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James Rawley
★★★★★
Colin’s deep knowledge of the market was invaluable. He made what could have been a stressful experience feel manageable and pleasant. I would recommend him to anyone buying in the Capital Region or Saratoga area.
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Saratoga Springs, NY · Saratoga County
Saratoga Springs Real Estate Services
Six weeks of August that reshape the year, a Victorian mansion belt along Union Avenue, twenty-one carbonated mineral springs, and a Broadway that still works as a Broadway. Upstate’s highest-demand city, and the one with the most rules about how you buy in it.
Inventory
Current listings in Saratoga Springs
Homes for sale in Saratoga Springs, updated live from the Global MLS. Saratoga carries the deepest inventory of any city in the county — roughly 628 listings in a typical week — and homes go to pending in about 15 days on average. Historic-district properties and the Union Avenue mansion belt run a slower cycle; west-side new construction moves fastest. Tell us what you are looking for and we will filter the MLS and pocket network for you.
Who You’ll Work With
Meet your Saratoga Springs agent
Colin McDonald
Broker / Owner · NYS Licensed Real Estate Broker #10491210476
Colin is a Capital Region native who has closed more than $300 million in career sales and over 300 transactions, including the highest recorded closings in Albany County in 2019 and 2020. He opened McDonald Real Estate Company in Troy in 2021 after years as a top producer at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services.
Our office is on 2nd Street in downtown Troy — about thirty minutes north up I-87 to Saratoga Springs, a route we run several times a week. The argument for working with us in Saratoga is not that we are the biggest office in town; it is that we know the market end-to-end, from the Union Avenue Historic District mansion belt to the west-side new-construction corridor toward Wilton, and we do not rely on a single referral partner or builder to fill the calendar. That independence shows up in the things a buyer wants to know before writing an offer — which streets lose parking during track season, which HOAs restrict short-term rentals, which listings will fall out of contract because the buyer did not budget for Design Review Commission approval.
Reviews
Over 300+ Clients in Their Dream Homes
Google and Zillow reviews from across the Capital Region.
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lenderking
★★★★★
Phenomenal both when I bought and sold. Responsive, professional, thorough. Bought and sold in Arbor Hill, Albany — Colin knew the block better than the listing agent did.
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Amy Dall
★★★★★
Colin is really knowledgeable, fun, available, responsive and knows everyone! He was able to schedule 3 different contractors for estimates in the same 1 hour time frame. I had a VERY modest budget and he treated me like I was buying a million dollar home.
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Gina Feliciano
★★★★★
Colin found a gorgeous Marcus Reynolds condo in the Center Square Neighborhood. He’s the only realtor I’ll use. Knows the historic buildings by name.
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Kristopher Constable
★★★★★
I sent in the offer in January and closed in February! Him and his team are the best people for the job in Albany County!
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Leigh Wedenoja
★★★★★
He got me to see every listing I was even a little interested in — 10 in one Sunday. I cold called him a couple weeks before Halloween and we closed before Thanksgiving.
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Pete Hawkins
★★★★★
I’ve been able to work alongside McDonald Real Estate Co. on a number of inspections. They are knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocates for their clients.
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Abigail Possinger
★★★★★
He made the process of buying my second home even simpler than the first time around.
The Place
What is life in Saratoga Springs like?
Saratoga is a small city with a very specific problem most cities do not have: for six weeks every August, the population effectively doubles. The Race Course opens in mid-July, runs through Labor Day, and the entire economy — hotel rates, restaurant reservations, short-term rental prices, downtown parking — reshapes around it. The rest of the year Saratoga is a walkable college town with a Broadway you can shop end to end on foot; in August, it is one of the top three thoroughbred racing venues in the world.
The rest of Saratoga is neighborhoods, and the neighborhood you buy in is the answer. The Union Avenue Historic District (National Register, 1978) is the Victorian mansion belt — median list roughly $935K, up to $645/sqft — running from the racetrack west to Congress Park. The Broadway Historic District (National Register, 1979) covers the main-street core northward into a quieter residential stretch of stately homes. The East Side and the neighborhoods around Skidmore College carry a range of Victorian and mid-century single-family stock. The West Side and the Wilton/Malta corridor hold the newer construction, mostly single-family colonials on quarter- to half-acre lots, with better school ratios and shorter driveways than the historic districts allow.
