It's Getting Cooler Out There
Summer's nearly here, but the real estate market is not heating up
Real estate experts have been warning of a slowdown in the market, and we’re beginning to see it in the Catskills.
Summer 2021 was a record breaker, I’m sure - number of houses sold, the average price, the number of deals with multiple offers - it was a wild churn that reminded some of the veteran Realtors of the months after 9/11 in 2001. But the difference was that many more buyers were looking for a permanent home, not a getaway. The COVID lockdown made remote work a possibility, and the western Catskills now have widespread access to high speed Internet. The doors were wide open, and many people raced upstate and jumped in.
In addition, there was a group of climate refugees moving to the Catskills from parts of the country with wildfires, drought, and severe weather. Those buyers are still coming.
Summer 2022, however, is arriving in a very different atmosphere. Interest rates are up. Gas prices are way up. Housing inventory is down, and demand is more targeted. Buyers are still battling for a few, select properties, but they’re generally the ones that need little work and are priced fairly.
Overpriced properties and projects stay on the market longer.
A bargain priced move-in ready little cabin on a country road got multiple offers the first week it was on the market.
A gorgeous, historic home in the popular arts village of Franklin hasn’t yet found its match, despite a price tag under $200K.
The property in the main picture is a commercial property that some imaginative entrepreneur would have snapped up last year had it been on the market at the time. It’s a former dairy farm converted into barn retail space with 80+ acres, two buildings converted into multi-level apartments, and an historic brick octagon house that is a landmark in the area. It’s on a main road that bisects Delaware County between Delhi and Walton, and that’s all available for less than a million dollars. Plus, for an additional $1.5M, they’ll throw in the busy motel across the street.
The Catskills are a big draw for agribusiness as well as breweries, distilleries, and cideries. Barn weddings and glamping are also a major industry here. This property could accommodate any one of those - or more.
But this year, investors are being cautious. The official MLS for the area is showing price reductions - something we saw little of last summer. Sellers hoped to cash in on high demand this year, but that demand has softened, and so have prices.
Buyers are wary of overpaying.
They’re wary of projects because the cost of materials has skyrocketed.
They’re also aware that there is a limited number of good contractors in a rural area, and those contractors are swamped with work from last year’s buyers. They’ve heard stories of homeowners burned by bad contractors, so they’re on waiting lists with the good ones. Those waiting lists stretch months.
So the buyers are still coming, but it takes them much longer to find a property that fits their rather lengthy wish list. And they wait for it.
What’s next? No one knows for sure. It is an unpredictable time, so we read the signs as they appear. And right now the signs say Slow Down.