Long Island home prices rose steadily through March before stock market turmoil

Long Island home prices continued to climb higher in March amid a shortage of options for buyers, but a gloomy economic outlook has some local real estate experts concerned about the potential effect on the spring market.

The median sale price of a single-family home in Nassau County rose 12.3% to $820,000 last month, compared with March 2024, according to new data from OneKey MLS, the multiple listing service that covers Long Island.

In Suffolk, the median price increased 7.4% to $655,000, compared with the same month a year ago. That was down from $680,000 in February, when the median in Suffolk matched a record high. The real estate industry typically measures prices as compared with the same month a year earlier to account for seasonality.

Prices increased “fairly significantly over the previous year,” said Richard Haggerty, CEO of OneKey MLS. “That continues to demonstrate that the big problem is our low inventory because buyers are out there and willing to pay a premium.”

The data reflects sales that closed in March and were agreed to earlier in the winter. The looming question now hanging over Long Island’s spring housing market is how falling stock prices and the economic fallout from President Donald Trump’s tariff policies will affect homebuyers and sellers.

At the national level, consumer sentiment fell sharply in early April to its lowest level since June 2022. It was the second-lowest reading since the University of Michigan began surveying consumers in 1952. Consumer confidence on Long Island also fell last month, but the decline was less extreme than it was nationwide.

Haggerty said Long Island’s strong job market and the continued strength of home prices over the past few years give him optimism about the housing market this spring but said it’s too soon to tell how buyers and sellers will react. 

“It’s tough to believe that what’s been going on with consumer sentiment and what’s been going on in the stock market is not going to impact the [housing] market in some fashion,” he said. “We just don’t know how.”

Prospective homebuyers have had mixed reactions so far, said Jovanni Ortiz, a real estate agent at Douglas Elliman in Rockville Centre.

Buyers motivated to move in time for the next school year or to start a new job are more likely to move forward with their plans, he said.

“For people who are just exploring, dipping their toes in the water, I think they will wait,” Ortiz said. “I think they will hold off for a little bit of certainty and more information on how the economy is going to shake out.” 

Until more listings start to hit the market, sellers will continue to have an edge, agents said. Available options in the two counties have started to diverge. Nassau County had about 9% fewer homes on the market at the end of March, compared with a year ago, while homes for sale in Suffolk increased 1.5% compared with the previous year.

There were 1,255 single-family home closings across Long Island last month, which was up 2.4% from the same month in 2024, but low compared with the previous few years after the start of the pandemic, Haggerty said.

Al Jacabacci, an agent at Exit Realty in Patchogue, said he saw little evidence of buyers wavering during an open house he held last weekend in West Babylon. He said about 80 sets of buyers checked out the property, which was listed for about $640,000, on Friday and Saturday, and the house had more than a dozen offers by the end of the weekend.

“We’re still getting a very high demand and a shortage of inventory, which is creating bidding wars on properties,” Jacabacci said.

One driver of the inventory shortage has been mortgage rates, Jacabacci said. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage hasn’t dipped below 6% since September 2022. Last week, the average was 6.62%, according to Freddie Mac.

That makes it unattractive for homeowners who bought or refinanced with rates around 3% to sell their home and accept a higher mortgage rate, he said. The exception has often been older Long Islanders who plan to move out of state, where the proceeds from their sale might go further, said Jacabacci, who typically markets homes on the South Shore of Suffolk County.

“The sellers seem to be the ones that are leaving Long Island, where the change in rate doesn’t really matter,” he said.

By Jonathan LaMantia

jonathan.lamantia@newsday.com@jonlamantia

Jonathan LaMantia covers residential real estate and other business news on Long Island. He previously covered the business of health care for Crain's New York Business.