Skidmore College, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center summer residencies of NYC Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra, twenty-one naturally carbonated mineral springs across Congress Park and Spa State Park, and the Roosevelt Baths together do most of the work of turning a summer weekend into a year- round address. Albany is forty minutes south by I-87. Manhattan is roughly three hours by Amtrak from the Saratoga Springs station. The Farmers Market runs Saturdays year-round in High Rock Park.
The Numbers
Median sales price in Saratoga Springs
Three different portals report three different Saratoga numbers because they measure different things — list price vs. sale price, city vs. metro, all housing vs. specific historic districts. Here is what each one is actually showing.
| Segment | Median | Price / SqFt | Trend | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citywide typical home value | ~$618,000 | — | +2.4% YoY | Zillow, mid-2026 |
| Citywide median list price | ~$803,000 | ~$395 | Stabilizing | Movoto, June 2026 |
| Citywide median sale price | ~$588,000 | ~$152 | Recent softening | Redfin, late 2025 |
| Union Avenue Historic District | ~$935,000 | ~$645 | Slower turnover | Movoto, June 2026 |
| Time to pending (citywide) | ~15 days | — | Steady | Redfin, 2026 |
| Days on market to close | ~36 days | — | Up from 27 last year | Redfin, 2026 |
| Active inventory | ~628 homes | — | Deepest in Saratoga County | Movoto, 2026 |
How We Help
Our services in Saratoga Springs
Buyers, sellers, investors and homeowners downsizing out of a Saratoga address. Each of these is a real workflow — not a landing page. Follow any link for the details.
Buy a home in Saratoga Springs
Full buyer representation from first coffee to keys. Pre-approval strategy, neighborhood shortlist, historic-district and short-term-rental screening, and offer strategy in a 15-day-to-pending market. Buyer services are typically free — the seller pays the commission at closing.
Sell a home in Saratoga Springs
Full-service listing built for Saratoga specifically: pricing a historic address against the right Union Avenue or Broadway comp set, professional photography and video, staging advice for Victorian interiors, and marketing that reaches the NYC and Boston second-home buyer pool that drives most of the top of the Saratoga market.
What’s my Saratoga home worth?
Free comparative market analysis, priced against the last 90 days of closed comps in your specific neighborhood and property type. Not a Zestimate. We walk the house, review deferred maintenance, and give you a defensible list price range with a target number.
Buy a track-season or year-round investment
The Saratoga investment path splits two ways: a short-term-rental home marketed for the six-week summer season at premium daily rates, or a year-round rental to the Skidmore/hospital workforce. We help you pick the model, screen the address for city short-term-rental permit eligibility, and run the actual math on both scenarios before you offer.
Second-home purchase or 1031 exchange
A large share of the Saratoga top-of-market buyer pool is downstate or out-of-state, buying a second home or moving proceeds through a 1031 exchange from an appreciated investment property. We handle the calendar (out-of-town buyers need consolidated tours), the paperwork (New York transfer tax, mansion tax over $1M), and the coordination with downstate counsel.
Downsize out of a Saratoga address
Selling a long-held Union Avenue Victorian or a Country Club home and buying smaller — often a condo downtown, a one-story in a newer west-side subdivision, or a move to a warmer climate entirely. We coordinate the sale and the purchase so you are not carrying two mortgages or renting between them.
Local Knowledge
What to know before buying in Saratoga Springs
Four things a Saratoga buyer is surprised by, and three of them cost money. None of them appear in a Zillow listing description.
Design Review Commission approval is not optional
Saratoga Springs has multiple local historic districts — Broadway (National Register 1979), Union Avenue (1978), Franklin Square, and others — and the city Design Review Commission has authority over exterior work on covered properties: windows, doors, roofing material, porches, signage, even paint color in some cases. Buyers who plan to swap Victorian sash for vinyl, add a rear deck, or replace a slate roof with architectural asphalt without a Certificate of Appropriateness get stopped. We flag the district status of every address on your shortlist before you offer.
