Rand Country Blog July 20, 2015

So What’s Going on in the Bergen County Real Estate Market?: The Rand Quarterly Market Report for 2015Q2

Bergen County SF 2015Q2This week, Better Homes and Gardens Rand Realty is releasing its Quarterly Market Report for all the counties it services: Westchester, Putnam, Rockland, Orange, and Dutchess Counties in New York; and Bergen, Passaic, and Morris Counties in New Jersey. Below is an excerpt from the report, but you can get the full Report here.

The Bergen County housing market continued to strengthen in the second quarter of 2015, with sales and prices up across the board compared to last year. Although the longer-term trends are more mixed, the market is clearly moving in a positive direction.

Sales. Bergen single-family home sales surged in the second quarter, with closings up 10.2% from last year. This marked the third straight quarter that year-on-year sales were up, although the first time that the increase was in the double-digits. We expect that sales will continue to rise in the seasonally strong third quarter.

Prices. With these sustained increases in buyer demand, we’re also seeing some meaningful price appreciation. Prices were up for the quarter, rising 2.8% on average and 4.4% at the median. The longer-term trend, though, was more mixed, with the average down 1.4% and the median basically flat.

Negotiability. The negotiability indicators were also mixed, indicating that sellers are still struggling to gain leverage with home buyers. Essentially, homes were selling a little more quickly, with the days-on-market falling 4.1%, but they were also being discounted a bit more, with the listing retention rate falling from 96.0% to 94.7%.

Condos & Coops. The Bergen condo market was not as strong in the second quarter, with sales up 4.3% but prices down across the board. The longer-term trends go in a different direction, with sales down 4.0% for the rolling year but prices more mixed.

The Bergen County market is going in the right direction, with sustained increases in buyer demand that are driving sales growth and now some emerging signs of price appreciation. Going forward, we expect that sales and prices will continue to rise in a seasonally strong third quarter, especially with an improving economy and near-historically-low interest rates.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE COMPLETE REPORT

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