Across the country, there are signs that homeowners are getting more willing to put their houses up for sale. But not in the Buffalo Niagara region.
While the number of homes for sale has grown by about 22% nationally over the past year, listings are up by less than 2% in the Buffalo Niagara region from May 2023 to May 2024, according to data from real estate tracker Zillow.
Zillow economists say the national increase is a sign that the so-called “rate-lock effect” is starting to ease. For the last few years, homeowners have been reluctant to try selling their homes because it would mean giving up a low-rate mortgage for a new one with a rate roughly twice as high and carrying interest payments of hundreds of dollars more each month.
But the Zillow report, which looked at the 50 biggest U.S. markets, found that Buffalo Niagara is one of the leading exceptions to that trend, which means the intense competition for homes, especially in sought-after neighborhoods, is unlikely to change anytime soon.
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Only Cleveland and New York City had smaller increases in listings over the past year. And roughly three-quarters of the markets Zillow studied saw housing inventories grow by more than 10%.