SEPTEMBER 2021 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 23
AS COVID RESTRICTIONS LESSEN, LONG ISLAND ECONOMY REBOUNDS ECONOMY BOOST Nassau and Suffolk added more than 100,000 jobs from June 2020 to June 2021. (Getty Images)
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
When the pandemic hit in March 2020, the Long Island real estate market, along with many
industries, came to a screeching halt. Brokers in New York could no longer show properties
— but those in Connecticut could.
“We had people who wanted to buy homes and we weren’t allowed to have in-person
showings,” said Deirdre O’Connell, CEO of Daniel Gale Sotheby’s International Realty. “We
pivoted to virtual showings.”
Realtors sold many houses sight unseen as demand soared, and when they were allowed
to do in-person showings again in late June 2020, business boomed.
“The floodgates opened. Our agents ran for 12 months straight,” O’Connell said. “There was
so much business to be done.”
A year later, the company sees not a recession but a banner year in its rearview mirror,
along with strong demand as the economy recovers.
“2020 was the most successful year we’ve ever had,” O’Connell said. “And this has been
the most successful first half of the year we’ve ever had.”
The past year has been topsy-turvy, with some industries on a roll and many such as
restaurants struggling. But as the economy reopens, rising job numbers and lower
unemployment show a region making a comeback across many industries.
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