Homebuying activity remains strong in Queens, according to OneKey MLS’ new market report.
The report shows a year-over-year increase in both sold property median price and sold property counts overall.
“I think we are on track to have a record-breaking year in terms of the number of sales, the median prices and the pending overall gross volume for the calendar year, which is always a good thing for the market,” said Jim Speer, CEO of OneKey MLS.
The overall gross volume — the number of sold prices times the median sales — has significantly impacted the economy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more money comes in through the gross sales volume, the economy gets a boost.
“A lot of money has been pumped into the economy through home sales,” Speer said. “Once we got past the first six months of the pandemic and people could buy homes again, while the rest of the economy was really slowed down, the real estate market kept the economy chugging along with all the sales that were going on.”
Last month was a high point as far as the sold price goes, going down from $700,00 to $685,000 this month. The pending median price is also down slightly from last month, from $670,000 to $662,500.
Those numbers have seen slight fluctuations during the past year, going up slightly one month and going back down again.
“We’re not seeing a true trend as far as something ticking slowly down or ticking slowly up, but it’s kind of bouncing, staying in the same area without heading in one direction versus the other,” Speer said. “I think it has to do with the great buyer demand, as well as what comes on the market and what people are selling. It might be a little bit on the lower end one month and then on the higher end another month.”
Typically, when the buyer demand is high, prices will start out going up, level off and trickle down and fluctuate a bit, which can be seen in the report.
Speer attributes the high buyer demand to the low interest rates.
“As long as those interest rates stay low, the buyer demand is going to keep going,” he said.
Although the market has been hot and on the rise, Speer said they don’t predict a “bubble burst” in the market any time soon.
“I don’t really read about any experts who say that is going to happen,” he said. “Currently, there is a lot of equity in homes and buyer demand is high, both of which will keep the market going for quite a while, even though the moratorium on foreclosures is ending soon.”
Overall, Speer said that based on the report, they would expect the market to stay strong in the coming year. Even if the interest rates go up a bit, there are no projections that show rates going up considerably, which shouldn’t put a drag on homebuyers.
