Small multi-family is the least-reported corner of this market. Below is what Suffolk County two- and three-family homes, the ones commonly called duplexes and triplexes, actually sold for, how long they took, how much sellers gave up off their first asking price, and how often a listing never sold at all.
Key readA typical Suffolk County two- and three-family home sells for about $750K, or roughly $375K per dwelling unit; homes that sell go to contract in a median of 27 days; and close at about 99.7% of the original asking price. Over 10 years of recorded sales the median has risen about 126%.
Based on 68 closed sales in the trailing year, drawn from 1,685 recorded Suffolk County two- and three-family closings since 2013.
The median Suffolk County two- and three-family sale has risen from $350K in 2015 to $790K in 2025, a change of about +126% across 10 years. Each year below is a full calendar year of closings; the current year is still in progress and is left out of the line.
| Year | Median price | Per unit | Days to contract | % of original ask | Sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | $350K | $170K | 82d | 92.6% | 133 |
| 2016 | $367K | $177K | 77d | 93.0% | 164 |
| 2017 | $380K | $180K | 53d | 96.0% | 173 |
| 2018 | $415K | $200K | 56d | 96.2% | 155 |
| 2019 | $450K | $218K | 42d | 97.5% | 155 |
| 2020 | $495K | $245K | 41d | 98.3% | 179 |
| 2021 incomplete | $560K | $275K | 34d | 98.6% | — |
| 2022 | $630K | $306K | 34d | 100.0% | 180 |
| 2023 | $665K | $325K | 33d | 99.3% | 131 |
| 2024 | $713K | $349K | 28d | 100.1% | 126 |
| 2025 | $790K | $390K | 34d | 99.0% | 83 |
| 2026 partial | $760K | $375K | 27d | 98.1% | 39 |
A year marked incomplete is one where the MLS record itself is short: closings are missing from how the data was recorded, not from the market. On Long Island that is part of 2021, when the merger that formed the current MLS left months of history behind — and 2021 was in fact one of the strongest years of the decade here, so the recorded count would say the opposite of what happened. The sale count for those years is therefore withheld rather than shown. The median, days to contract and share of original ask are still shown: those hold up when records are missing in a way a count cannot. Those years are also left out of the failure figures below, where an understated count would inflate the rate directly.
Across 11 full years, the median Suffolk County two- and three-family closed between 92.6% and 100.1% of its original asking price — a total spread of about 7.6 points, with the widest discounts in 2015 and the tightest in 2024. The gap has moved enough over the period that the year a home is listed is worth weighing alongside its price.
Measured against the original asking price, not the last one — a home repriced three times still gets measured from where it started.
Roughly 40% of Suffolk County two- and three-family listing attempts between 2018 and 2026 ended without a sale — the listing expired, or was cancelled or withdrawn.
| Year | Sold | Did not sell | Share that failed | Of those, cut their price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 155 | 111 | 41.7% | 35% |
| 2019 | 155 | 149 | 49.0% | 38% |
| 2020 | 179 | 125 | 41.1% | 33% |
| 2022 | 180 | 107 | 37.3% | 36% |
| 2023 | 131 | 86 | 39.6% | 32% |
| 2024 | 126 | 67 | 34.7% | 19% |
| 2025 | 83 | 65 | 43.9% | 30% |
| 2026 | 39 | 21 | 35.0% | 33% |
In every year measured, roughly 32% of the sellers whose listings failed had already cut their asking price — and still did not sell. Cutting late does not reliably rescue a launch price the market has already rejected.
Listings that failed sat on the market a median of 111 days. Ones that sold went to contract in 27.
These are listing attempts, not homes. One property that expires twice before selling appears here twice. The share of owners who never sell is lower than the share of listings that fail, and this table does not measure it.
Among Suffolk County two- and three-family listings where the agent recorded meter counts, about 73% had at least one meter per dwelling unit — gas, electric or both. Separate metering shifts utility costs to the tenants and is one of the larger swing factors in what a small multi-family actually nets its owner.
Reported on 923 of 2,551 listings (36%). Agents are more likely to record meters when separate metering is a selling point, so treat this as a figure for the listings that disclosed it rather than for the whole housing stock.
Where the spread is. Across the 6 Suffolk County areas with enough recorded sales to measure, the median two- and three-family sale runs from about $568K in Patchogue to $800K in Huntington — a difference of roughly 41%.
| Area | Median price | Per unit | Days to contract | Sales (5 yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lindenhurst | $654K | $324K | 33d | 76 |
| West Babylon | $680K | $340K | 26d | 47 |
| Patchogue | $568K | $267K | 29d | 44 |
| Huntington Station | $722K | $361K | 26d | 34 |
| Huntington | $800K | $400K | 21d | 31 |
| Bay Shore | $590K | $289K | 53d | 25 |
Areas with at least 20 recorded sales in the last five years, ordered by volume.
