Catskills village life is still an attraction.
There have been five distinct changes that have put pressure on the people who want to buy and sell a home in upstate New York this year. As a result, the Catskills real estate market in the summer of 2022 has been…interesting.
The demand for country property is still strong. Buyers are still looking. But they aren’t necessarily buying. It’s a big change from this time last year. And the shift happened because of pressure from five directions.
One. There are more buyers than houses. More houses came on the market, with sellers hoping to take advantage of the inflated values. But still not enough to match the number of serious buyers.
Any desirable property with a reasonable asking price hasn’t lingered on the market. Houses that were in good repair, that were well staged, with good locations and reasonable prices, got immediate attention. For those homes, it felt like the height of the buying frenzy in 2021, and multiple offers were (and are) still common.
That should have meant that anything reasonably good left on the market would, eventually, get snapped up. But….
Two. Sellers’ attitudes changed. Sellers have been reluctant to adjust their expectations to this year’s market. Zillow, the favorite real estate site for upstaters, is totally unreliable when predicting values in a rural market. But its “Zestimates” gave sellers confidence that they knew what their house should sell for. The quick sales and inflated prices of a few select properties nearby reinforced that confidence. They didn’t understand the other pressures, at least at first. So they kept their prices high and turned down offers that seemed, to them, too low.
Three. Project houses aren’t moving. The cost of repairs went through the roof and contractors are booked for months in advance. Sellers can’t get repairs done. Buyers discovered the estimates to repair every issue in a house needing work had tripled from a year ago. That made houses that need work, long a favorite with bargain hunters and flippers, unappealing.
Four. Interest rates went up. The incredible low rates of the 2021 market started climbing and have, at this writing, gone up a solid two percent since spring. As someone who remembers when mortgage rates were in the double digits, five and a half percent still seems pretty reasonable. But it isn’t, when you remember how much better you could do just a few months ago.
Five. Banks got tougher. The requirements to qualify for a loan are stricter. Inflated values have made appraisals more challenging.
Bonus Issue. Buyers attitudes seem to have shifted, too. I am seeing a lot more buyers craving a refuge, not a place that comes with a “to do” list. They want an Air BnB home. Clean, trouble-free, a place where they can drop their bags and relax.
They’re tired. They’re frazzled. They’re not full of hope and energy — they are looking for a place to escape and recharge.
Want to read more about the housing market? This is a good roundup of what higher prices mean…courtesy NBC.