SULLIVAN COUNTY — Sullivan County has long functioned as a second-home and weekend destination, and local real estate brokers say that identity helps explain why home prices remain far above pre-pandemic levels.

“We’re a resort market,” said Tom Freda of Freda Real Estate in Callicoon.

When the pandemic began in 2020, that dynamic intensified. Buyers from New York City and surrounding counties began moving outward in waves, first into markets closer to the city and then farther north into Sullivan County.

“When Rockland and Orange got sold out, they moved into Sullivan,” Lynne Freda, a licensed salesperson for Freda Realty said. “We sold out everything.”

“We pretty much saw things double,” Tom Freda added. “If we priced something before the pandemic and price it now, it’s up.”

Regional data reflect that shift. Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress reported that Sullivan County’s median home price rose from $144,900 in 2019 to $350,000 in 2025, an increase of roughly 141 percent over six years. The sharpest gains occurred between 2020 and 2022, during the height of pandemic migration.

While the market is no longer in that frenzied phase, prices have not returned to pre-2020 norms.

January figures from the New York State Association of REALTORS® show Sullivan County’s median sale price rose 2.4 percent year over year, from $317,500 to $325,000. Closed sales increased 6.5 percent, while months of supply fell slightly from 6.2 to 5.8.

“It’s slowed down from what it was,” Tom Freda said. “It’s not on fire.”

Homes priced realistically are still selling, the Fredas said, though bidding wars are less common than during the pandemic peak.

Inventory remains constrained. Many homeowners secured mortgage rates near 2 to 3 percent in recent years and are reluctant to sell now that average rates are closer to 6 percent.

“Those people will not get rid of that mortgage,” Lynne Freda said. “That’s created the lack of inventory.”

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress reported that the number of homes available for sale across the region remains roughly 62 percent below 2019 levels.

For full-time residents, the second-home dynamic can create affordability pressure.

“The salaries are not keeping up,” Tom Freda said.

With the median home price reaching $350,000 in 2025, entry-level inventory has become harder to find, particularly for local wage earners competing with outside buyers.

Asked whether the recent surge resembles the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis, Lynne Freda said she does not see it that way.

“This real estate is hyper local,” she said. “That may apply somewhere else, but not here.”

Instead, the Fredas compared the recent surge more closely to the period following the Sept. 11 attacks, when some city residents sought homes farther from Manhattan. They described the recent price acceleration as driven by migration and lifestyle demand rather than loose lending or speculative overbuilding.

While the pandemic surge has cooled, Sullivan County’s role as a second-home destination continues to shape pricing—and keeps the housing market structurally elevated compared to where it stood just a few years ago.

“It’s still a strong market,” Tom Freda said.