When you look at the residential real estate market in the Bronx, you can see that there is a large difference in how the market is behaving within the property classes. The hike in interest rates has affected the sale price of one and two family homes, while it has had little impact (other than maybe preventing the prices from shooting up) on three and four families. So why is this?
All of these property classes are suffering from a historically low supply of houses. To me, the clear main contributor to the continued strong buyer demand of three and four families is the increase in payment standards of Section 8 and CityFHEPS vouchers by 12% from 2023 to 2024. While everyone is feeling the impact of the new higher rates, a 12% increase in a market filled with tenants on these vouchers more than makes up for the higher mortgage.
12% INCREASE IN VOUCHER PAYMENT STANDARDS
2023 2024
3 AND 4 FAMILY HOUSES
Let’s take a look at the MLS Median Sales Data for Three and Four Families. In February 2022 the Median Sale Price was $868,500, in 2023 it was $940,000, and in 2024 $960,000.
You can see that year over year each month increased steadily (this accounts for the typical seasonal market change), and only dipped slightly month over month once July-Nov 2023 (seasonal and interest rate driven slow down).
1 AND 2 FAMILY HOUSES
Now let’s look at the MLS Median Sales Data for One and Two Family Homes. In February 2022 the Median Sales Price was $665,300, in 2023 it was $699,000, and in 2024 $676,000. This is very different from the three and four family market month over month decreasing as much as 4.2% Jan 2023-2024.
You can see from the graph that it looks like we have hit the bottom of 670k and I believe are beginning to trend up again.
Send me a message if you have any questions on this data. I am happy to have a deeper conversation with you and can share the data specifically for Single Family Homes, and Two Family Homes as well!