There are currently 73 home sales pending in Rye, only 31 active listings, and not enough homes coming on to meet demand.”
Meanwhile, the only rentals that are not insanely priced, says the longtime Coldwell Banker agent, are those at the St. Regis. Flood has an “iconic home” coming on after Memorial Day, and just listed Belluscio’s on Midland Avenue. She is bittersweet about the news, as she has been a loyal patron of the restaurant, which opened in the 1930s and has been family-run from the start.
Kim Arenas of Compass, which recently moved its Rye office to Purchase Street, feels that “uncertainty is a driving force for homebuyers. People want security and certainty, especially at a time when fears about the economy, Covid numbers, and crises around the world are mounting.”
However, she counsels her clients to sell when it’s the right time for them and their family.
“It’s natural to want to take advantage of a seller’s market, but the market isn’t going to change dramatically in the next year, so don’t put your house on prematurely. The frenzy will subside.”
