APRIL 22, 2019 VOL. 55, No. 16
westfaironline.com
From left: White Plains Mayor Tom Roach; New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson; Yonkers Director of Planning and Development Wilson Kimball. Photo by Peter Katz.
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STAR POWER
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STATE OF THE COUNTY
‘I thought I was gonna have a heart attack’
DOUGLAS ELLIMAN SEES SIGNS OF IMPROVING HOUSING MARKET
NEW ROCHELLE MAYOR BRAMSON DESCRIBES HOW HE FELT WHEN HE HEARD ABOUT THE CON ED GAS MORATORIUM
pkatz@westfairinc.com “WE’VE SEEN A VERY GOOD quarter and we’re seeing some very optimistic numbers,” Scott Elwell, senior executive regional manager of Westchester and New England for Douglas Elliman Real Estate, told the Business Journal. Elwell was discussing the firm’s report on housing sales activity in Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties during the first quarter of 2019. In Westchester, compared with the same period last year, the median sales price rose 6.4% to $463,000, the number of sales increased 9.2% to 1,845 and the time a property was on the market declined 4.3% to 89 days, according to the report. The report also stated the number of single-family home sales in Westchester
BY PETER KATZ pkatz@westfairinc.com
“I
thought I was gonna have a heart attack. It really came out of nowhere,” New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said about the phone call he got from an official of Con Edison informing him that the utility was imposing a mora-
torium on new natural gas hookups. Bramson, along with White Plains Mayor Tom Roach and Wilson Kimball, director of planning and development in Yonkers, appeared at the April 11 monthly luncheon meeting of the Building Owners & Management Association of Westchester County, Inc. The event took place at 360 Hamilton Ave. in White Plains.
BY PETER KATZ
Kevin Plunkett, director of strategic initiatives for Simone Development Companies, served as moderator of the panel discussion and began by pointing out that the elephant in the room was the Con Ed natural gas moratorium. The utility said that it could no longer ensure an adequate supply of gas at peak times for future customers and, as of March 15, would no longer be accepting applications for new natural gas connections in most of its Westchester service area. New applications for interruptible service and natural gas-fueled emergency generators continue to be accepted. Interruptible service involves installing equip» MORATORIUM
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rose 6.8% to 989. That put an end to six straight quarters of year-over-year declines. The median sales price, however, slipped 1.2% to $600,000. The condo market showed an 11.7% sales increase to 258 units sold with an increase in the median sales price to $360,000. Co-ops saw a 9.8% increase in sales to 447 with a median sales price increase of 6.9% to $170,000. There was an uptick in multifamily sales where the number jumped 19.8% to 151 with a median sales price increase of 13.7% to $535,000. “There has been a strong demand in the area and many of those buyers are buyers that are living in one of the units and renting out the others,” Elwell said. He characterized the heightened interest in condos and co-ops as “a flight to convenience.” The report identifies a soft spot at the luxury end » HOUSING
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