NY housing market continues its strong momentum to start 2021

Albany, NY – February 19, 2021 – A robust winter housing market continued into 2021 with both pending and closed sales remaining strong, according to the housing report released today by the New York State Association of REALTORS^®.

While adhering to COVID-19 protocols, closed sales rose 16.7 percent – up from 9,557 units in January 2020 to 11,153 homes last month. Pending sales also escalated to kick off 2021, with 10,588 units in January 2021 – up from 8,612 homes in 2020 in year-over-year comparisons.

Inventory continues to be a concern at the start of 2021, dropping 26.7 percent with 38,885 homes available this January compared to 53,054 in January 2020. New listings decreased 15.5 percent as well – from 14,515 to begin 2020 to 12,265 listings available in January 2021.

The median sales price jumped to $355,000 last month. This represents a 20.3 percent increase from the $295,000 median price in January 2020.

Low mortgage rates remained positive, aiding home buyers in January. According to Freddie Mac, the monthly average on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in January stood at 2.74 percent – a slight increase from 2.68 percent in December 2020.

Data and analysis compiled for the New York State Association of REALTORS^® by Showing Time Inc.

2021 Lobby Day to be a virtual event

Due to pandemic related restrictions on access to state lawmakers, the Capitol building and the legislative office building in Albany, NYSAR’s annual REALTOR® Lobby Day is shifting to a virtual format. Lobby Day will still be held on Tuesday, April 27 and you can still expect a full slate of programming that day. Although we won’t be meeting in person, there are a whole host of important real estate measures that we need to convey our perspective on including fair housing measures, good cause eviction legislation, coop transparency and support for increased broadband just to name a few. Please stay tuned to NYSAR.com and our weekly E-news for further updates.

NYSAR Updates COVID-19 Health Screening & Travel Advisory Questionnaire

NYSAR has revised the “COVID-19 HEALTH SCREENING & TRAVEL ADVISORY QUESTIONNAIRE” to reflect the change from a 14-day quarantine to a 10-day quarantine pursuant to the Department of Health Covid Travel Advisory page which can be found here. To download either a .pdf or .word version of the new form, click here.

Individuals traveling to NY from a non-contiguous state or CDC Level 2 or higher health notice country, will have the ability to “test out” of the mandatory 10 day-quarantine. You can find more information about what countries are level 2 or higher on the CDC website, here. The Governor has eliminated the quarantine list and will apply one rule for all states. Travelers from states that are contiguous with New York will continue to be exempt from the travel advisory; however, covered travelers must continue to fill out the Traveler Health Form. The guidelines issued by Governor Cuomo permits an individual traveling from a non-contiguous state and subject to the mandatory 10-day quarantine to “test out” pursuant to a specific process.

Licensees should practice recommended health and travel screening of all current or potential clients/customers. In order to assist members, NYSAR has amended the “COVID-19 HEALTH SCREENING & TRAVEL ADVISORY QUESTIONNAIRE” to include questions about individuals traveling from a “non-contiguous state” and whether they completed the mandatory 10-day quarantine or “test out” with two negative COVID tests. You can find more information about the new travel advisory on the NYS COVID-19 website, here.

Those individuals that want to “test out” must follow the guidelines. For any traveler to New York State from out of state, exempting the contiguous states, the new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 10-day quarantine are below:

For travelers who were in another state for more than 24 hours:
1. Travelers must obtain a test within three days of departure from that state.
2. The traveler must, upon arrival in New York, quarantine for three days.
3. On day 4 of their quarantine, the traveler must obtain seek another COVID test. If both tests come back negative, the traveler may exit quarantine early upon receipt of the second negative diagnostic test.

For travelers who were in another state for less than 24 hours:
1. The traveler does not need a test prior to their departure from the other state, and does not need to quarantine upon arrival in New York State.
2. However, the traveler must fill out the traveler information form upon entry into New York State, and take a COVID diagnostic test 4 days after their arrival in New York.

Local health departments will validate tests, if necessary, and if a test comes back positive, will issue isolation orders and initiate contact tracing. The local health department must make contact with the state the traveler came from, to ensure contact tracing proceeds there as well. All travelers must continue to fill out the traveler information form upon arrival into New York State to contribute to New York State’s robust contact tracing program.

Those individuals not meeting the requirements set forth in the guidelines will be subject to the mandatory 10-day quarantine.

Other questions may be directed to NYSAR’s Legal Hotline, which is available Monday-Friday from 9:00am-4:00pm excluding holidays at 518-436-9727.

