NEIGHBORHOODS
Only partly sunny on the North Fork Prices dip for luxe market, but up overall A double spiral staircase in the entry foyer of Mattituck’s 55 Cox Neck Road never fails to awe.
N
ot everything is coming up daisies this spring
changed at $1,156,250, the data showed.
for the well-heeled on the North Fork, es-
Pricewise, owners of more modest homes are doing better:
pecially those who want to sell their homes.
The overall median price on the North Fork jumped about 12
Their swanky digs probably won’t bring as
percent, from $418,500 to $469,000.
much as they did this time last year.
But the total number of sales on the North Fork dropped by
The average sales price for a luxury home plummeted by a third in the first quarter com-
pared to a year before—from $1,689,267 to $1,160,563—because
so many buyers closed deals just before the end of the year to
nearly a fifth, from 94 to 78, year-over-year. Reports on the East End by brokerage Brown Harris Stevens and listings site StreetEasy had similar findings. “The North Fork was a step behind its Hamptons counterpart
avoid changes in capital gains tax rates, according to a new re-
to the south,” Miller Samuel’s Jonathan Miller, author of the re-
port from brokerage Douglas Elliman. (The report defines the
port, told Luxury Listings NYC.
luxury market as the top 10 percent of all deals in terms of price.) A bit more positive news for top-tier homeowners, though:
“Housing prices were generally higher [overall] than year ago levels, but sales fell and inventory edged higher,” he said.
the median luxury sales price, which remained essentially un-
How long do North Fork homes take to sell? Less than during the worst of the downturn in ’09 Year
Days on market
2013
364
2012
322
2011
378
2010
329
2009
413
Source: StreetEasy; averages are for April of each year
A decade of North Fork home prices Year
Price
2011
$375,000
2010
$395,000
2009
$375,000
2008
$440,000
2007
$460,000
2006
$450,000
2005
$410,000
2004
$373,300
Source: StreetEasy; median prices are for April of each year
Sizing up the market Marianne Collins, an agent at Brown Harris Stevens on the North Fork Q: Where is the biggest shortage of available homes? A: There is only so much waterfront property available, especially large bay and sound-front properties. And [in some] of our historic villages that are small, only a few homes are available at a given time, and attract immediate interest —for example, New Suffolk, Orient and Greenport Village. Q: What are you doing to drum up business? A: Networking is more important than ever, especially with colleagues in New York City and the Hamptons, as well as locally.
Luxury Listings NYC | MAY/JUNE 2013
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