Housing Market Madness: Many hot spots in the Finger Lakes Region

“It’s hard because when you go through the house you start to imagine yourself in it and the kind of changes you want to make to the house,” she said.

You made a number of offers but haven’t been able to find a new home yet.

“We looked at a house that was really nice in Penfield and it turned out we were up against 27 other families that were competitive, wasn’t really that close to winning,” Wahl said.

The couple’s bid was $ 30,000 above the asking price.

“It’s a little mad right now, it’s very much a seller’s market out there,” said Lanie Bittner, a ReMax agent and president of the Greater Rochester Association of Realtors.

That may be an understatement, Bittner has been in the business and in the current market for 16 years. “I don’t think it was anything like that,” she said.

So what and who is currently driving the market in the finger lakes?

“We have a great market for first-time buyers in Rochester because of the low interest rates, we move people from out of town to make the Rochester market their new home, or we have family ties here,” said Bittner.

And in many cases, shoppers moving to town are used to higher property prices, so they come with cash.

In Monroe County, the average price for a new home was $ 176,000 in March 2021, up 14% from the same period last year, and there were only 365 homes for sale nationwide, compared to 775 in March 2020.

In the cities of Clarkson and Pittsford, the average price of a home has increased by $ 65,000 compared to the same period last year. In East Rochester, the average price is up $ 43,000, in Parma by $ 36,000, and in the city of Rochester, buyers are paying an average of $ 29,000 more for a home this year than last year.

Chris Thomas has been a real estate agent for 28 years. He specializes in first generation home buyers in the City of Rochester. He has worked with most of his clients for over a year to help them improve their credit scores, save on down payments, and find just the right first investment.

“I think everyone should have the chance to experience home ownership, especially when rental rates in Rochester are as close to what they would pay to buy as they used to be,” he said

But this market is changing things.

Thomas says he took customers out a couple of times to look at homes before they made an offer.

“Now they go out 20-30 times, make 15-20 offers and still don’t win. It’s … it’s demoralizing for people,” he explained, but cautioned not to get caught up in the emotions of it all . “I always let my clients know that they have to pay for what feels right to them. Forget what everyone else is doing and only pay for what feels right to you.”

Because Monroe County’s supply is so low and prices soaring, many buyers have expanded their searches to other areas.

While the number of closed sales in Monroe, Ontario and Livingston counties decreased due to limited supply, the number of closings in Wayne, Yates, Orleans and Genesee counties increased year over year.