Mid-Winter Business Meetings Recordings Now Available

Video recordings of select Mid-Winter Business Meetings committees and forums are available for viewing on nysar.com by clicking here. Popular sessions including the Fair Housing & Cultural Diversity Committee, Housing Opportunities Committee, Young Professional Network Committee, President David Legaz’s Safety Course and more will be added in the weeks to come so check back often.

Governor Cuomo extends State of Emergency to February 26, 2021

Governor Cuomo has extended the State of Emergency to February 26, 2021. As a result, licensees are still required to abide by all such guidance, directives and industry phased reopening that are currently in place.

Licensees are still prohibited from making any cold calls. Real estate licensees may not make any unsolicited phone calls to a member of the public during a State of Emergency. General Business Law §399-z(5)(a) states “It shall be unlawful for any telemarketer doing business in this state to knowingly make an unsolicited telemarketing sales call to any person in a county, city, town or village under a declared state of emergency or disaster emergency as described in sections twenty-four or twenty-eight of the executive law.” All other types of marketing such as mailers, billboards, social media, internet etc., are permitted. You may call a FSBO if you have an identifiable purchaser interested in the property. You are prohibited from calling the FSBO to solicit the listing. You may still perform business to business calls so long as you are calling the number provided as the business number.

MWBM Safety Presentation Now Available for Viewing

2021 President David Legaz’s Safety Presentation and accompanying safety slides are now available for viewing. Click here to view the video and to download the slides.

NYSAR’s Mid-Winter Business Meetings Open Today!

NYSAR’s Mid-Winter Business meetings are being held virtually, from Monday, January 25 through Friday, February 12. You can learn more about the meetings, sign up for events and manage your schedule by clicking here.

A strong finish for the 2020 New York housing market

Albany, NY – January 22, 2021 – Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, real estate activity in the Empire State continued to rise with sales and new listings remaining strong through December, according to the housing report released today by the New York State Association of REALTORS^®.

2020 saw closed sales ascending 34.5 percent – from 11,461 homes in December 2019 to 15,417 last month. For the year, closed sales were down marginally, 0.9 percent from 130,802 units to 129,661 in year-over-year comparisons. Pending sales also rose considerably in December from 7,985 homes last year at this time to 10,967 in December 2020 – a 37.3% increase. Year-to-date, pending sales jumped 8.5 percent to end 2020 with 148,280 homes in comparison to 136,717 last year at this time.

New listings surged upwards in December from 8,131 listings in 2019 to 8,955 this year- a jump of 10.1%.

The median sales price was up 22.4 percent as compared to $286,000 in December 2019. For the year, the median sales price grew 11.6 percent – from $277,700 to $310,000.

Low mortgage rates remained positive, aiding home buyers in December. According to Freddie Mac, the monthly average on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage in December fell once again – to 2.68 percent. This continues the trend of falling interest rates for 13 consecutive months.

Inventory of homes for sale continued its downward trend. The number of homes for sale plunged in December from 40,836 in 2019 to 52,743 homes in 2021. This represents a 22.6 percent drop.

Data and analysis compiled for the New York State Association of REALTORS^® by Showing Time Inc.

Visit NYSAR’s new REALTOR® Safety page

NYSAR has created a REALTOR® safety page to support and inform members how to practice real estate safely. Each month a new safety tip will be posted in our video section for your viewing. Additionally, we will have helpful infographics and REALTOR® safety links for members to utilize. You can visit our page by clicking here.

Mobile Marketing Tool Photofy Now Available to NYSAR Members

Photofy, a content creation marketing platform, is now available to assist NYSAR members with their mobile marketing. The National Association of Realtors® previously partnered with Photofy and now NYSAR has joined the fast-growing mobile marketing content ap to offer New York-specific marketing assets for REALTORS® on the go. The Photofy platform allows you to easily personalize and share marketing assets right from your phone. To learn more click here.

Mid-Winter Business Meeting Schedule Now Available

Registration for the NYSAR 2021 Mid-Winter Virtual Business Meetings, as well as the NYSAR Meeting Planner, will be launching the week of January 11. In the meantime, please take a moment to review the schedule and highlighted events, which can be accessed by clicking here. Please continue to watch your email and NYSAR’s social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram for the latest NYSAR 2021 Mid-Winter Virtual Business Meetings information. We thank you for your understanding and look forward to “seeing” everyone soon!

Governor Cuomo extends State of Emergency to January 29, 2021

Governor Cuomo has extended the State of Emergency to January 29, 2021. As a result, licensees are still required to abide by all such guidance, directives and industry phased reopening that are currently in place.