The latest numbers out from the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors continues to show it’s still a tight housing market, in terms of finding available homes to purchase.
The story for October wasn’t much different from other recent months in terms of price and availability.
That’s according to Mike O’Connor, the president of the local realtors association, whose latest numbers show that for the first 10 months of this year, the median sales price of a house in Monroe County, was up 7.2% compared to the same period last year, to $252,000. Home sales were down just over 3%.
O’Connor said it’s the same problem many parts of the country have been dealing with, a lack of inventory.
“This is historically low inventory,” said O’Connor. “I believe it's the lowest we've ever seen, since before 1996, and with the house prices going up and the days on market remaining the same…the problem still is just the plain lack of inventory.”
O’Connor said if you are looking to buy a home, it’s probably best you don’t try and wait to time the market because you think interest rates or prices will come down.
“We’re expecting the price of housing to continue to go up, anywhere from 5 to 8 percent per year, and even with the interest rates, it’s kind of a Catch 22.,” said O’Connor. “If you hold off waiting or rates to come down, you’re only going to pay for it in the higher price of a house.”
But O’Connor added that even with mortgage rates that haven’t come down all that much even as interest rates overall have come down, there is still a lot of demand for homes in the Rochester area.
