Westchester County NY home prices

[Gus_Mahn]

My daughter lives in the NYC commuter suburbs with her husband and child. They have been trying to buy a home in north suburbs of NYC. They just put an offer in on a home for $100,000 over asking price. There were 25 offers above asking price, and their offer was in the middle of the 25 offers. It wound up selling for 42% above asking price! None of this makes sense to my Midwestern sensibilities. At this point they’ve put offers in on about 5 homes above asking price and haven’t been too close to closing a deal. Can somebody help me understand how this home market works and why the asking price is really just a suggested starting point?

 

[PWMDMD]

I grew up in Westchester county NY after moving there around age 8 from Illinois. Home prices were triple what they were in Illinois in 1989. The further you move away from the City the better it will get but it is what it is. Eventually, my father moved us to Putnam county and he drove 2 hours each way with rush hour traffic.

It's the same here in MA. The closer you get to Boston the more ridiculous it gets which is why I live outside Worcester.

 

[trd1zz]

Supply and demand

 

[Sequoiasoon]

My daughter lives in the NYC commuter suburbs with her husband and child. They have been trying to buy a home in north suburbs of NYC. They just put an offer in on a home for $100,000 over asking price. There were 25 offers above asking price, and their offer was in the middle of the 25 offers. It wound up selling for 42% above asking price! None of this makes sense to my Midwestern sensibilities. At this point they’ve put offers in on about 5 homes above asking price and haven’t been too close to closing a deal. Can somebody help me understand how this home market works and why the asking price is really just a suggested starting point?

My Mom is in Northern Westchester. About 5 minutes from Croton Harmon Metro North Station. Her 1/3 acre 4 bedroom Cape zillow says is almost $700k. No clue what it would actually sell for. My parents bought in 1976 for I think $32k.

Nice area, 50 minutes to Grand Central, taxes are high.

 

[Gus_Mahn]

Some of the houses they’ve looked at smelled like old people and didn’t even have central air. One had an expressway in the back yard. They thought it’d be a good deal. It sold for $300 over asking. lol. I always wanted to be able to offer security to my two children as adults, but $5,000+/month isn’t a payment I’m going to help with for very long! I don’t offer my opinion to them, but I’d love to see them move to the Chicago area or FL. He’s in finance, and she works from home in a different form of finance.

 

[harbor]

It’s just a high end market with a lot of prospective buyers. One of my daughters used to rent a house in White Plains with a $12K/MO payment and she felt lucky to get it. Just be thankful your daughter isn’t looking in the Hamptons.
Glad I live in the Midwest!

 

[Ed_Flecko]

If this type of seller meets the right buyer, they may get sued for "specific performance."

If a buyer comes along and offers a seller EXACTLY what they are asking for (i.e. full price, as-is condition, etc.), they could, potentially, sue the seller in court and force them to sell upon the terms of the listing contract.

Note: specific performance remedies are more prevalent once buyer and seller are within the executed contract but there have been some cases where courts have forced sellers to sell who have simply listed their properties. One specific Oregon case escapes my but the judge told the sellers that if they were comfortable advertising their home (which wasn't even listed!) on only a flyer, they were clearly willing to accept that price and terms! Case over...buyers won.

Ed

 

[Danno]

A much lower asking price brings in more eyes and bids than listing it close to what the real selling price will be.
That only works in a seller's market.

 

[ccs368]

We got out of NYC upper east side back in 2019. There was a 2-3 year correction +/- in that time frame and houses in that general area dropped and you can even negotiate a lower price after that. Luckily we did and yes our house value went up 65% in ~7 years and doesn’t include overage from asking price that every sale is receiving today. It’s absurd and the houses we were looking at were all built in the mid 60s and a lot needed work including mine. Big reason in this greater area is the public school system if your house is zoned in is a top 1% in public NY state. We pay $16K+/year for a school tax whether you have children attending these public schools or not besides village and city tax. Basically if you’re trying to get in this county, you need to be making serious coin. The most desirable trait of course is access to the city via I-87 or I-95 which fortunately I’m close to and 20 minute drive to get to the last subway stop on the 6 line. Now with mortgage rates are higher than back in 2019, the buying power for the same offer buys less house. With another bubble burst, there’s no where for housing prices in Westchester to go but down a bit.

