2015: a great year for RVC real estate

Houses priced between $500,000 and $700,000, like this split-level currently for sale by Coach Realtors, tend to sell quickly in Rockville Centre.

Courtesy Coach Realtors

According to local real estate executives, 2014 was a good year for the Rockville Centre housing market, and they anticipate that 2015 will be even better.

Some brokers saw the number of homes they sold take a slight dip in 2014, but others reported increases. And home prices are slowly starting to climb.

Over the last few years, low prices, and low mortgage interest rates, meant it was really a buyer’s market. But that is starting to change.

“I’m optimistic for 2015,” said Carol O’Leary, the branch manager of Coach Realtors, “because they’re talking about interest rates starting to go up, and I’m anticipating that’s going to make some people who’ve been sitting on the sidelines make some moves. A lot of it is weather driven. If we remain mild, things move along nicely.”

In keeping with an old real estate custom, few homes are offered for sale in the winter, but that, too, is starting to change, especially locally. “I personally sold more houses in December than I have any other year,” said Rich McQuillan, who owns Exit Links Realty. “That whole mentality of when’s the right time to sell your house is an old-school myth. Houses are selling all year round.”

People are looking for updated houses, said Helen Frey of Coach Realtors. She explained that buyers are presently looking for homes that are well maintained and are in move-in condition. With lower interests, people would rather put their money into a mortgage than renovations, she explained.

Joanne Harms, of Harms Real Estate, said it is a very active market and sellers are getting good prices for their homes. She said the housing inventory is low, which favors sellers.

Agents said that homes worth more than $1 million sold well last year, but the real hot sellers are those priced between $500,000 and $700,000. “When something comes up [in that range],” McQuillan said, “there’s multiple offers on it.”

Rockville Centre remains a community that people want to move to. As residents know, there’s something for everyone: The village has a vibrant downtown with an active nightlife, nationally recognized public schools, well-regarded private schools, a police department, a hospital, a college, and a short commute to Manhattan.