We’re going through an unusual time now and as far as the real estate, and housing market statistics go because the years 2020 to 2022 are becoming what they’re calling the unicorn years unusual time period. We had droves of first-time buyers and second-time buyers trying to take advantage of low-interest rates. So those numbers during the pandemic years people were moving anywhere to work remote and certainly find more space, get out of their current living situation. So unusual times.
As we go back to normal times, when we see these statistics come in, which are comparing our current year to these very high-performance years, it starts to look a little scary, so we’re gonna start to try and look back and see what was going on pre-pandemic to 2017, 18, 2019 those years we had single digit appreciation for example 7% 6% 4% while in 2020 2021, we had 11% appreciation of home prices 18 to 20%, Home Price appreciation, which is certainly not sustainable.
As we go forward, I think the industry will really try and look at what was normal and not what went on during these unusual times. For instance, right now if we look at transaction volume, New York City was down 35.5% in transaction numbers. This year versus last year, Brooklyn, Brooklyn was down 44% in parts of Queens actually the transaction volume was down in a couple of neighborhoods. 67% 68% I wouldn’t be alarmed by that. It just meant there was unusual, high-driven activity during those past two years, and now we’re coming back to a normal situation. We are hoping and seeing our inventory start to build Queens for instance, April had 5.6 months of inventory approaching a balanced market. Six months of inventory is balanced. Nassau, Suffolk still sitting at 2.42 months of inventory, still in a seller’s market position.
It’s important to pay attention to where you’re getting your information and how it’s diced. countrywide. We still have a real shortage of homes for sale. We have 1.2 million for sale pre-pandemic and nationwide we’re looking at about 5.8 or 580,000. Homes for sale are in a real shortage, especially in certain areas but real estate is local. You must deal with your local top realtor to really give you the best advice and guidance. We’re always here to help.