Second quarter home sales surge in Southold, boosting CPF tax revenues

Peconic Bay Community Preservation Fund revenues topped $49 million in the first six months of 2017, up nearly 7 percent compared to the same period last year.

Southold Town, where CPF revenues for the first half were up 26 percent compared to 2016, led the five East End towns in year-to-year growth. The town collected $3.57 million in the first six months of 2017, compared with $2.83 million in the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by NYS Assemblyman Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor).

Southampton Town collected more in CPF revenues than any other town in the first half of the year: $30.06 million up slightly more than 22 percent over the same period last year.

Since its inception on 1999, the Peconic Bay Regional Community Preservation Fund has generated nearly $1.3 billion, according to Thiele, who authored the CPF bill. The 2-percent tax on real estate transfers in the five East End towns was created to fund land preservation purchases in each town.

CPF revenues are on pace to generate $100 million in 2017, Thiele said yesterday in a press release. CPF collections topped $100 million for the first time in 2014 ($107.7 million) and exceeded that mark in 2015 ($100.3 million) but dipped below it last year, with $93.7 million in tax revenues.

Second quarter revenues this year — up $7.25 million over the second quarter of 2016 — “demonstrate a strengthening real estate market on the East End,” Thiele said.

Second quarter sales in Southold Town hit $91 million, an increase of 24.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Suffolk Research Service. The median price of a single-family residence in Southold was $540,000 in the second quarter, when 120 single-family home sales closed. Median home prices, which have been climbing annually since 2012, have exceeded the the pre-recession levels of 2007.

The median home price for the second quarter in Southampton was $875,000 and in East Hampton was $1.125 million, according to Suffolk Research Service.

2017 first half CPF Revenues