Median sale price of a Greene County home was $425,000 last month

GREENVILLE―Back in 2018, the median sale price of a home in Greene County was $179,000. Last month, it was $425,000.

In Greenville, the number is even higher with homes selling in April for a median price of  $480,000. That’s up 42.1% since last year, according to Redfin, a national real estate brokerage and analytics firm.

So, it is no big surprise that housing affordability, availability and diversity ranked as the top “big picture” issue facing Greenville in the next five to seven years, according to results of a workshop series and survey of residents, neighbors and visitors as part of the first phase of the town’s comprehensive plan update.

“Every day we scan the listings hoping something is going to fall within our price range,” said Ella Wilson, who is looking to move her family to Greenville from Arizona to be closer to her fiancé’s parents.

“It’s tough out there for people who make what I used to think was decent money,” she said.

The root of the “housing crisis,” as it has been described across the country, is multifaceted. In areas like the Hudson Valley, the pandemic exacerbated the issue as more people looked to permanently and temporarily relocate from New York City and other urban areas.

Short-term rentals (STRs), like those on Airbnb and Vrbo, have been blamed for contributing to the problem by removing homes from the long-term residential market. By June of 2022, 5.9% of all housing units and 45% of all rental units in Greene County were STRs, according to AirDNA.

“The housing market is no longer accessible to the majority of Greene County workers, as the median household can no longer afford the median house sold in the county,” according to a 2023 Workforce Housing Attainability Assessment commissioned by Greene County Economic Development.

“Wage growth has not kept pace with housing cost increases, meaning that housing units that may have been affordable to certain segments of the county’s workforce just a few years ago are now out of reach,” the report found. “At the same time, rising construction costs, rising land costs, inflation, and higher interest rates mean that the private market is unable to produce housing units at price points affordable to these workers without consideration of public subsidy.”

From 2022 to 2032, Greene County is expected to gain about 1,100 jobs and the 25 fastest-growing occupations have an annual median wage of about $35,000.

“While some high-paying occupations like general/operations managers, software developers, industrial engineers, and accountants appear among those with high growth, the list is largely dominated by low-wage jobs like restaurant cooks, servers, retail workers, housekeepers, and more,” the report noted.

The assessment estimated that a single-earner household with an annual income between $31,200 and $41,600 could afford a home ranging from $107,761 to $143,681. To purchase a house at last month’s $425,000 median sale price would require a yearly household income of around $120,000.

The average monthly residential rent in Greene County was $1,875 last month, according to Realtor.com. As per the county’s assessment, that would require a household income of around $75,000 per year.

The latest U.S. Census data from 2024 shows the average per capita annual income in Greene County is about $44,090.

For Greene County businesses to have access to the workforce they need over the next decade, the assessment recommended that local government will need to collaborate with private housing developers and leverage state and federal housing programs to incentivize investment. It’s something that is already being done in places like Catskill and Tannersville.

Meanwhile, Wilson said they are considering moving in with her soon-to-be in-laws.

“We love Greenville. The nature, the school, the park, the small town feel,” she said. “We should have moved three years ago when we could have afforded a house.”