Home prices are going up while the number of available houses is going down. According to the New York State Association of Realtors, the median home price in the state has gone up for 30 months in a row. Their January 2026 report said the median sales price in January of 2025 was $415,000 compared to $445,000 this past January.

It’s still a seller’s market, meaning there are more buyers than there are homes for sale. David J. Manzano Sr., the president of the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors, said while that environment is starting to cool off, if a home is in a good area and in good shape, it’s still competitive.

What You Need To Know

According to the New York State Association of Realtors, closed sales are down 7.5% and new listings are down 7.3% over the last year

It’s still a seller’s market, meaning there are more buyers than there are homes for sale

One realtors’ association official believes empty-nesters hold on to larger homes longer than they need to

“This is the longest stretch of seller’s market that I’ve seen. And again, I’ve been in it a while,” said Manzano.

However, he said there’s a group of people who could sell their homes to open the market.

“Biggest challenge is there’s an awful lot of empty nesters living in big homes that we may not necessarily need. We need the ability to find a place to go to,” said Manzano, who said he is also an empty nester.

Mary Ilacqua has been living in her four-bedroom home for 33 years. She moved to her neighborhood to have a nice place for her young boys to grow up.

“I don’t need as big a house as this … First of all, you accumulate so many things over the years that moving becomes almost monumental,” said Ilacqua, who said her mortgage is long paid off. “When I total up all my expenses living here, it’s less than I would pay for any apartment that I would actually want to move into. That’s going to cost more money than living here.”

“So, they would like to downsize, but they don’t have to. So that gives them a little bit of a high degree of control. And then if you do sell a house and you get this huge equity cash flow, now your ability to downsize and bid up those prices, that to me is what’s been happening in upstate New York,” said Ken Entenmann, chief economist at NBT Bank.

Another piece of the housing puzzle is interest rates. These days, buying a home for a 30-year mortgage would be 5.87% according to U.S. Bank.

“Good news is they’re lower, they’re breaking below 6% now, so that should hopefully jumpstart the market a little bit. But it’s a real challenge. I think the more important thing is the lack of supply,” said Entenmann.

“So, while I would love to downsize at some point, just for getting rid of 33 years’ worth of accumulations, the fact is, financially, it doesn’t make sense,” said Ilacqua.

According to the New York State Association of Realtors, closed sales are down 7.5% and new listings are down 7.3% over the last year.