Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Only if you move fast. Sellers have the upper hand in Albany right now.
Sellers have the upper hand in Albany. There are more committed buyers than homes for sale. Good homes find a buyer quickly. If you want one, be ready to move in days.
For every 100 homes for sale, 170 are already under contract. Buyers outnumber sellers here. Expect company when you bid. Few sellers are dropping their price. Asking prices are holding firm. Your discount will come from one stale listing, not from the whole market.
A typical Albany home takes 37 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago. There are 114 homes for sale in Albany. That is 1.7 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 473. Supply is steady against last year.
Asking prices are 18.0% below their Jul 2024 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller. Albany prices have risen in 86 of the last 108 months. Drops here have been short and shallow. Buying in a slow month has rarely hurt a long hold.
If you plan to sell in the next two years, move it up. This much buyer demand does not last. Right now it does your negotiating for you.
Most Albany households rent. 52 out of every 100 households are renters. That share has held steady for five years. Albany added about 1,400 renter households in five years. Renter households average 1.8 people. Singles and couples rent here. Two bedrooms beat four.
Households grew 6% in five years. The housing stock grew 3%. Demand is outrunning supply. 9.8% of homes sit empty. That is normal for a healthy market.
The median Albany household earns $78,112 a year. Incomes here have grown 5.7% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 4.4 times the median income. That is the national middle. Neither cash flow nor appreciation is free here. A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,953 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast.
That is the market, not your address. Run an address through the app to see its rent estimate and cash flow.
Only if you move fast. Sellers have the upper hand in Albany right now. 170 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 10% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 37 days to sell.
Asking prices are 18.0% below their Jul 2024 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices stopped falling about a year ago. They are flat now. Waiting will not get you a cheaper house. It might still get you a more motivated seller.
Assume +4.6% a year. Albany has grown about 4.6% a year for five years and for ten. That is a durable trend, not a boom artifact. It is a fair long-run input. Prices rose 2.1% over the last year. That is a timing signal, not a trend.
A typical Albany home takes 37 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago.
Most Albany households rent. 52 out of every 100 households are renters. That share has held steady for five years. 9.8% of homes sit empty. That is normal for a healthy market.
A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,953 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast. The median Albany household earns $78,112 a year.
12206. Only 77 out of 100 homes there have a buyer. 15% of sellers there have cut their price, and a typical home takes 50 days to sell.
Where it isn't: 12203 ranks #160 in the country for buyer demand. Expect the least room to negotiate there.
ZIP 12203 is on both lists. That is rare. It is the one place in Albany where leverage and growth overlap.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12206 | +40.0% | $149 | 0.77 | 13 |
| 12208 | +14.3% | $191 | 1.51 | 18 |
| 12205 | +11.7% | $236 | 3.11 | 18 |
| 12203 | +5.8% | $215 | 1.85 | 23 |
| 12211 | +4.4% | $259 | 2.53 | 10 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Albany has 35 ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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