The latest numbers on local home sales show a decline in sales compared to a year ago, while the price of homes continue to rise.
According to the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors, the number of homes sold in the Rochester area so far this year are down nearly 13% compared to last year.
And the median sales price was up 9.4% compared to the same period in 2021.
Lanie Bittner, the president of the association, said that in her 17 years as a Realtor, home prices in the past really didn’t fluctuate all that much.
“This is the longest sustaining price increase that I can remember,” Bittner said. “And honestly, I think part of it is we were due for a bit of an adjustment, we are still a very affordable market. But we are not as affordable, obviously, as we used to be. But I think an adjustment makes sense in terms of the demand that we’ve seen in the past few years.”
Bittner said that even with mortgage rates rising a bit in recent weeks, it hasn’t had a big impact on demand.
“I personally feel that what you’ll see impacting buyers and their demand is more of the inflation items of the day to day, the grocery bills, the gas prices,” Bittner said. “I think that people will feel more of that in their pocket and maybe wait a little bit longer before they buy because of that. So yes, all those things, it could affect the demand. I don’t think it’s going to affect the number of listings.”
A lack of housing inventory has been an issue, not only in Rochester, but also across the U.S., and that has helped to drive up home prices. Bittner said that she continues to see multiple offers on houses, with buyers often willing to pay more than the asking price.
