Despite declines in home sales throughout the first 12 months of the pandemic, the Queens real estate market fared better than all New York City boroughs, according to a new report.
Already the most active residential market in the city, Queens retained the highest sales activity in the past year, according to a report on the real estate market in the past year from PropertyShark.
However, that’s not to say the borough was immune to a declining market.
In the first 12 months of the pandemic, Queens saw 26 percent fewer deals made in the market when compared to the previous year, the report said.
Over the course of the year, the decline in the borough’s market fluctuated. At the start of the pandemic, sales in the borough more than halved, falling by 54 percent year-over-year in April, with 552 sales, according to PropertyShark. Though sales bounced back up in the early summer, hitting a 29 percent year-over-year decrease in July, sales dropped back down by the fall.
In September, “confidence [in the market] evaporated,” according to the report. Sales activity that month fell by 56 percent when compared to September 2019.
However, the drop wasn’t sustained. By October, more buyers returned to the market, when sales almost doubled when compared to the month prior. Since then, sales have remained fairly consistent, reaching a peak in December 2020, when home sales were up 3 percent when compared to the year before, the report said.
When the market began to bounce back in October, so did the median sales price in the borough. In fact, even during the slowest months on the market, prices continued to climb, according to PropertyShark.
In April, the median sales price rose by 16 percent. In the following months, the growth fell to single-digit growth until October, when it went back into the teens, where it stayed for the next several months.
In the past year, the median sales price in Queens hit or rose above $640,000 three times, the report said. Overall, the average price during the pandemic in the borough was $600,000, a 9 percent increase when compared to the year prior.
The balance in price differed from Queens’ neighbors.
In Manhattan and the Bronx, prices fluctuated much more throughout the first year of the pandemic, according to the report.
Manhattan was the only borough in New York City to see a drop in its median sales price during the first year of the pandemic. Nonetheless, it remained the most expensive of the five boroughs.
For the full report, click here.