Track-season rental rules are the whole game
The August track season creates the highest short-term rental premium in upstate New York — single-family homes near Union Avenue routinely book the six-week meet at rates that offset a meaningful share of the annual carrying cost. But the city regulates short-term rentals through a permit system, some HOAs prohibit them outright, and even eligible owners must comply with occupancy and safety requirements. Buyers who plan on August income should verify permit eligibility for the specific address before they offer, not after they close.
Victorian systems: knob-and-tube, slate roofs, plaster
The 1870-1910 Victorians that define Union Avenue and North Broadway carry their era: original slate roofs with limited remaining service life, knob-and-tube wiring in walls that have not been opened, cast-iron drain lines, horsehair plaster over lath, and radiator heat off aging boilers. None of it is a deal-breaker. All of it wants a home inspector who has done fifty of these — not thirty new-construction ranches — and a specific budget line for the first-year systems work. We know the inspectors who specialize in this stock.
City water and sewer stop at the city limits
The Saratoga Springs City School District covers most but not all of the city, and municipal water and sewer service ends at the city boundary. Homes over the line into Wilton, Greenfield or the Town of Saratoga generally sit on private wells and septic systems, and pull from different school districts — Saratoga Springs, South Glens Falls or Corinth. A listing labeled “Saratoga Springs” on the MLS can be any of those. We verify the address against city, water, and school district maps before you offer, because inspections, financing, and tax bills all follow.
Why Here
What Saratoga Springs has that you won’t find anywhere else in upstate New York
A dozen upstate cities have one of these. A small city that has all four at once is the reason Saratoga carries the pricing it does.
The oldest continuously operated racetrack in America
Saratoga Race Course has opened every summer since 1863 — older than Churchill Downs, older than Belmont, one of the three most prestigious thoroughbred meets in the world. Six weeks in late July through Labor Day, forty stakes races, morning workouts open to the public. The Track sits at the east end of Union Avenue, walking distance from the mansion belt, which is why the mansion belt exists in the first place.
SPAC — the summer home of the NYC Ballet
The Saratoga Performing Arts Center runs residencies for the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra every summer, plus a concert calendar that runs into fall. The amphitheater sits inside Saratoga Spa State Park, which is a National Historic Landmark in its own right, and lawn tickets put you inside walking distance of the stage. This is not a summer concert series; it is a working extension of two of the country’s top arts institutions, on a Saratoga address for three months a year.
Twenty-one carbonated mineral springs
The city was built around them. Congress Park still runs Congress Spring and Columbian Spring at the edge of downtown; High Rock Park holds High Rock, Peerless and Governor; Saratoga Spa State Park operates Roosevelt Baths #1 and #2 in the 1930s spa buildings, plus the Hayes Well and Hathorn Springs. The spring water is why Saratoga became a resort in the 1800s and is why the state park exists at all. Buyers walk past two or three of them on a normal Sunday.
A Broadway that still works as a Broadway
Broadway runs a mile through the heart of Saratoga and is one of the most intact 19th-century main streets in the Northeast. Two hundred plus independent shops, restaurants and hotels along a walkable spine that connects Congress Park at the south end to Skidmore at the north. It is not a preservation exhibit — it is where residents actually eat, shop, and run errands, twelve months a year. That is the reason downtown addresses hold value even when the wider market cools.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
What is the median home price in Saratoga Springs right now?
Zillow’s Saratoga Springs metro tracker reported the typical home value at approximately $618,000 through mid-2026, up about 2.4% year over year. Movoto reported a June 2026 median list price of $803,000, or roughly $395/sqft. Union Avenue Historic District specifically ran a median list closer to $935,000 at $645/sqft. Redfin reported a median sale price closer to $588,000 in late 2025. The range reflects real neighborhood spread — Union Avenue mansions, west-side new construction, and downtown condos are effectively three different markets sitting inside one MLS filter.
How fast are Saratoga Springs homes selling?
Fast but not as fast as they were. Homes in Saratoga go to pending in about 15 days on average, and time on market sits around 36 days from list to close versus 27 days the year prior (Redfin, Movoto). West-side new construction and mid-priced single-family homes move fastest. Historic Victorians on Union Avenue and the north end of Broadway can sit longer — the buyer pool is narrower and pricing power is more discretionary.
Which Saratoga Springs neighborhood should I look in?