 

[nickaluch]

I live on Long Island NY suburbs of NYC home prices are insane here also . Supply and demand is the main reason zero home inventory with a extremely high demand. Since both are working in finance NYC is the finance capital of the world it's were the big money is AKA Wall Street. My daughter works finance in NYC bought a house on Long Island NY last year for $950k I thought she was nuts house is worth $1.2k now. Crazy real estate market here

 

[ssamaroo01]

I’m from Westchester and my parents still live there. It has been like this for the last couple of decades. Housing prices and taxes are through the roof and there is constant competition for buying The population has exploded since the 90s. I remember trying to buy a house in Mt Vernon around the 2018-19 time frame but I was constantly outbid. And my bids were already 20-40k over asking. I ended up expanding my search and moving up to Orange County. Cheaper taxes and more bang for the buck. The commute to the city sucks but I still think it works for me. I love Westchester and it’s sad that I can’t raise my kids in me old neighborhood but I’m happy where I am. Plus I have enough land space of all of my cars.

 

[Escape08]

I live on Long Island NY suburbs of NYC home prices are insane here also . Supply and demand is the main reason zero home inventory with a extremely high demand. Since both are working in finance NYC is the finance capital of the world it's were the big money is AKA Wall Street. My daughter works finance in NYC bought a house on Long Island NY last year for $950k I thought she was nuts house is worth $1.2k now. Crazy real estate market here

Lots of Northerners are moving down south. Home prices will soon come down. It's a matter of time.

 

[nickaluch]

Lots of Northerners are moving down south. Home prices will soon come down. It's a matter of time.

It's going to be a long while there's no empty land close to NYC. You want a new house by me give me $800k cash and knock it down and build your new house. Down south there's tons of empty land to build a new house. Supply and demand . NYC suburbs will never crash in value like Florida but can go down

 

[JHZR2]

Lots of Northerners are moving down south. Home prices will soon come down. It's a matter of time.

The excess and ones who can’t make it. The pricing observed is occurring despite the U-Haul metrics and population growth elsewhere.

Like it or not, people want to live in these places.

It's going to be a long while there's no empty land close to NYC. You want a new house by me give me $800k cash and knock it down and build your new house. Down south there's tons of empty land to build a new house. Supply and demand . NYC suburbs will never crash in value like Florida but can go down

Exactly.

 

[wings&wheels]

Lots of Northerners are moving down south. Home prices will soon come down. It's a matter of time.

It is Westchester County, very nice area with its own vibrant economy, and one that is commutable to Manhattan. Prices are not coming down anytime soon....if anything, they and other commutable (to Manhattan) areas could see more upwards pressure with what may happen in NYC proper, or at least what folks fear may happen.

 

[nickaluch]

In my town in the suburbs of NYC we have about 9k single family homes. Zillow is showing 16 homes for sale..There is zero inventory that's why it's raising in value every month.

 

[99Saturn]

Orange County here. You'll see stuff similar to what you described OP but typically not as extreme. Definitely representative of the demand for Westchester and lower price bringing in multiple competitive offers. Orange and Rockland can be a slough commute wise especially with the hours finance demands but I have done the bus and train in various capacities over the last 10 years. If you end up needing any intel for up this way feel free to send a PM.

 

[Donald]

Westchester county NY is just crazy high prices.

But good schools and easy commute via train into Manhattan.

After you have paid a high price for the house, there are crazy high property taxes, high income tax and high sales tax

You need to be earning half a mil working in Manhattan to afford a house in Westchester.

 

[PWMDMD]

Lots of Northerners are moving down south. Home prices will soon come down. It's a matter of time.

I've been hearing this for 30 years. My wife is from Darien CT and she has family all over Long Island and they all work on Wall Street. All their kids are in top tier schools also studying finance on their way to Wall Street. So long as NYC is the finance capital of the world, home prices aren't coming down any time soon in NY, CT or NJ.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Some of the houses they’ve looked at smelled like old people and didn’t even have central air. One had an expressway in the back yard. They thought it’d be a good deal. It sold for $300 over asking. lol. I always wanted to be able to offer security to my two children as adults, but $5,000+/month isn’t a payment I’m going to help with for very long! I don’t offer my opinion to them, but I’d love to see them move to the Chicago area or FL. He’s in finance, and she works from home in a different form of finance.

Charlotte NC - almost as much finance as NYC at this point. JPM - the biggest bank is shrinking their office space in NYC. https://propmodo.com/jpmorgan-bets-...ers-while-shrinking-overall-office-footprint/

Another one about hybrid work and office space - https://fortune.com/2026/01/15/new-...ies-hybrid-work-location-genie-out-of-bottle/

During the pandemic those that could move to TX or FL did - hedge funds and the like - no state income tax, good weather.

I would encourage them to move honestly. In the digital age there is no need to live in an expensive central location.