Real Estate

Westchester Home Sales Plunge After Trump’s Tax Overhaul

  • Purchases dropped for a fourth straight quarter in NYC suburbs
  • Buyers spending more time with their accountants, broker says

Photographer: Andrew Holbrooke/Corbis News via Getty Images

The nation’s new tax law is scaring would-be homebuyers from Westchester, a longtime refuge for families escaping New York City’s high costs.

Purchases in the northern suburban county -- which shoulders the biggest property-tax burden in the U.S. -- plunged 18 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, the most since 2011, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of sales declinesBloomberg Terminal.