Westchester Mimics Manhattan in Home Sales; Nassau, Suffolk--Eat Your Heart Out!

As they did in Manhattan, home sales in Westchester County jumped in the first three months of 2007. Sales were up more than 18 percent from the fourth quarter of 2006 through the first of this year, according to the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. In the first quarter, in fact, Westchester recorded 10,250 home sales—more than what Manhattan typically sees in an entire year. 
Well, for one thing, Westchester’s housing market has buoyancy similar to Manhattan’s, where sales were up 42 in the first quarter to a record-high number of 3,474, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel (PDF). It also means that Westchester’s housing market may be healthier than those of other New York City suburbs.   
First-quarter sales in Nassau County dropped 14.9 percent from the fourth, according to Miller Samuel (PDF). Suffolk County sales were down 23.5 percent quarter over quarter.  
But all is not rosy in the cheery train-it-in land of New Rochelle and Yonkers. While sales did show strong gains in the first quarter, the inventory of unsold homes on the market bumped upward, too—3.9 percent over the fourth quarter, part of a trend of rising inventory that stretches back into at least 2004.