This NYC suburb is the toughest place in America to buy a house

Long Island homeowners looking to cash in have never had it better, even as sellers everywhere else are getting squeezed.New data from Redfin shows the New York City suburbs are swimming against a national tide that has turned hard against sellers. Redfin found 39 of the 50 biggest metros in America are now buyer’s markets, meaning house hunters from Miami to Houston are finally catching a break after years of getting outbid. But Long Island just got crowned the single strongest seller’s market anywhere in the country, bucking that trend completely. The reason: big demand for being near Manhattan.Nassau and Suffolk counties are seeing 36.2% fewer sellers than buyers, an imbalance so severe it dwarfs every other market Redfin tracked.Northern New Jersey landed at No.

2 nationally with a 20.7% buyer surplus, while Central Jersey rounded out the top five at 12.9%.It’s a split screen.While sellers nationally are cutting prices and waiting out longer days on market, three of the only six true seller’s markets left in the country happen to surround Manhattan. Even the city itself is merely “balanced,” with 5.3% more sellers than buyers, according to Redfin, which makes the suburban numbers even starker by comparison.Redfin agent Sandra Glaser, who works the Long Island market, said homes priced right don’t sit for long, a sharp contrast to what agents are describing in most of the country right now.“I’m seeing multi-generational buyers looking to purchase single-family homes so they can live with their families,” Glaser said.She’s watched a wave of buyers flee Queens in search of bigger backyards without giving up their commute into Manhattan.

One listing she has on the South Shore, a three-bedroom, two-bath fixer-upper, started drawing calls before the open house even happened.“I initially tested this property below the price that other homes in the neighborhood have been selling for because it needs work.It’s in a great area but it has b...