Every quarter we put together what we are seeing across our active markets. This is not zillow speculation, it is what we are actually paying for houses we close on. Take it for what it is.
Queens
Stable to slightly up. The 1-2 family inventory in Bayside, Forest Hills, and Douglaston is moving at around 3% above last year’s prices. Inherited properties from the 1950s-1960s Cape Cod and Tudor stock are the most active segment. Average days on market for our acquisitions: 14 from contract to close.
Long Island
The Great Neck / Manhasset / Kings Point corridor has been steady. Levittown and the inner south shore towns have softened maybe 1-2% on a yearly basis. The story there is supply: the postwar inventory is finally catching up with retiree downsizing trends, and there are simply more sellers than confident buyers right now. Good time to be on our side of the table.
Westchester
Yonkers and the lower county is the most active part of our Westchester pipeline. Lots of estate properties moving. Prices are flat to slightly up year over year. White Plains, New Rochelle, Mount Vernon are the markets we are spending most time on.
Northern + Central NJ
Bergen County stays strong, Hudson is hot, Essex is mixed. We have closed in Morris, Passaic, and Sussex counties as well but those are slower markets and the buy box is narrower. If you have a property in Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Somerset, Sussex, Union, or Warren counties, we will look at it. Same offer process.
What this means if you are thinking about selling
Two questions to ask yourself: how much time do you have, and how much work does your house need? If you have six months and the house is move-in ready, a traditional listing usually beats us by a clear margin. If you have a tighter window or the house needs real work, our number gets competitive fast. We are not trying to convince anyone to take our offer who has better options. We are trying to be the obvious answer when our offer is actually the best path.
Next quarterly update lands in August.
For more background: Wikipedia overview of the NY metropolitan area.
What we are NOT seeing
We are not seeing the cliff that everyone in the financial press predicted a year ago. Rates are still high, transaction volume is still depressed, but the prices we are paying for actual closed deals have not moved materially. The thesis that high rates would force distressed sellers into a price crash has not played out in the NY metro because most homeowners here have substantial equity and either refinanced at 3% or own outright. They simply do not have to sell at a discount.
Where the inventory actually comes from
About 60% of what we buy is estate-driven (probate, inherited, downsizing). About 20% is distress (foreclosure, tax liens, divorce). About 15% is tired-landlord exits. About 5% is everything else (relocation, fast-job-change, etc.). The estate piece is structurally stable and probably gets bigger as the baby boomer cohort ages. The distress piece tracks the interest rate cycle. The landlord piece is unique to NY State right now because of the post-2019 tenant law changes.
If you are thinking about selling this year
The decision tree is simpler than the financial-press headlines suggest. Question one: do you have time? If yes, list traditionally. If no, cash buyer. Question two: does the house need significant work? If yes, cash buyer. If no, list. Question three: is the situation emotionally complicated (divorce, estate, distressed)? If yes, cash buyer. If no, list. We are the right answer when one or more of those tilts toward speed and certainty. We are the wrong answer otherwise, and we will tell you so directly when you call.
If you want a real number for your specific house
Quarterly trend pieces are useful for orientation but they do not tell you what your specific house is worth. The way to find out is the same way we figure it out for ourselves: pull the last three comparable sales on your block, subtract the cost of the work your house needs to match the renovated ones, and look at the gap.
If you want us to run that math for you, call (516) 964-7222 or send the address through our contact form. The numbers we generate will be specific to your house, your block, and the current quarter. Same approach we used for the case studies we have closed in Bayside, Manhasset, and Yonkers.
One more thought on this market. The constant question we hear from sellers reading market commentary is whether to wait six months and see if rates drop, hoping for a higher number. Our honest take: if rates drop materially, prices in this market will rise, but the increase will be partially eaten by more competing inventory hitting the market at the same time as everyone who has been waiting decides to sell. The net is rarely a windfall. Sellers with a real reason to move now usually do better by moving now.
Sellers in similar spots also ask us how to sell an inherited home or sell a house during divorce.
We buy across Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Westchester and New Jersey, so you can sell your house fast in Forest Hills NY, sell a house fast in Park Slope NY, or read about how we buy houses in Levittown NY.