Roger Hannigan Gilson reports in the Times Union that housing prices in Columbia and Greene counties rose more than 40 percent in 12 months, according to a new report from Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit policy organization. "In Greene County, we've had migration not just from the tri-state area, but from the West Coast," Rip Van Winkle Realty owner Ted Banta said. "I've had buyers from Oregon, California and Washington." Locals can't afford the rent increases, or new places to live. “Rentals are very few and far between, so what that’s doing is, again, driving that demand up,” Columbia Greene Board of Realtors President Angela Lanuto said. “What would normally be a $800 one-bedroom is now a $1,000 one-bedroom, because there’s a lack of inventory, and people are still looking for rental properties.” The report says that, “What we have now is a robust but more normalized seller’s market driven mostly by fundamentals like good economic conditions, low interest rates, and limited supply, all of which continue to drive prices up.” Read more about this story in the Times Union.