Ithaca, N.Y.: Affordable homes, quality of life draw buyers
— -- Ithaca, a small city in Upstate New York, seems like a bucolic refuge from financial woes. It avoided the housing bubble, and so far, it has been sheltered from much of the economic crisis.
The local housing market has been lucky because Ithaca, the county seat of Tompkins County, is home to Cornell University and Ithaca College. The education and health care sectors account for more than 60% of the region's employment.
"That is our bread and butter," says Elia Kacapyr, professor of economics at Ithaca College. "We're not growing jobs now, but we're holding steady."
Home sales were up 6.7% in March, compared with the same month last year. But the numbers are small, and that's just a snapshot. In the past 12 months, home sales were down slightly, says Amy Wood Gonzalez, president of the Ithaca Board of Realtors.
Even though the region is more resilient than many other parts of the state, the Ithaca area is not skating through this recession, Kacapyr says. Cornell University, for example, has announced a retirement incentive program, and it has postponed faculty recruitment.
But neither has had a major impact on the housing market. Instead, low mortgage rates and affordable home prices are attracting first-time home buyers, says Gonzalez, who is a Warren Real Estate agent.
"We are starting to get multiple offers on homes under $200,000," she says. "And lakefront homes are really desirable."
Ithaca attracts many tourists and vacation home buyers because it is at the southernmost end of Cayuga Lake and has many waterfalls, gorges and trails.
With an Ivy League school and outdoor beauty, Ithaca is often picked as one of the nation's best places to live.
In January, U.S. News & World Report selected Ithaca as one of the 10 best cities for job-seeking retirees. And in December, Forbes said that the city has the best middle-class housing market in the nation.
The list goes on, including this one: In February 2008, SmartMoney named the city as the second-best place to retire during an economic downturn.
