Is the Bergen County Housing Market Shifting? Fall 2026 by the Numbers
Housing Market Stacy Esser October 23, 2026
Housing Market Stacy Esser October 23, 2026
Every client conversation I've had this month starts with the same question: is the market shifting? So I stopped guessing and pulled the numbers from our MLS for Bergen County and six of the towns we work in every day. The short answer is yes. It started in late summer, and it's bigger than the usual fall slowdown.
In the six weeks from September 7 to October 18, new listings in Bergen County were up 18% from the same weeks last year: 961 vs. 812. Over the same weeks, buyers signed 12% fewer contracts: 553 vs. 631.
Put those together and you get the number I watch most. In early October last year, buyers signed 79 contracts for every 100 new listings. This year it was 58.
Part of it is. Every fall, new listings and closings drop, and that's normal. But I compared this fall to the exact same weeks last year, so the season is in both numbers. The gap is what's left over, and it's real.
A year ago, the 30-year mortgage rate was about 6.3%. On October 15 it was 7.40% (Freddie Mac). That one change makes the same house about 12% more expensive a month for a buyer.
Home price | Payment at 6.30% | Payment at 7.40% | More per month |
|---|---|---|---|
$900,000 | $4,457 | $4,985 | +$529 |
$1,000,000 | $4,952 | $5,539 | +$587 |
$1,500,000 | $7,428 | $8,309 | +$881 |
$2,000,000 | $9,904 | $11,078 | +$1,175 |
Principal and interest only, 20% down, 30-year fixed. Taxes and insurance not included.
Prices also kept rising. The Bergen County median sale price was $890,000 for January through September, up 4.7% from $850,000 a year earlier. Add the higher price to the higher rate and the typical buyer is paying about $721 more a month than a year ago.
When a home doesn't sell, many sellers take it off the market. In Bergen County, withdrawn listings rose from 601 to 1,044 from January through September, up 74%. A withdrawn home disappears from the "for sale" count. That's why inventory looks steady (up only about 2%) even as more homes fail to sell at their asking price.
Bergen isn't one market. Here's what changed in six towns, comparing contracts signed September 1 to October 20 this year vs. last year.
Town | Contracts signed | What we're seeing |
|---|---|---|
Fair Lawn | 40 → 26 | The clearest shift. 27% of homes that sold needed a price cut or relist first (vs. 15%). The typical home took 33 days to get a contract, vs. 14. |
Bergenfield | 24 → 15 | Homes priced right still sell, in a median of 19 days with no price cut. Half the homes for sale have been cut or relisted. |
Tenafly | 18 → 12 | Closed sales are strong, with 56% over asking. But a third of the homes for sale have been on the market 60+ days. |
Demarest | 8 → 2 | Closed sales have turned: 54% sold under asking this summer, vs. 31% last year. |
Oradell | 8 → 5 | Still competitive: 76% of sales went over asking. But homes for sale more than doubled in September, from 8 to 19. |
Woodcliff Lake | 4 → 7 | The one town where buyers held steady. Most of the fall contracts were on homes that had already been relisted. |
Smaller towns move on a handful of sales, so read those as direction, not a trend line.
The price you list at decides whether you sell. In September, the typical Bergen home that sold went under contract in 18 days, at or above its original price. The homes priced for last spring's market are the ones sitting, getting cut, or getting pulled.
And you're likely still well ahead. The median Bergen home sold for $615,000 in 2021 and $890,000 this year. Even pricing a little under today's median, most owners who bought five or more years ago are keeping a very large gain.
You have more homes to choose from than any fall in the last five years, and in many towns, more room to negotiate. Ask about price history on every home you see. In the towns above, a quarter to half of the homes for sale have already been cut or pulled and relisted.
Every town and price range is different. If you want to know what's happening on your street and what it means for your home, call or text me at 201.292.0011 and I'll pull it for you.
Source: NJMLS, Bergen County Residential, data pulled October 20 to 21, 2026. Comparisons are the same dates in 2025. Mortgage rates: Freddie Mac. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
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