The good news for Long Island homeowners is that home prices climbed in July to new records for a second straight month.
The median sale price for a single-family home in Nassau County last month rose 6.8% to $860,000, surpassing the previous record set in June by $10,000, according to new data from OneKey MLS. A year ago, the median was $805,000.
A 6.8% increase in value for many people’s largest single investment over one month is nothing to sneeze at. Add to that how quickly homes were selling.
Days on the market fell 29.2% from 48 to 34 in July, shearing off 14 days — or nearly a third of the time it took to close a deal — in a sign that buyers are looking to live in Nassau County.
And condos and co-ops did even better.
Condo prices topped house prices, rising 15.6%, or more than $100,000, from $752,000 to $870,000. Median co-op sale prices rose 10.7% to $362,000.
Remote work, superior schools and a desire to live in Nassau County may be fueling this seemingly relentless rise in Nassau real estate values. So may supply and demand.
The bad news, at least for Nassau County’s economic health, is that the number of houses for sale fell 5.2% from 2,352 to 2,230 in July.
Fewer homes mean higher prices, all things being equal.
In 2024, builders sought permits for 1,818 privately owned residential structures, less than half of the total in Nassau County from the year 2000.
Of those building permits, 666 were obtained to build 824 units in Nassau County, about half the number sought in Suffolk County, where 1,152 permits were sought to build 1,366 units.
This is nothing new.
According to Bloomberg News, Suffolk and Nassau permitted less new housing per capita among the United States’ 100 biggest counties from 2013 to 2022 than all but one county in Ohio.
These low construction figures on Long Island come at a time when Gov. Kathy Hochul estimates there is a need for 800,000 housing units statewide.
Last week the New York City Council unanimously approved rezonings in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan to convert office space into apartments, clearing the way for more than 9,500 new homes along 42 blocks in the heart of the island.
The apartments are expected to house about 16,000 people.
The housing shortage in Nassau County has driven people out of the state. It has also hurt local businesses’ ability to attract new employees, homeowners who want to downsize but still live in Nassau, and young professionals who want to move here.
Cara Longworth, regional director of Albany’s Empire State Development, recently said that between 2009 and 2019, the Island lost 98,000 people between the ages of 35 and 55, the prime working age.
“That’s impacting our companies,” Longworth said. “In the last 20 years, we’ve created 62,000 more jobs than housing units.”
Matt Cohen, the president and CEO of the Long Island Association, a non-profit that advocates for businesses, has said housing costs and availability continue to challenge Long Island’s economy, making it difficult to attract and keep talented employees.
The obvious solution to this problem is for villages and towns to do what New York City did—update their zoning laws. In Nassau County’s case, this means permitting multi-family construction as of right in certain areas, such as near LIRR train stations.
There is a precedent for this.
The villages of Mineola and Farmingdale have both succeeded in revitalizing their communities by making zoning changes. The Town of Oyster Bay has done the same in Hicksville.
A key to their success has been elected officials willing to work with their communities to develop a plan.
But as the housing prices show, their efforts have not been nearly enough.
More towns and villages must change zoning laws that will increase the construction of new housing and support a growing economy.
