Activity in the housing market in the New York City northern and western suburbs slowed again in the first quarter of 2024, even while prices continued to hit all-time highs throughout the region.

The 2023 housing market defied easy explanation, buffeted by swirling cross-currents of trends that upended basic expectations of supply-and-demand economics.

Sales were down again, falling in every region and almost every county. We’ve now seen regional sales go down for over eight straight quarters, going back to the beginning of 2022 when the post-COVID market started to run out of fuel. Sales were down 13% in Westchester and the Hudson Valley, 8% in Northern New Jersey, 7% in Fairfield County, and 11% in the Bronx. We should note, though, that the trend is decelerating a bit – while sales were down from last year’s first quarter, the decline was not nearly as severe as the yearlong trend. So we might be seeing sales start to stabilize in the spring market.