Buyers Keep Waiting For a Break On Price. The Wait Itself Is the Story.

A lot of buyers around here have told me the same thing this summer: homes are sitting longer, so there must be more room to negotiate. I get why that feels true. It's the natural assumption when a house isn't gone in a weekend.

Here's what the data actually says.

Across the North Country, the median time to go under contract rose to 85 days this period, up from 78 days a year earlier. That's a real and measurable shift, not a guess. At the same time, the average sale-to-list ratio fell to 97.5%, down from 99% a year ago. Both of those moves are backed by solid sample sizes, so this isn't noise.

Normally you'd expect those two things to move together. Longer waits and softer pricing usually mean buyers have the upper hand. But that's not quite the shape of it. Sellers are still landing close to their asking price. A ratio near 97.5% means most homes are selling within a few percentage points of list, not after steep concessions. Buyers are getting more time to think, not necessarily a bigger discount.

Across the territory, the median sold price came in at $275,000 this period. That's the middle of everything that sold, not a forecast of what any one home is worth, but it's a useful anchor for where the broader market sits right now.

It helps to look at how differently this plays out block to block. In Elizabethtown, the median time to pending ran 81 days this period. In Dannemora, the same measure ran just 25 days. Those two towns sit inside the same general area, and yet a buyer's experience in one looks nothing like the other. That's the real lesson here: "the market" isn't one thing. It's a collection of very local markets, each moving at its own pace.

So what does this mean if you're on one side of a deal? If you're selling, don't panic if your home doesn't move in the first week or two. A longer runway doesn't mean you have to chase the price down to make something happen. If you're buying, don't assume extra days on market hand you leverage automatically. Sellers here are still holding their ground on price more often than not.

What I'll be watching next is whether that sale-to-list number keeps drifting down as days on market climb further, or whether it holds steady like it has. If sellers start conceding more ground alongside the longer timelines, that's a real shift in who has the advantage. Right now, it isn't one yet.

If you're weighing a move in the North Country and want a read on what this looks like for your specific town, I'm always glad to talk it through. No pressure, just a conversation.

Penny Daniels Coldwell Banker Whitbeck