Buying a home has become increasingly expensive in New York's capital region of Albany, prompting local lawmakers to ask residents for ideas on how to solve the problem.
The Albany County Legislature held an event on Wednesday, during which constituents shared what makes purchasing a house in the area so daunting. Leaders from local housing advocacy groups also attended.
Albany resident Sandra McKinley told lawmakers that she has been trying to buy a home through the land bank, but one of the rules is that applicants must have a certain amount of funds saved toward the purchase. The saving part has been difficult, McKinley said, while asking if financial assistance could be provided for others in her situation.
"I call myself the working poor because, by the time I pay rent, gas and lights, car insurance and all these other bills, I really don't have anything left," McKinley said.
Legis. Wanda Willingham, the Albany lawmaker who hosted the event, said her colleagues held the session to get insights needed to craft future housing-related legislation. Willingham noted that lawmakers recently passed a measure that gives homeowners tax breaks for building accessory dwelling units on their property, to increase the area's housing stock.
"Housing affects everything," she said in a statement on Wednesday after the event. "When people are secure in their homes, every positive metric increases — health, education, public safety — and every negative drops. Plain and simple. For decades, certain areas of Albany County have not had the stability they need to thrive."
The event happened weeks after the Albany area's regional planning commission released a study detailing why home prices are climbing.
The median home sales price in Albany County grew from $234,000 in July 2020 to $363,325 in July, according to the Greater Capital Association of Realtors. In neighboring Saratoga County, prices jumped from $316,250 to $480,000 during that period.
Older adults across Albany are staying in their homes much longer because they cannot afford the price of elder care and prefer to age in a familiar environment, according to the 2025 Capital Region Housing Affordability Study. That trend is shrinking the number of existing homes available for sale, spiking the price of properties that do make it to market, the study found.
Albany-area residents also cannot afford homes in part because wages there have not kept pace with home price growth, according to the study. Albany's median household income hit $81,335, according to the most recent 2023 U.S. Census Bureau figures.
"While two-person households earning 80% of the area median income can just manage to afford homes in some counties, they still fall short in higher-cost areas like Albany and Saratoga Counties," the study concluded.