The headline price is not the cost. A typical Nassau County two- and three-family sells for about $892K — less than one in Queens at $1.16M — yet carries roughly $14,200 a year in property tax against about $7,900. On the recorded sales, that is an effective rate of 1.59% versus 0.68%. Two buildings at the same purchase price can carry very different annual costs depending on which side of the county line they sit.
| County | Median price | Per unit | Days | % of original ask | Median tax | Tax as % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queens | $1.16M | $545K | 48d | 96.1% | $7,900 | 0.68% |
| Nassau County | $892K | $436K | 30d | 99.1% | $14,200 | 1.59% |
| Suffolk County this page | $750K | $375K | 27d | 99.7% | $13,800 | 1.84% |
| Brooklyn | $1.1M | $483K | 56d | 95.6% | $6,800 | 0.62% |
Trailing twelve months of recorded closings in each county. Tax is the annual amount recorded on the sale, which reflects the assessment at the time and not necessarily what a new owner will pay.
Brooklyn coverage. These Brooklyn figures are drawn from OneKey® MLS only. A large share of Brooklyn listing activity runs through the Brooklyn MLS (BNYMLS), which this site does not yet carry. For scale, over the same twelve months the public deed record shows Brooklyn transacting at about 80% of Queens’s volume, while OneKey recorded 1,050 Brooklyn sales against 8,208 in Queens. Read the Brooklyn figures as describing the OneKey-listed portion of that market rather than the whole borough. They are real recorded sales — there are simply fewer of them here than the borough actually transacts.
Thinking about selling a two- and three-family? The launch price is the decision that moves the outcome most — in this data, listings that failed had usually already cut, and cutting late rarely rescued them. A pricing conversation before the listing goes live is worth more than any adjustment after it.
The median two- and three-family sale in Suffolk County over the trailing year was about $750K, which works out to roughly $375K per dwelling unit, across 68 recorded closings.
Yes. The median Suffolk County two- and three-family sale moved from $350K in 2015 to $790K in 2025, a change of about +126% over 11 years of recorded sales.
About 40% of Suffolk County two- and three-family listing attempts ended without a sale. That counts listings rather than properties — a home listed twice before selling counts twice — so it is a measure of how often a listing fails, not of how many owners never sell.
Homes that sold went to contract in a median of 27 days. Listings that ultimately failed sat for a median of 111 days before coming off the market.
Generally yes. In Suffolk County a duplex normally means a two-family house — one building with two separate legal dwelling units, each with its own entrance and kitchen — and a triplex is the three-family equivalent. Everything on this page counts legal dwelling units, so a two-family counts as two units no matter which word the listing uses.
The median annual property tax recorded on a Suffolk County two- and three-family sale was about $13,800, roughly 1.84% of the sale price.
What is counted. Residential income properties of two to four dwelling units in Suffolk County. Four-family homes barely exist here — the record holds 70 across the whole period, nearly all of them older buildings that pre-date current zoning, and several of those are the same property listed more than once. They are included in the totals but there are far too few to report as their own segment. Buildings of five units or more are excluded: they carry commercial financing and trade as a different market. Sales below $50,000 are excluded as non-market transfers.
Where it comes from. 1,685 closed sales recorded on OneKey MLS, running through July 2026, and 854 listings that ended without a sale.
Why price per unit and not price per square foot. Building area is recorded on only about a quarter of these listings across the full period — it became common only in recent years — so a long-run price-per-square-foot series would say more about record keeping than about the market. Price per unit is available throughout.
What this cannot tell you. Rents, operating expenses and cap rates are not reported on these listings in any usable quantity, so no income or yield figure appears anywhere on this page. Nothing here is estimated or modelled; every number is a count or a median of recorded sales.
One known gap. The MLS record for Long Island is incomplete for part of 2021 — roughly April through September — which appears to date from the merger that created the current MLS rather than from anything happening in the market. Sale counts for 2021 are therefore somewhat lower than the true figure. Prices for that year still read normally, and 2021 was in fact a strong year on Long Island, so the count should not be read as a slow market.
This report covers one slice of the market. The companion reports go deeper on the rest:
Queens two-to-four family → Nassau County two- and three-family → Brooklyn two-to-four family →
Sales recorded through July 2026 · page rebuilt Oct 10, 2026.
Figures are county-wide medians drawn from live OneKey MLS data and refresh as new sales close; they describe the market, not any specific property, and are rounded to avoid false precision. Joseph DeVito is a NY Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker and an attorney; this analysis is general market information, not legal, tax, or individualized investment advice. Confirm school-district boundaries, tax figures, and comparable sales for any specific property before acting. Small multi-family figures are compiled from periodic exports of the MLS record rather than a live feed, so the period covered above is the authoritative one.
Based on information from OneKey® MLS, for the period August 4, 2014 through July 24, 2026.
The DeVito Team of Keller Williams Realty Greater Nassau
Joseph DeVito, NY Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker
400 Garden City Plaza Ste 438, Garden City, NY 11530 · (516) 770-3782
