Ruthmarie's Blog

May 24th, 2009 by Ruthmarie Hicks
Categories: Real Estate Market Reports, Scarsdale, Villages/Towns

Much of Scarsdale is in full blown buyer’s market mode. In single family homes, the price drops and inventory issues have been extremely severe. The cooperative market has held up much better. The weakness in single family homes is in part a reflection of the stressed jumbo loan market. Since most homes in the coveted 10583 zip code fall into the high-end category - the market has been dealt a more severe blow than corresponding markets in White Plains and Hartsdale.

Scarsdale is a wonderful place to live and qualified buyers should be taking advantage of this rare opportunity.

Scarsdale Cooperatives:

Coop prices and inventory have remained remarkably stable over the past year with prices dropping less than 1% over the previous year. Volume was down 28% over Q1 of 2008 and the overhanging inventory is about 12 months. However, since we are now in the prime selling season with 20 units under contract or pending, the actual inventory is significantly lower than that. Prices are close to 8% off their highs from Q1 of 2007. But this is a far milder reduction than we’ve seen in other parts of the county.

The area is desirable with an easy commute to Manhattan, so its not surprising that prices have been resistant to the declines seen in other markets. Further, the price point for cooperatives inoculates them against the woes of the jumbo loan market. The charts below show just how resilient this market has proven to be.

Scarsdale Condominiums:

There are not a lot of condos in Scarsdale. This reflects the high concentration of pre-war construction which lended itself to coop conversion in the 1980s. The level of sales will increase as Christie Place starts to have significant closings, But until then the numbers are too small a market for me to post too many statistics. For that reason I have refrained from charting or drawing any true conclusions. Only four units sold in the first quarter of 2009. There are 13 units on the market and two sold during the same quarter of the previous year. The average price was under $500,000 - however, the presence of the 55+ community of Christie Place will change those stats significantly in the coming months.

Scarsdale Single Family Homes:

Prices are down over 17% from the previous year and down 37% from 2007. The inventory of 166 homes creates an overhanging inventory of 35 months. This is a full-blown buyer’s market and is in part a reflection of Jumbo loan issues that creates a pall over the entire high-end market nation-wide. The charts below paint a grim picture.

Nevertheless, there is a glimmer of light in that there are 47 contingent/pending sales at this time. Given the state of lending, many of these will have challenging closings. However, most of the 23 pendings will indeed close. So the market is definitely picking up steam with volume increasing dramatically off of its alarming lows of the winter. If half of the contingents and all of the pending sales close within 60 days, the inventory overhang would be about 9.5 months - assuming that volume is achieved and can be sustained.

Edgemont Single Family Homes:

Edgemont shares a zip code with Scarsdale as well as the Scarsdale P.O. Edgemont is part of the town of Greenburgh - but I include the stats here because many who are looking to buy in Scarsdale are often searching in Edgemont as well.

Sales prices in Edgemont are off significantly and reflect the correction seen in Scarsdale itself. The average sales price of the first quarter tumbled 42% from the previous year. Since prices didn’t adjust downward from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008, its as if Edgemont experienced in one year the same reduction that took place in Scarsdale over two years. The average sales price fell from $1,449k in 2008 to $840k in 2009. Sales volume tumbled in the first quarter by 50% - although given the small volume of both 2008 - 2009 it is difficult to draw conclusions. Sales volume is down 81% Q1 of 2007 as can be seen in the third chart at the bottom of the page.

The current active inventory is 57 houses with homes selling at about a rate of one a month in the first quarter. At this time, the market is picking up with 8 contingent contracts and pending sales. If six of these lead to a closing within 60 days that would leave an overhanging inventory of about 19 months.

An Important Note About the Criteria for the Statistics:
I handle each type of housing in Scarsdale differently. I also include a special section for single family homes in “Edgemont” which is really in the town of Greenburgh with a Scarsdale post-office and zip code.
For condominiums and cooperatives, I use the Scarsdale post office and zip code as my criteria. Many of these complexes are actually located in Greenburgh and Eastchester.

This reflects the way most buyer’s shop for housing. Coop and condo buyers work by address whereas those looking for single-family homes are often shopping municipality and school districts.