Rochester (N.Y.) Housing Market Heating Up
For the first time in six months, the Rochester, N.Y., real estate market saw an increase in existing home sales, which were up nearly 11 percent in January compared with the same month last year.
According to statistics compiled by the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, reported by the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, show that the worst days of the housing market may be slowly fading away.
Low New York mortgage rates, a warmer first half of the winter season and a general optimism about the local real estate climate are helping reverse a downward trend, area real estate professionals said.
“Rochester seems to be a pretty steady market,” said John Antetomaso, president of the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.
The market hiccupped a bit late last year, but buyers have come back with a vengeance after realizing much of what is happening with home prices in the South and West isn’t happening in Rochester.
There were 840 closings during the month, compared with 759 in January of last year. New contracts for the month were up by 5 percent, with 781 home purchase loan contracts accepted compared with 744 during the same period last year. Contracts are an indicator of a market’s direction.
Home closings were down 14.1 percent in December. Homes under contract in the month of January typically do not close until March. The median home price was up 2.6 percent at $117,000 versus $114,000 last year.
Buyers are a little more cautious than they were 2-3 years ago, but “new home buyers are willing to buy if there’s value,” said John Arquette, general manager of Nothnagle Realtors, which has 570 agents in the region.
That means homes for sale should be in good repair and priced to sell, as interest in homes has spiked recently, with inquiries about homes up 25 percent and visits to Nothnagle’s website up 20 percent.
“We may be headed to the market we had 24 months ago,” he said. “We sensed things were starting to change.”
While the market is not as hot as it was a few years ago, the Upstate New York market balance is about equal between buyers and sellers, with a slight edge currently for sellers.
Home sales began to decline in July after five years of strong sales in the region, even as the cost of mortgage loans remained relatively steady.
Rome Celli, broker Realtor at ReMax First in Brighton and Greece, is seeing a flurry of activity on the properties he had listed for sale in January, including multiple offers on a home in the Park Avenue area of Rochester in the $160,000 range.
But the intensity of the pace is not quite at the level it was two years ago, when sellers were in the driver’s seat, Celli said. While home sales are still strong, the asking price range is not as firm.
“What we have is a market in transition,” Celli said. “We have to assume trends that were there last year will still be around.”
SOURCE: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle