The Homebuyer’s Nightmare
Bergen County’s housing market is historically tight, with sellers in short supply. Here’s why—and when to expect relief.
John and Nicole Anders were luckier than most. The couple, formerly of Jersey City, ended up buying the first house they made an offer on in June of this year, a rare turn of events these days in Bergen’s tricky housing market. Of course, they’d been looking, off and on, for more than a year, ended up in a bidding war and paid well above the asking price for their five-bedroom, center-hall colonial in Ridgewood. In fact, says John, the entire process was “nerve-wracking.” “It’s an incredibly competitive market,” he says.
Sarah Marie Drennan, president of Terrie O’Connor Realty in Wyckoff, echoes that observation. “The market right now is very tight,” she says. Back in August, she told us there was a two-and-a-half-months’ supply of inventory across Bergen County, and in some of the county’s hottest towns—Allendale, Ho-Ho-Kus, Ridgewood and Wyckoff, for example—inventory was at about a month and a half. An often-used metric in the realm of real estate, inventory measures how long it would take to sell all the houses listed for sale at a given time, based on the pace of sales. A balanced market, which favors neither buyers nor sellers, typically has three to six months’ inventory; a buyer’s market has more than six.
If you’d squinted back in August, you might have seen some signs of the market loosening up. According to New Jersey Realtors, in July of 2026 there were 786 new listings for single-family homes in Bergen, up 4 percent from 756 a year earlier. Closed sales were also up: 620 in July 2026 versus 546 in July 2025. On the other hand, the average time a house stayed on the market had slipped from 27 days to 26 over the same time period; inventory was down from 1,133 homes to 1,120; and the median sales price of a home in Bergen was up 8.5 percent, from $875,000 to $949,500. (A month later it would climb to more than $1 million, Drennan says.) As a whole, those numbers add up to what David Gubb, lead buyer’s agent at the Gubb Team in Ridgewood (part of Keller Williams Realty), describes as “a high-velocity, inventory-constrained seller’s market,” and he doesn’t see that changing any time soon.
WHY THE SQUEEZE?
You can, at least in part, blame the “golden handcuff,” otherwise known as the “lock-in effect”—the super-low mortgage rates offered during COVID that are now keeping potential sellers in their homes. “People were getting mortgage rates of 3 percent or lower,” says Drennan, “and they’re going to be looking at interest rates of 6 to 7 percent on new mortgages, so they’re not willing to move.” Sellers, whether they’d otherwise be inclined to upgrade or downsize, are staying put because they’re unwilling to trade in their historically low-interest-rate mortgages for loans hovering in the vicinity of 6 percent. Gregory Earnshaw, an agent with Coldwell Banker Realty in Wyckoff, notes too that potential downsizers aren’t likely to find affordable smaller homes in Bergen, since townhouses here—traditionally one of the most popular options for those looking to downsize— have become extremely expensive.
In addition, Drennan points out, many retirees in Bergen who might once have thought about moving out of state are finding themselves priced out of areas that previously offered significant savings. “Prices around the country have gone up since COVID,” she says. And the growing trend toward aging in place—staying in one’s home rather than moving into a nursing home or assisted living—also helps to keep potential sellers off the market.
While the number of sellers is shrinking, says Gubb, the number of potential buyers is growing, in the form of what he calls “a huge New York City migration.” “Buyers from Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn still want top-ranked schools, walkable downtowns and a direct route to and from Manhattan,” he says—all of which they can find in much of Bergen County.
Meanwhile, there’s very little new construction that might help expand inventory. Densely populated Bergen offers minimal room for the kind of largescale construction you might find in less populated counties such as Sussex, Hunterdon or Warren. “In fact,” says Drennan, “the only new construction in our area is primarily for rent.”
BUYERS IN A BIND
All of that adds up to a bit of a nightmare for buyers. This spring the real estate website realtor.com listed two Bergen County towns among the 99 hottest housing markets in the U.S., “hot” being a measure of how quickly properties are sold once they appear on the market. Wyckoff was No. 20 and Ridgewood No. 42.
As of this writing, homes across the entirety of Bergen remained on the market for a median time of 18 to 28 days. “I feel very bad for buyers in our market,” says Drennan, “because it can be extremely frustrating.” She notes that buyers frequently put in upward of five to 10 different offers on properties before they win one. For buyers who can’t afford to carry two mortgages at once and therefore have to sell their old house before purchasing a new one, the market is especially daunting. “We’re seeing some people staying in rentals for a year or two,” says Earnshaw.
Most houses receive multiple offers, and most, consequently, sell for more than the asking price. In July of 2026, for example, houses were selling at 106.6 percent of their original list price. Thomas Macchio put his mother’s house in Dumont up for sale in early June, and it sold 10 days later for about 8 percent over asking, after a bidding war that had 13 potential buyers vying for the property. It should be noted that Macchio put his mother’s house on the market after she passed away; he doesn’t plan to sell his own home, in Fort Lee, any time soon.
Even some high-bidding house-hunters are losing auctions because they can’t compete with the many buyers, including investors, putting in all-cash offers. Sellers tend to favor these offers because they effectively eliminate the risk of a deal falling through for financial reasons. And that’s hitting first-time buyers particularly hard, as most of them don’t have the equity in a previous home to support an all-cash offer.
