The newest figures for the sale of real estate once again confirm that the mid-Hudson region has little to worry about as long as New York City remains the center of so many economic and cultural universes. The first-quarter numbers from NYSAR, the industry’s Albany-based nonprofit support organization, show an Ulster County year-over-year hike of 6.9 percent in median sales prices for the first quarter of 2026, significantly steeper than the statewide increase of 2.3 percent over the same period from last year.
The data correlates closely with an analysis conducted by a different method by FRED, the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank tasked with tracking national real estate activity. Though as of April 27, FRED hadn’t yet posted its first-quarter numbers, it noted “continued growth” in the Kingston SMSA (Ulster County) in the past year.
“Data indicates substantial appreciation in the Kingston area, with the price index rising,” FRED said. The broader New York City market had shown the highest gains in the nation among major cities in 2025, it added. Because of that and other economic boosts, New York ranked second last year among the states in percentage increase in gross domestic product.
Positive state and regional pictures don’t guarantee local results, of course. Though exurban counties like Ulster County are particularly susceptible to variation, a pattern emerges through time. In residential real estate, that pattern is the gradual encroachment of New York City incomes on housing prices. What’s very expensive by Ulster County standards would be considered laughably cheap in the Big Apple.
First-quarter Ulster County median sales prices, according to NYSAR, have risen from $345,000 in 2022 to $438,250 in 2026, as compared to a statewide first-quarter average that has increased less than a third of that — from $400,000 in 2022 to $432,000 this year.
When it comes to median price, distance from New York City is almost everything. Every New York state county south of Ulster except for the Bronx and Sullivan counties boasts a higher median price than Ulster. Of Ulster’s immediate neighbors to its north and west, only Columbia County has a higher median sales price.
Just as it brings increased incomes and a higher sustainable floor to local housing prices, the influx of city money inevitably brings gentrification. People with deep community roots can no longer afford to live where they grew up. They have to out-migrate, leaving their local aspirations behind them — a terrible price in diminished community culture for Ulster County to have to pay.