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Home prices rise, and so do sales in Greater Rochester in 2021

freeimages.com/Aaron Murphy

The Greater Rochester housing market recovered strongly in 2021 compared to an uneven market in 2020.

That’s according to new numbers from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, which said that just over 15,000 homes were sold last year, up more than 4% from the year before.

Realtors Association President Lanie Bittner said one of the ongoing issues, which is a factor nationwide, is that there are many more home buyers than there are available homes.

The inventory of existing homes in the Greater Rochester area in 2021 fell by more than 23% compared to 2020.

But with the economics of supply and demand, Bittner said that lack of housing inventory continues to help boost prices, benefiting the seller.

The median sales price last year was $180,000, up nearly 12% from the year before.

Even so, Bittner, said that houses are still pretty affordable in the Rochester area compared to many other places.

“Our median sales prices is significantly lower than what it is across the country,” said Bittner. “You’re talking over, I think, $350,000 for a national average. And so we’ve always been a very affordable location. I think that played a big role in the fact that we sell as many home sales as we did in the past couple of years during the pandemic.”

Bittner said the Realtors Association expects the housing market to remain strong this year, as buyers will continue to be active despite mortgage rates inching up.

She said that the low inventory of houses will be the biggest market hurdle in 2022, but Bittner said there were signs of improvement in late 2021 as the increase in home prices enticed some sellers to enter the market.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.