Utica, New York wants you. Badly.

The Mohawk Valley city has quietly become one of the most affordable places to buy a home anywhere in the state, with median values ranging from roughly $87,000 to $157,000 depending on the neighborhood, according to multiple market trackers.

Rents start as low as $900 a month. Overall cost of living runs about 28 to 33 percent below the New York state average.

For a New Yorker priced out of literally everything, that sounds like a fantasy. So why does the population keep shrinking?

The math is almost cartoonishly lopsided. The average home in Utica — four hours north of New York City — now runs $213,412, according to Zillow data, up nearly 9 percent in the past year. That’s still a fraction of the roughly $370,000 national average home value. 

Utica has become one of the cheapest places to buy a home in New York, with median values ranging from roughly $87,000 to $157,000 depending on neighborhood (average around $213,000 per Zillow). Getty Images Rents start near $900 a month, putting overall cost of living 28 to 33 percent below the state average. Getty Images

Median household income sits around $52,000, well below the state median, and the median individual income in Utica was just $30,785 in 2024.

As an example, a five-bedroom property at 707 Spring St W has listed for only $89,900. And a three-bedroom home is listed for $99,900. On the pricier end for the area, a five-bedroom, 2,500 square feet property at 1527 Mohawk St is on the market for $299,900.

And people keep moving out anyway. Utica is currently losing population at a rate of about 0.74 percent a year, and has shrunk more than 4 percent since the 2020 census, according to the US Census Bureau.

A three bedrooms, 2.5 bathroom home valued at $250,000, according to market data. It’s located in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Utica. Ann Roefaro

A recent analysis of statewide migration found Utica among the upstate municipalities outside New York City that lost the most residents, down roughly 1,500 people.

“It’s the cheapest house you’ll ever buy and also the hardest sell to your kids,” one longtime Mohawk Valley real estate agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, describing the pitch to prospective buyers weighing Utica against the Southern Tier or the Capital Region. 

“Price isn’t the problem. Everything else is the problem.”

A five-bedroom, one-bathroom single-family home at 707 Spring St. W is currently listed for $89,900. Google Maps On the pricier side for the neighborhood, a five-bedroom, 2.5-bath, 2,532-square-foot single-family home at 1527 Mohawk St. is listed for sale at $299,900 in Utica, NY. Google Maps This three-bedroom home is listed for $99,900. Google Maps

The roots of the exodus go back decades. Utica was hit hard by Rust Belt deindustrialization, with major employers like General Electric and Lockheed Martin shuttering plants and jobs shifting out to the suburbs, hollowing out the city’s tax base and leaving many residents stuck in poverty. 

The poverty rate in Utica now sits above 27 percent, nearly double the national figure.

Unemployment hovers around 4.5 to 6 percent, according to the Department of Laabor, and the city continues to bleed residents even as home prices — cheap by any national comparison — keep climbing. 

“You can get a whole house here for what a down payment costs in Brooklyn,” a Utica homeowner, speaking on the condition of anonymity, and who recently listed her property said.

“The problem is convincing anyone that’s a reason to stay, not just a reason to buy and rent it out.”