Lance M. Evans believes that the area housing market will return to pre-pandemic levels, despite mortgage rates that have drastically increased nationally during the past year.
The number of houses for sale in the north country are way down from before the COVID-19 pandemic, but it takes less time to sell them and the price that they sell for remains solid.
Mr. Evans, executive officer of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors and the St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors, remembered that 2019 was a fairly good year that the region had not experienced “in a long, long time.”
And he’s predicting that kind of year for 2023.
“I guess I’m cautiously optimistic that we have a year like 2019,” he said.
That’s despite the Federal Reserve raising mortgage rates nationally to combat inflation.
The Fed increased 30-year mortgage rates eight times, from about 2% during COVID-19, to today’s rate of 6.28%.
With higher interest rates, there’s a concern that banks will be more restrictive in approving home loans.
For the first time since before COVID-19, home prices nationally have gone down following a real estate boom that occurred during the pandemic.
But that’s not the case for the three-county housing market.
For the first quarter of this year, home prices have increased in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, according to statistics provided by the Board of Realtors.
In Jefferson County, the median price for homes increased to $180,100, compared to the same time last year, when it was $170,000.
In Lewis County, $162,000 was the median price for the first quarter of 2023, while it was $135,000 last year.
For St. Lawrence County, the median price for this year was $121,000, compared to $105,500 for 2022.
Jennifer L. Flynn, owner and broker with Bridgeview Real Estate, also thinks that the north country housing market will return to the days before the pandemic.
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