Heath's Blog

In reference to the Top Ten States Searched report that REindex.com just placed on its website:  NY - There are market areas of strength apart from the weight of NYC population that are the reason for so many people searching for NY real estate.  In an area that supports 2 teams for football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and who knows what else, there are just a lot of people that consider the NYC area the place to be.  Then there is the rest of NY.  Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, Syracuse, and Lawng-Eyelan, all operate on the outskits of a place where million dollar closets and all night pizzas rule. The shear numbers of people interested in NYC real estate will always make the market there active.  And yet, the other areas of New York are quietly gaining their own notariety as places of real estate interest. 

While Buffalo still has a ways to go before the foreclosures are absorbed, there are forecasts showing the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area with appreciation into 2009.  Also, a number of new banks have opened in Buffalo.  Rochester is growing steadily and consistently.  Syracuse is also quietly on the increase.  Many New York cities have reasonable job growth and stablility.  So apart from the massive weight of NYC, the condition of the New York  real estate market as a whole is positive. 

In the first quarter report of the OFHEO, New York has many areas with strong positive, appreciation.  The Albany-Schenectady-Troy area is shown to have almost 3% appreciation. ( page 26 of the report ) The Buffalo/Niagara Falls, Rochester, Syracuse, Glens Falls areas have more than 3% appreciation and Elmira is close to 7%.  The Utica/Rome area is almost 8%, Binghamton is close to 10%, and Ithaca is over 10% appreciation!  Each of these areas can be researched for its own unique econimic reasons, but these numbers are encouraging.