The median sale price for a single-family house in Suffolk County hit a new record high this past November—$725,000. That’s according to OneKey MLS, based in East Farmingdale and co-owned and operated by the Long Island Board of Realtors.
Several months earlier, in July, a previous record high was reached: a median price of $702,000—the first time the median dollar figure had climbed into the $700,000 range for a house in Suffolk County.
As for the December 2025–January 2026 period, OneKey MLS says online that there has been a dip from the $725,000 figure—it is now a flat $700,000.
There are some areas of Suffolk County where the median price for a single-family house is lower. Zillow reports that it is currently $665,800 in Center Moriches, $572,624 in Patchogue, and $519,474 in Shirley.
Still, that’s a lot of money.
Yet consider, according to Zillow, the median sale price of a single-family house in Westhampton Beach: $1,576,925. Or Southampton: $2,110,568. Or Sag Harbor: $2,177,258.
Beyond breathtaking.
In Nassau County, the median sales price was $835,000 in December 2025, below the record high of $875,000 in August 2025, according to OneKey.
Some personal housing history: the first place my wife and I lived on Long Island was in 1961—a basement apartment in Hempstead with rent of $50 a month.
Then we moved up the housing food chain to a two-room cottage in Islip, which we rented for $75 a month. We welcomed our first child in 1963 in that cute cottage. Then, with a child, we rented a big house in Brentwood—for $125 a month.
As for purchasing a house on Long Island, after I got a job as a reporter at the Long Island Press in 1964, we figured we could afford buying a seven-room, two-bathroom house in Sayville for $19,000.
We could have bought a house for much less. We were shown nice houses for $15,000 and $16,000—in Sayville and Patchogue, the areas in which we went house-hunting. But we considered the Sayville house, with its spacious grounds, to be in the dream-house category.
Then, a decade later, in 1974, we moved to Noyac, just at the western border of Sag Harbor, and with the money from selling the Sayville house for $39,000, bought a classic, century-old saltbox house for $45,000.
We could have purchased a house in Sag Harbor for less, too. Most were selling for $39,000 in those days. But we jumped at this place where, 52 years later, we still live mortgage-free.
When I’ve discussed the housing crisis on Long Island with my journalism students at SUNY Old Westbury—and how much we paid in rent and how much we paid for houses—they are shocked and express huge concern about what their future will bring in terms of housing.
I’ve felt deeply concerned and sorry for them.
And it’s not just students from Long Island, but also those from New York City, where the cost of buying a house or renting an apartment these days is also sky-high.
The median price for a single-family house in New York City currently is $925,000, according to Realtor.com, and the median asking price to rent a two-bedroom apartment is $3,581 a month.
I understand there has been inflation over the years. But the rate of inflation between 1964 and 2026 in the United States increased by about 10 times. And 10 times $19,000 is considerably less than the current median house price in Suffolk of $700,000.
Richard Haggerty, CEO of OneKey MLS, says: “Until we have more inventory, we’re not going to solve the affordability problem, and that’s a really gnarly problem to tackle.”
It’s not simply inventory. A variety of housing types would also seem necessary. A great deal of attention is being focused these days on Long Island on accessory dwelling units, or ADUs—additional residential buildings occupying the same lot as a primary residence.
Yet still, when we are talking about $700,000 for a single-family house—not to mention prices well over $1 million and even $2 million—how can our children ever afford to live here?
If buyers are able to put $100,000 down and finance the remaining $600,000 with a conventional 30-year mortgage, the monthly payment would be just under $4,000—or nearly $1,000 a week—according to online mortgage schedules. That would vary with interest rates at the time. And then, of course, there’s homeowners insurance, property taxes, electricity, heating, and the cost of maintaining a house.
Even buying in the $500,000 to $600,000 range involves a lot of dough. Oh, the housing crunch!