Real Estate

Real Estate: Southold prices, sales up; dipping in Riverhead

For the second straight quarter, median sale prices for single-family homes were up year-over-year in Southold Town, as was the overall number of homes sold. Meanwhile, in Riverhead, both unit sales and median prices saw a dip from last year.

According to real estate tracking firm Suffolk Research Service, median home prices rose 5.6 percent overall to $675,000 across the East End in the third quarter compared with last year. However, the number of homes sold dropped slightly, from 860 in the third quarter last year to 853 this year.

Median home prices in Southold jumped from $429,000 in last year’s third quarter to $480,000 this year. Across the border in Riverhead, prices fell from $350,000 to about $339,000.

John Bagshaw of Bagshaw Real Estate  in Riverhead said that so far this year, sales are still trying to catch up after a slow start following a long winter, though there’s still some encouraging activity. The number of homes sold in Riverhead last quarter eclipses those sold in the third quarter of 2012: 105 over 88. Last year, sales spiked at 122 homes.

As for the small dip in selling prices, he said it points to more activity in the $300,000-and-below market.

“Riverhead in general is more blue-collar,” he said. “We’re a working town. I think that’s probably why.”

In Southold, median prices rose 11.9 percent after dipping in the third quarter of 2013. Prices there returned to 2012 levels.

However, agent Thomas McCarthy of Southold’s Thomas J. McCarthy Real Estate Inc., said homeowners looking to sell should be careful when considering the increase in overall home sale prices.

Just because prices for Southold single-family homes rose 11.9 percent doesn’t mean all homes are worth 11.9 percent more, he said. For instance, last quarter he noticed that prices for waterfront homes jumped handily, while those for non-waterfront homes stayed flat.

“If you have a non-waterfront property and you’re looking at the rest of those figures, that could be very misleading,” he said.

According to Suffolk Research Service, the median sales price for vacant residential land across the East End fell to $395,000, down from $405,000 in the third quarter of last year. However the number of land sales rose from 97 to 126.

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