CNY closed home sales fall nearly 21 percent in October

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Realtors in a six-county region of Central New York closed on the sale of 829 homes in October, down 20.6 percent from the 1,044 homes they sold in the year-ago month.

That’s according to the latest housing-market report released by the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors (GSAR) on Nov. 22.

Pending home sales (houses under contract) in Central New York fell even more in October, declining 37.5 percent to 554 from 887 in October 2021, per the GSAR data. That indicates that further drops in closed homes sales could result in the next couple of months.

The Central New York monthly median sales price rose 8.3 percent to $195,000 from $180,000 in the year-prior month, continuing a more than three-year-long trend of monthly home selling-price gains, the association said.

“While the total number of homes available is starting to increase, competition for newly listed homes continues to drive selling price gains throughout Central New York,” Andy Azzarello, GSAR president, said in the October housing report. “While the increase in mortgage rates has moved some buyers to the sidelines, our active buyers are keeping a watchful eye on the market and moving quickly when their ‘dream’ home comes to the market. Homes were on the market an average of 19 days in October.”

Lynnore Fetyko, GSAR CEO, added that she expects the current housing trends to continue into early 2023. “There is no question that evolving economic conditions and prevailing mortgage rates will make the housing market challenging to navigate for both buyers and sellers in the months ahead,” she noted.

Year-to-date through Oct. 31, realtors in the CNY region sold 7,758 existing homes, down 6.2 percent from 8,275 homes in the same month in 2021. The year-to-date (Jan. 1 to Oct. 31) median sales price of $189,900 is 9.2 percent higher than $173,950 a year before. Pending home sales for the first 10 months of this year totaled 7,633 homes, off almost 15 percent from 8,973 homes in the same period in 2021.

All data is compiled from the Central New York Information Service and includes single-family residential activity in Cayuga, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga, Oswego, and Seneca counties.

GSAR is the trade association representing more than 2,000 realtors in Central New York.