Home sales take a post-pandemic ride

Real estate in New York continues to swell even though listings have dropped.

New single-family listings in the Bronx dropped more than 20 percent in July, according to the New York State Association of Realtors, compared to the same time last year. Closed sales more than doubled, while those homes sold at a median price of $498,000 — up nearly 34 percent.

For the rest of the state, new listings dropped 16 percent to just over 19,800 in July. The same is true with pending sales, which dipped 13 percent to around 15,300.

Yet, for the year, pending sales are actually up more than 32 percent, but then again that’s up against what had primarily been a period when the market was locked down in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Closed sales statewide appeared to follow the Bronx’s lead in July, rising nearly 33 percent compared to the year before. Of course, that means homes are spending less time on the market, the Realtor association said — listings in July available for 48 days compared to more than two months in 2020.

Median sales prices across the state rose more than 33 percent to $390,000. That’s $10,000 more than June.

But how do three months’ worth of numbers compare? Statewide, new listings climbed more than 42 percent between April and June to just under 61,000. Pending sales were up nearly 66 percent, while closed sales grew 52 percent to about 35,000.

New listings more than doubled statewide to 937, while closed sales did even better growing from just under 200 during the height of the pandemic, to a little over 430 this past spring.

Median sales prices grew across the state by more than 8 percent in the second quarter to $417,500.

City ready to add construction firms to pre-qualified list

The city’s design and construction department is seeking proposals from up to 15 firms looking to undertake construction work for some of New York City’s municipal buildings through the Project Excellence Program.

The program pre-qualifies firms, allowing them to be more rapidly deployed to projects as needed, reducing procurement times for construction management services, while ensuring what officials describe as the highest levels of quality and professionalism.

These projects can range from smaller offerings of up to $10 million to large projects valued at more than $50 million.

Deadline for the requests for proposal is Sept. 24. For more information on how to apply, visit tinyurl.com/CityRFP.