Sidebar: The local real estate market

Earlier this week, I posted on the benefits that could come from having a Parade of Homes in the city of Syracuse.   The Parade is an annual event held here and in many other areas across the country, where local home builders, interior designers, and landscapers get together to showcase their talents in new housing developments.  My thinking was that the city proper – in our case the employment and cultural center of Onondaga County – would realize benefits across a broad spectrum of measures if that kind of development were to occur within its boundaries.

I wondered, after doing that post, how Onondaga County and the surrounding areas are doing in terms of the real estate market generally.  If someone were to ask me how I thought the market was doing, I’d point to the fact that we still see houses being sold in the wealthier suburbs for half a million dollars and up; I’d point to the number of houses that sell for right around their asking price, according to the weekly real estate section, and I’d probably say we’re not doing as bad as many areas of the country. 

To put my thinking to the test, I did some research and found statistics at  cnyREALTOR.com, the official site of the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors and the Central New York Information Service.  The site provides a wealth of information on the local real estate market, including a chart which shows that for sales of existing homes across the 19 county towns and the City of Syracuse:

• Sales are up overall, compared to 2011;
• The average sales price across all jurisdictions is up;
• In 14 of the 20 jurisdictions, the number of homes sold is up; of the remaining six, one is even, and three are only off by one sale;
• Only two towns are down in both number of sales and average sales price;
• And in the city of Syracuse, sales are up by 70 homes and the average priceis up $4,100.

Through July, other metrics are also on the rise, including pending sales, closed sales, and affordability.  These figures bump up against a current total of  81 foreclosure properties in Onondaga County, of which 46 are within the city limits. 

Overall, based on these numbers, our local market seems to be in fairly good shape; how are things in your neighborhood?