At the beginning of 2026, Main Street asked area real estate writers, analysts, and agents what they were predicting for our area’s residential real estate market this year.

An incorporated village is a municipality within a town with its own government including a mayor and elected board.

Across the United States, agricultural land values have climbed to record highs, driven by forces that have little to do with corn prices, milk yields, or farming.

Do a town’s zoning regulations allow you to put up a garage or install a swimming pool on the property you are considering buying?

Starter homes are not grand weekend estates with acreage, new modern builds perched on hillsides, or cosmetic flips. Starter homes are the houses that initiate people in homeownership.

What do real estate professionals, economists, and bankers predict will happen to the housing market in 2026?

When buying real estate, in addition to other considerations, like view, condition, privacy, style, acreage, or a bedroom on the first floor, school district rankings can be a factor in the buying decision, as are property taxes. Both can be important to buyers. But just how important?

Garages are a relatively new addition to real estate, a new word in the English language with the advent of cars in 1902. By the mid 1920s, Ford was selling over two million Model T’s every year in the United States, and real estate agents at the time reported that the first question asked by home buyers was about the garage.