Dutchess home sales hot; prices remain cool

• Detached home sales: 207, up 19.7 percent
• August median price: $250,000

Looking to buy a house in Dutchess County?

Here's the skinny: This market is busy, but the buzz is not making prices go through the roof. In fact, the median sale price of $250,000 for August was 9.4 percent below that of a year earlier. And, the median for the first eight months of 2015 is even lower, at $242,700.

Closed sales were up in August by 19.7 percent over last year, for single-family free-standing homes, according to the report from Mid-Hudson Multiple Listing Service Thursday.

"Not only has the summer been hot, the Dutchess County real estate market has heated up as well," said the service's executive officer, Sandy Tambone. The year's trend of rising sales has again held steady, with the eight-month gain now at 16.4 percent over the same stretch in 2014.

Despite that activity boost, the busy market has not lifted prices as classic economics may suggest. The most common sale price for the year was $260,000, Tambone said.

Purchase offers, or deals in the making, numbered 217, down by 4.4 percent in a year and even more compared with July's 259. These offers are a sign of future sales, though not all of them go to a closing.

What's out there with "for-sale" signs on the lawns is an inventory of 2,177 detached homes and 351 attached units, which are condos, townhouses and co-ops. The attached category did well on sales in August, too, with 52 properties changing hands, up from 33 a year earlier.

The median price for sales of attached homes was $171,250 in August. For the year so far, it was $151,750, and that was a drop of 22.2 percent compared with 2014.

Attached homes are typically a less costly way for first-time buyers to get into ownership, as well as a way for empty-nesters to downsize.

Craig Wolf: 845-437-4815; cwolf@poughkeepsiejournal.com; Twitter: @craigwolfPJ