Sunday Spotlight.
Albany is still closing in 23 days.
About four percent faster than last July, at 101.2% of asking, on 1.1 months of supply. The national story says one thing. Our market keeps doing another.
The Capital Region keeps outrunning the national story, and the reason has nothing to do with financing.
Homes here are going under contract in about 23 days, roughly four percent quicker than last July. We're running near 1.1 months of supply and closing at 101.2% of asking. Read that again, because it describes one of the last genuine seller's markets left in the country, and it is happening in a year when the national coverage has been relentlessly gloomy.
That gap matters, because the reflex right now is to blame the national story for local outcomes. Deal fell apart, it's the market. Buyer went quiet, it's the market. Listing sat three weeks, it's the market. It's a clean explanation and around here it's usually the wrong diagnosis.
What actually drives this market is who lives here and why they came. State government payroll. Three hospital systems. Chip money moving through the region. Those are jobs that require showing up, and they don't evaporate when a national forecast gets revised. Demand anchored to employment behaves differently than demand anchored to cheap money, and that is the whole reason our numbers keep diverging from the headlines.
Worth sitting with this next one for a second. Our research team plotted work-from-home share against home value change across Florida and Texas counties, and the line slopes down. The places that absorbed the most remote workers are the places giving value back right now. Correlation, not proof of cause, so don't oversell it. But it points at the same thing: local prices track who lives there and why they're there.
Every month a buyer stays on the sidelines here, that same short list of homes gets shopped by more people, and the ones who moved already own the appreciation. Having sat on your side of the table, the deals I lost weren't lost on paperwork. They were lost on hesitation, and I always found out about it three months later when that buyer paid more for a worse house.
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Same state, two different problems. Up here it's a shortage. Down there it's a price ceiling, and inventory has grown for 16 straight months.
What's moving, and what it means locally.
Three data points from this month, translated for Capital Region and NYC buyers, sellers and agents.
Pull your last five buyers who went quiet.
Not the ones who told you no. The ones who just stopped replying. Send each of them one real listing near the $310,000 median with a single line: homes like this are going in 23 days right now, want to see it Saturday. Not a market report. Nobody opens a market report on a Tuesday.
One of those five will come back. Not because the listing is special, but because you were specific while everyone else was sending newsletters about the national picture. If you want the payment side run properly before you send it, text me the address and the approval amount and I'll turn it around the same day.
"You're not selling them on the market. You're showing them what three weeks of hesitation actually costs in a 1.1-month-supply town."
Waiting in this market has a price tag.
Fair question: why buy now when every headline says to sit tight? Here's the honest answer. In a market with 1.1 months of inventory where homes close above asking in three weeks, the thing that costs you money isn't your timing. It's the four other people who also decided to wait and then all came back at once. The purchase price you paid because there were six offers instead of two, you keep forever.
That doesn't mean buy something you can't carry. It means get the real number before you decide, on an actual house, with taxes and insurance in it, so the decision is a decision instead of a guess.
"You can fix a lot of things later. You can't fix the price you paid because you waited for company."
Your window is open. The headlines did not close it.
Homes in this market are closing at 101.2% of asking in about 23 days. If you've been sitting on a listing decision because the national coverage spooked you, the local data says the opposite of what the coverage says. Buyers here are still competing, and the shortage that's frustrating them is working for you.
Where it gets complicated is the buy side of your move, because you're stepping into the same 1.1 months of supply as everyone else. Send me your list price before you list and I'll map out what your next purchase looks like, including what a bridge or a NAF Cash offer does if you'd rather buy before you sell.
"On your side of the table, 1.1 months of supply is the only number that matters."
Every week this newsletter argues that the file matters more than the headline. These are the people who lived it, in their own words, from Google, Zillow, Facebook and Experience.com.
Know somebody who's been waiting since last spring?
Forward this to them. If they've got a file that's hitting walls, tight on cash to close, self-employed income that doesn't look good on paper, or a deal that's fallen apart before, call me. That's exactly where I do my best work.
Sr. Loan Consultant, New American Funding · NMLS #481563 · Albany · NMLS #6606 · Equal Housing Lender.
Local market figures reflect third-party aggregated Albany data for July 2026 and NYSAR / Brooklyn data for June 2026. Past market performance is not a guarantee of future results.