Faced with such a fevered market, buyers often find themselves forced to compromise, forgoing amenities and other one-time “must haves”—from kitchen islands to an extra bedroom. Some buyers originally searching for turnkey properties have decided to take on renovations, notes Jonathan Ayala, founder of Visual Grip, a real estate marketing firm that works extensively throughout Bergen County. Others are looking in towns beyond their original choices. “Maybe they had their hearts set on Wyckoff or Franklin Lakes and then had to go to Oakland or Midland Park or Waldwick or Passaic County,” says Earnshaw. Sarah M. (who asked that we not share her last name) and her husband were hoping to find a house in Westwood, where they’d been renting a two-bedroom apartment. “We really wanted to stay in Bergen County,” she says. But after a search that lasted five years and left them “very burnt out,” they ended up buying a house in Hawthorne, in Passaic County.
“The market tested my emotions every step of the way,” she says.
Buyers are compromising in ways beyond amenities, square footage and location. They may, for instance, agree to forgo an inspection or, says Ayala, employ an escalation clause—a provision that automatically increases a potential buyer’s offering price if the seller receives a competing bid, usually with a dollar-amount ceiling. “Buyers are waiving contingencies”—conditions required to be met in real estate purchase agreements—“and appraisals and are being more flexible about closing terms,” says Gubb. All of these strategies carry inherent risk, but in a tight market, buyers are willing to take risks if that means finally getting a house.
They’re also becoming “more prepared and decisive,” notes Taylor Lucyk, CEO and founder of the Taylor Lucyk Group in Paramus. “Buyers today,” he says, “are more analytical: They’re not simply paying any price to win; instead, they’re relying heavily on their agents to evaluate value, anticipate competition, move quickly when appropriate and negotiate strategically.”
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
For the Bergen market to loosen up, more current homeowners in the county have to decide to sell their homes, and the likeliest way for that to happen is through a substantive drop in mortgage rates. But the real estate agents we spoke with weren’t optimistic about that occurring soon. “I don’t think mortgage interest rates are going to come down to where they were any time in the near future,” says Earnshaw. A modest drop in rates—which is far more likely over the next several years than a sharp cut—probably won’t convince many existing homeowners to move.
Legislation could help. Drennan notes that a change in the law governing the tax on capital gains might convince some homeowners, especially those at the top end of the market, to sell. Right now, individuals are subject to tax on profits from a home sale (known as capital gains) over $250,000; for a married couple, the amount is $500,000. For instance, if you’re a couple who bought your house for $1 million and sold it for $2 million (for a profit of $1 million), $500,000 of your profit would be subject to the capital gains tax. “If the minimum changed from $250,000 to $500,000 for a single owner and $500,000 to $1 million for a married couple, we’d probably get more people who’d be willing to sell their homes,” says Drennan. President Trump has said that he’s interested in changing the capital gains rules, but experts believe that’s not likely to happen soon.
Another possible boost for inventory could come from the federal Making Ownership Viable for Everyone (MOVE) Act, introduced in August by Representative Thomas Kean Jr. The act would allow buyers to “port,” or move, their old mortgage—including their old interest rate, terms and amounts paid off and still owed—to their new house. But as it’s now written, the bill allows mortgage lenders to decide whether or not a mortgage can be made “portable.” And it includes no specifics regarding what would happen if a new house costs more, or less, than a previous one. As of this writing, the bill has been reffered to the House Committee on Financial Services. As with the possibility of a change in the capital gains rules, it’s not clear know at present whether the bill will pass or, if it does, when that might happen.
What all this means is that buyers in Bergen need to be hyper-prepared to snag the house of their dreams—or any house at all. (For tips on how, see “How To Buy a House in Bergen,” below.) “Indecisiveness is the biggest deal-stopper,” says Ayala. “Buyers who are prepared close deals.”
HOW TO BUY IN BERGEN
Hoping to buy a home in our county? The experts offer some practical advice:
• Find the right agent. “In a fast-moving and competitive market, buying a home is a major financial transaction,” says Ridgewood-based agent David Gubb. “You need an active, hyper-local strategist in your corner, not just someone to unlock doors. Look at their track record, client reviews and local presence to make sure they know this specific terrain.”
• Communicate. Make sure your agent understands you, your family and your needs. Gubb advises, “sit down with the agent and map out your goals so that he or she can direct your focus to the right towns. Bergen County has dozens of distinct sub-markets, so instead of starting with home specs, talk about lifestyle, commute requirements, school priorities, walkability or neighborhood feel. That clarity allows your agent to point you toward the exact towns, or even micro-pockets within a town, that fit your life.”
• Line up your financials before you start to look. “Contact a lender to determine your buying power,” says Sarah Drennan, president of Terrie O’Connor Realty in Wyckoff and other Bergen County towns. At the very least, get pre-approved for a mortgage. Paying cash? Drennan advises providing the seller with copies of your bank statements showing a balance that exceeds the total purchase price. If you can’t make an all-cash offer, the next best thing is to get fully underwritten. That means that a mortgage lender has completed a full review of all your documentation and you’ve passed full underwriting scrutiny.
• Determine your price. “In Bergen County, homes are selling on average at 106 percent of asking price,” notes Drennan. “Focus on homes below your budget, and expect to potentially pay above the asking price for a well-priced home in a desirable location.”
• Assemble your team beforehand. “Ask your agent to recommend a preferred lender, a real estate attorney, home inspectors, moving companies and repair contractors,” Drennan advises. “Having a team in your corner will help ensure a smooth transaction.”
• Have a plan for closing. “Be flexible about your closing date,” says Wyckoff-based agent Gregory Earnshaw. If you can’t close when the seller wants you to, you could very well end up losing the deal.