Depends on what you want the house to do. Union Avenue Historic District and North Broadway for Victorian mansions and top-of-market. Downtown and Franklin Square for walkable condos and townhouses. The East Side and the Skidmore-adjacent neighborhoods for family-scale Victorians and mid-century. The West Side (Woodlawn Ave, West Circular) for older single-family with driveways. Wilton and Malta to the south for newer construction and larger lots. We tour buyers across three or four before they commit — the neighborhoods carry very different price points and tradeoffs.
Can I rent my Saratoga home during track season?
Sometimes. The City of Saratoga Springs regulates short-term rentals through a permit system, and eligibility depends on address, zoning, and whether the unit is your primary residence. Homes near Union Avenue and downtown command the highest track-season rates — a single-family home in the mansion belt can book the six-week meet at rates that offset a meaningful share of the annual carrying cost — but some HOAs and condominium associations prohibit short-term rentals outright, and the city sets occupancy and safety requirements. We verify permit eligibility on the specific address before you offer.
Do I need historic district approval to renovate a Saratoga Victorian?
If the property is inside a Saratoga Springs local historic district or on a listed landmark, exterior changes visible from the public right-of-way generally require a Certificate of Appropriateness from the city Design Review Commission. That covers windows, doors, roofing material, porches, signage, and in some cases paint color. Interior renovations are not regulated. National Register listing (Broadway 1979, Union Avenue 1978, etc.) does not by itself create a review requirement — the local historic district designation is what triggers Design Review Commission jurisdiction, and the two overlap in most of the main historic areas.
How are the Saratoga Springs schools rated?
Saratoga Springs City School District runs 8 schools serving roughly 5,858 students (NYSED). The district generally ranks in the upper tier of New York State public districts on standard measures, and the high school in particular carries a strong academic reputation. Roughly 17.5% of students are economically disadvantaged. Not every Saratoga Springs mailing address is inside the district — homes just over the city line in Wilton, Greenfield or Town of Saratoga may zone into different districts. We verify every specific address before you offer.
Should I look at new construction on the west side, Wilton or Malta?
If you want lower price per square foot, newer systems, larger lots, more parking, and no historic-district review, yes — the west side of Saratoga plus Wilton and Malta to the south are the practical answer. Malta in particular has grown with the Global Foundries workforce. The tradeoffs: longer drive to Broadway, less walkability, and typically smaller potential in short-term-rental economics because you are outside the historic core buyers pay to be in. We help buyers weigh the annual dollar difference against the lifestyle difference before picking a corridor.
What are the property taxes like in Saratoga Springs?
Saratoga Springs runs comparatively lower effective property tax rates than Troy or Albany because its taxable base is larger relative to the population it services. City, county and school levies are billed separately and on different fiscal calendars. Before you offer we pull the current tax card, verify the assessment, and check for any active STAR credit registration or veterans exemption. Owner-occupants who purchased their primary residence after August 1, 2015 register directly with the state for the STAR credit at tax.ny.gov. Purchases over $1M also owe the New York State 1% mansion tax at closing.
What kinds of homes are for sale in Saratoga Springs?
A wide mix, sliced by neighborhood. Union Avenue and North Broadway carry the Victorian mansion stock, roughly $900K to well over $2M. Downtown offers restored brownstones, townhouses and condos in the $500K to $1.5M range. Skidmore-adjacent and East Side neighborhoods carry classic single-family Victorians and mid-century in the $500K to $900K band. The West Side, Wilton and Malta hold newer single-family construction from roughly $450K into the $700s. New luxury townhouses and condo projects continue to come online near downtown.
What is Saratoga like in the off-season?
Buyers moving from downstate often ask if Saratoga is a summer-only town. It is not. The Track and SPAC drive the July-August peak, but Skidmore is in session September through May, the Saratoga Springs City Center hosts conventions and events year-round, downtown restaurants and shops stay open in the off-season, and the ski calendar to the north (Gore Mountain, Whiteface) drives winter weekend traffic. December sees a full holiday calendar. February is genuinely quiet — and quiet is what a lot of second-home buyers are actually looking for.
Looking to make a move in Saratoga?
Feel free to reach out for a no pressure – no obligation appointment.
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