A lot of the challenges faced by homebuyers and sellers are the same in Utica as elsewhere, but one major difference is often the cost.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 35 years I’ve sold, the last four or five years is probably the hardest market I’ve ever seen as far as inventory,” said Chapin Real Estate broker and owner, Jennie Chapin.<\/p>\n
The need for more housing options in the state is no secret.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think sort of across the life cycle, we really need to see sort of more housing so that you can see a lot of, so you get more flow, right? Because as people have more opportunities to rent and then buy and then sell that house and buy a larger one, and maybe in later years, downsize, there has to be enough supply across that spectrum,” said Commissioner\/CEO of NYS Homes and Community Renewal RuthAnne Visnauskas.<\/p>\n
Experts said there just aren\u2019t enough homes or apartments to meet demand.<\/p>\n
And there are a number of hurdles for potential builders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is not a lot of as-of-right zoning across the state that accommodates denser housing, whether that’s sort of an it could be a townhouse, a duplex, a fourplex, something like that,” Visnauskas said.<\/p>\n
But Oneida County and the surrounding area have managed to keep prices noticeably lower.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just sold the house to somebody from Oklahoma. These prices were comparable and better than what they’re used to. You go to Arizona, the prices are high. You go to New Jersey, Las Vegas, you know, all over. So, the area is desirable. We do have jobs,” Chapin said.<\/p>\n
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said there are many reasons why costs here are down; one being the impact of tourism spending. According to the New York State Tourism Industry Association, visitor spending at Oneida County businesses was more than $2 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have all of these attractions that people from all different parts of the state and around the outside of the state come to every year, whether it’s in the summer or the fall or the winter,” Picente said.<\/p>\n
A 2024 report conducted by Tourism Economics said, \u201cWere it not for tourism-generated state and local taxes, the average household in the region would have to pay an additional $1,165 to maintain the same level of government revenue.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’ll see the minute the house comes up, three days later all offers due by such and such a day and time. There’s multiple offers. Some houses sit. It depends on the house. It depends on the condition, the location, pricing. But as far as houses staying on the market, they’re not. They’re just not,” said Chapin.<\/p>\n
On the topic of zoning, Gov. Kathy Hochul has the \u201cLet Them Build\u201d agenda, which includes efforts to speed up housing projects.<\/p>\n
In Oneida County, Picente just announced in June that a Uniform Tax Exemption and Agency Benefits Policy was approved, meaning more types of housing projects are eligible for incentives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lot of the challenges faced by homebuyers and sellers are the same in Utica as elsewhere, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[257,2907,26069,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,200],"class_list":["post-319904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-central-ny","tag-housing","tag-melissa-krull","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}