Median and average single-family home sales prices and rental costs in the Northeast and New York City are the highest in the nation. Buyers and sellers remained on the sidelines in 2023, as conventional mortgage rates peaked at more than 7 percent for 17 weeks combined with a low single-family housing supply. Together, these factors pushed up median home prices and curbed the likelihood that homeowners would move and finance new mortgages.
Nora Wittstruck, a U.S. public finance managing director at S&P Global Ratings, provides perspective and why this is significant across the nation and especially in New York City.