HUDSON VALLEY – Anecdotally it has been said that people are moving north from New York City in hopes of reducing their chances of contracting the coronavirus. That has been borne out by 2020 home sales figures from the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors.
Sullivan County, the furthest northern area in the group’s territory, saw an almost 26 percent increase in single-family home sales. Association President Crystal Hawkins Syska said people are buying for less by moving away from New York City.
“The amount of calls that I receive from people from Brooklyn, from Queens, from Manhattan, even some of the outer parts of the boroughs, leaving New York City, not only in terms of breaking leases and turn into homeowners further up,” she said.
Sullivan County Partnership President Marc Baez said that migration north is also driving up prices.
“Our median sales price per home went up about 35 percent, so there has been a lot of activity in home sales,” he said. “But not only home sales. We have had businesses leaving the metro area to a safer haven up in the Sullivan Catskills.”
Home sales in 2020 in Putnam County rose by 20 percent, by almost 15 percent in Rockland County, by 14 percent in Westchester County, and by 8.5 percent in Orange County.
