Orange County Home Prices Jump 13% as Housing Market Tightens

Orange County's housing market delivered a stark number this month: median home prices climbed roughly 13% in February 2026 compared with February 2025, continuing an upward pressure that is reshaping affordability from Newburgh to Port Jervis. The figure, drawn from multiple listing service data, local broker reports, and economists' analyses, underscores how persistently tight supply has kept prices elevated across the county even as buyers face mounting competition.

The drivers are familiar but intensifying. Inventory remains constrained relative to buyer demand, and Orange County's positioning within reach of the New York City region continues to draw households seeking suburban and exurban alternatives. Interstate 84 and the Port Jervis Line have long made the county an accessible option for commuters, and that transportation infrastructure keeps feeding demand into communities that don't have enough homes listed to absorb it.

For prospective buyers in Goshen, Middletown, Monroe, and Port Jervis, the 13% figure translates directly into fewer affordable entry-level options and more competitive bidding situations. A home that was attainable a year ago may now require a substantially higher offer, a higher down payment, or both. First-time buyers and lower-income households carry the sharpest burden of that arithmetic.

Current homeowners, by contrast, are seeing equity accumulate faster. That acceleration can benefit sellers and those refinancing, but it also pushes up property-tax assessment baselines and chips away at the workforce housing stock that municipalities depend on to retain teachers, police officers, and service workers. For county and local planners, rapid appreciation is not simply a market signal; it complicates school enrollment forecasting, infrastructure investment, and long-term budget modeling.

Some local leaders and housing advocates have responded to price pressure across the Hudson Valley by pushing for zoning revisions to encourage more diverse housing types, coordinating with county development authorities on mixed-income projects, and expanding affordable-housing programs. Whether those efforts can keep pace with sustained price growth over multiple quarters remains an open question.

The 13% figure also warrants scrutiny on its own terms. Monthly snapshots drawn from MLS data can swing sharply if a cluster of higher-priced closings distorts the sample in a given period. Examining trends across multiple months and quarters gives a fuller picture of where the market is genuinely heading versus where any single month's data landed. Mortgage rate movements and broader macroeconomic conditions could also shift trajectory in either direction as the year progresses.

For Orange County residents tracking the market closely, neighborhood-level detail beyond the county-level headline is available through local MLS reports and municipal planning departments, which publish more granular breakdowns of median sale prices, days on market, and active inventory by zip code and community.