In July 2026, three public data sources published three different median sale prices for the City of Rochester. Houzeo said $230,000. Movoto said $199,000. A local blog aggregator said $255,000. Same city, same month, a $56,000 spread.

None of those three numbers will appear on your closing statement. Not one of them decides how much a lender will hand a buyer.

This post explains who does decide: the licensed appraiser hired by the buyer's lender. You will learn what the appraiser is actually looking at, how they select comparables, why their number can differ from every public estimate on the internet, and exactly what happens when the appraisal comes in below the contract price. If you are heading into contract in Brighton, Pittsford or Henrietta, this is the part of the deal most people do not understand until it goes sideways.

The Appraiser Works for the Lender, Not for You

Start here, because it clears up half the confusion. When a buyer finances a purchase, the lender orders an appraisal. The buyer usually pays for it. The lender is the client.

The lender is not asking "is this a fair price?" The lender is asking one question: if this loan defaults and we have to sell this house, what is the collateral worth? That is a narrower question than what a buyer or seller is thinking about.

Since the appraisal rules tightened after 2008, lenders in New York generally order appraisals through an appraisal management company or a firewalled internal desk. The agent does not pick the appraiser. The seller does not pick the appraiser. Neither party can call the appraiser and lobby for a number. That separation is the entire point.

Cash buyers skip this. No loan, no lender, no appraisal contingency unless the buyer writes one in. That is a real part of why cash offers get accepted at prices a financed offer cannot reach.

What the Appraiser Actually Does, Step by Step

Here is the sequence, start to finish, for a typical financed purchase in Monroe County.

• The order goes out. After the contract is signed and the buyer's loan application is in, the lender orders the appraisal. Turnaround varies with appraiser workload in the Rochester area.
• The inspection. The appraiser visits the property. For a full interior appraisal they walk every room, measure the exterior footprint, photograph the front, rear, street, kitchen, bathrooms, primary bedroom, living areas, mechanicals and any obvious defects.
• Gross living area gets measured, not taken from the listing. Appraisers measure above-grade finished square footage themselves. In Brighton and Pittsford this matters more than people expect, because a finished lower level in a split or a raised ranch does not count as above-grade living area no matter how nicely it is finished. It gets valued, but separately and at a lower rate.
• Comparable selection. The appraiser pulls closed sales, usually three to six, from the MLS. Recent, nearby, similar. Pending sales and active listings may be cited to show market direction but do not carry the same weight.
• Adjustments. Each comp gets dollar adjustments up or down for differences: square footage, bedroom and bathroom count, garage stalls, lot size, age, condition, basement finish, central air, updated kitchen, condition of roof and mechanicals.
• Reconciliation. The adjusted comps produce a range. The appraiser weighs the most similar ones most heavily and states a single opinion of value.
• Delivery. The report goes to the lender. Under federal rules the buyer receives a copy. Sellers do not automatically get one, which is why the listing agent has to ask.

That is the home appraisal process in New York in plain terms. It is a documented, defensible opinion built from closed transactions, not a model output.

MLS Closed Comps vs Zestimate: Why the Numbers Split

An automated valuation model is a statistical estimate built from public records, tax data and whatever sale prices it can ingest. It has never been inside your house. It does not know the kitchen was gutted in 2023, that the bathroom is original 1962 tile, or that the lot backs to a commercial parking area.

The July 2026 Rochester data is a clean illustration. Houzeo reported a median sale price of $230,000, up 17.95% year over year, with 509 homes sold, a 78.6% jump. Movoto reported $199,000 for the same city and month, with 643 homes sold, and then described 643 as "up from" 707, which is a 9.1% decline. Houzeo listed 51 median days on market. Movoto listed 13. Nearly four times apart, same month.

Houzeo also published, on the same page, that properties sold for 120.57% of asking price while sitting 51 days. Homes bid twenty percent over list do not sit for 51 days. One of those two figures is wrong and a reader cannot tell which.

It gets more concrete. Movoto's Rochester page identified the local schools as the "Monroe County R-1 School District." That district is in Missouri. Search for Brighton home prices and you will pull New Brighton and West Brighton on Staten Island, where the Q2 2026 medians ran $545,000 and $772,000, and Brighton Beach in Brooklyn at $722,000. There is also a Brighton in Syracuse. If a Brighton number in the mid six figures shows up in your search results, check the county before you believe it.

Meanwhile a local brokerage quarterly recap put Brighton's Q2 2026 median sale price at $424,150 against $462,170 in Q2 2025, down 8.2%, with the average at $482,700 against $504,350, down 4.3%. That is a brokerage blog rather than an MLS-verified release, and it covers April through June, so treat it as a directional read. But note the tension: a town median down year over year sitting next to a city figure reported up nearly eighteen percent. Both cannot describe the same conditions.

The appraiser resolves none of this by picking a side. The appraiser ignores all of it and goes to the closed comps.

The short version

When the Appraisal Came In Low

Say the contract is $525,000 in Pittsford and the appraisal lands at $500,000. The lender will lend against $500,000. The $25,000 difference does not disappear. Somebody handles it. There are four outcomes and only four.

• The buyer brings the gap in cash. On top of the down payment. This is what an appraisal gap clause commits a buyer to, up to a stated dollar amount.
• The seller reduces to the appraised value. Sometimes right, especially if the listing sat and this is the first serious offer.
• The parties split it. Common, and often the fastest path to a closing table.
• The deal terminates. If the buyer kept an appraisal contingency, the deposit typically comes back. Read the contingency language before you assume anything.

A rebuttal, sometimes called a reconsideration of value, is possible. It is not a phone call and it is not an argument. It is a written submission of closed sales the appraiser did not use, with an explanation of why they are more comparable, or a correction of a factual error such as wrong square footage or a missed bathroom. Factual errors get corrected more often than opinions get changed.

What This Means Before You Sign

Sellers: price against MLS closed comps, not against an online estimate. If you accept an offer well above what recent nearby closings support, you are betting on a stranger with a measuring tape agreeing with you. Have your roof age, furnace age, permit paperwork and a written list of improvements with dates ready to hand over on the day of the inspection.

Financed buyers: know before you write the offer whether you have cash to cover a gap, and how much. Waiving the appraisal contingency without that cash is not a negotiating tactic, it is an exposure.

One more thing worth saying plainly. Reliable published town-level sold data for Henrietta, West Henrietta, Mendon, Rush and Honeoye Falls is thin. The aggregators either do not break those towns out or draw their boundaries wrong. When someone quotes you a confident Henrietta median from a national site, ask where it came from.

Rate context, since it shapes what a gap costs a buyer monthly: Freddie Mac reported the 30-year fixed at 6.65% for the week ending August 20, 2026, down from 6.67% the prior week, and 6.58% in the same week of 2025. Essentially flat year over year.

If you are going into contract in Brighton, Pittsford or Henrietta and want a straight read on what the closed comps actually support before you commit to a number, book a time with me. I will pull the comps with you and show you the math.

Khem Kadariya

About this data

The figures in this post were compiled from publicly available sources including Houzeo, Movoto, Zillow, FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) and Redfin, along with other public market data. Real estate numbers change quickly, and these were accurate as of August 2026. For current figures on a specific home, street, or town, ask me directly rather than relying on a published average.