Rochester Real Estate Market 2026: Score 99 for 21 Straight Months

Rochester, NY has scored 99 out of 100 on the PropertyIQ index every single month for the past 21 months.

Not 99 most months. Every month. The score has not moved.

PropertyIQ scores Rochester a 99 out of 100 as of February 28, 2026. That is the highest possible reading in a market this size, and it has been sustained longer than any other major metro in the current dataset.

The Numbers Behind the Score

As of February 2026, Rochester has 573 homes for sale. It has 1,014 homes under contract.

The pending ratio is 1.7703. That means for every 100 active listings, 177 are under contract. There are more deals in flight than there are homes available to buy.

That is not a typo. It is the consequence of a market where inventory has declined 13.06% year over year, new listings have declined 9.6% year over year, and demand has not softened in any measurable way.

The demand score is 96.32 out of 100 as of February 2026. The supply score is 90.30.

What Buyers Are Paying

Sellers in Rochester receive 108.52% of their asking price as of November 2025.

The median listing price is $290,450 as of February 1, 2026. At 108.52%, the average transaction closes at approximately $315,100 -- $24,650 above list.

Only 3.24% of listings have taken price cuts, the lowest reading of any market covered in this analysis. In a market where buyers bid above asking, sellers have no reason to cut.

Days on market average 43 as of February 2026. For a northeastern winter market, that is fast.

The Score History

| Period | Score | |--------|-------| | June 2024 through February 2026 | 99 (every month) |

Twenty-one consecutive months at 99 represents structural demand that has not wavered across two full years of national market volatility. While West Coast metros corrected from 90 to 72 and back, Rochester held at 99 throughout.

Affordability

The median listing price in Rochester is $290,450. To purchase at that price, a household needs an estimated income of $77,200 as of February 2026. The metro median household income is $74,438 as of 2023 Census data.

That income gap is $2,762 annually. It is the smallest gap between required income and actual median income of any market covered in this analysis. Rochester is the closest to genuinely affordable at its median price point.

The overvaluation reading is 0.5% as of February 2026 -- essentially at fair value. Markets scoring 98 or 99 often carry heavy overvaluation penalties. Rochester does not. The score reflects real supply scarcity, not speculative price inflation above income fundamentals.

The Zillow home value is approximately $264,121 as of January 31, 2026, below the listing price, reflecting that active listings skew toward higher-priced homes currently on the market.

Price Growth

Home values are up 8.2% year over year as of February 2026. Month over month, values increased 8.62% from January to February 2026. That monthly gain is one of the sharpest in the dataset.

The five-year appreciation is 9.65%. Zillow forecasts 4.3% near-term price appreciation as of December 2025.

New construction is negligible in Rochester: only 10 new construction sales in November 2025. The supply constraint is structural, not cyclical.

Rochester vs Northeast Peers

Buffalo scores 98 and Albany scores 96 as of February 2026. Hartford CT scores 98. Rochester at 99 sits above all of them.

The commonality across upstate New York and New England high-scorers: modest price points, minimal new construction, stable employment, and no speculative overhang from the 2020-2022 boom. These markets did not spike as sharply as Sun Belt metros, so they did not correct as sharply either.

The Economic Foundation

The unemployment rate in Rochester is 3.8% as of November 2025. Population is 1,058,875 as of 2023 Census data.

The Zillow rent index is $1,499 per month as of December 2025. The income required to rent comfortably is approximately $59,958 annually -- well within the $74,438 metro median.

The homeownership rate is 67.18%, consistent with a market where buying is accessible relative to renting.

PropertyIQ score as of February 28, 2026. Listing and inventory data as of February 1, 2026. Zillow home value data as of January 31, 2026. Sale-to-list data as of November 30, 2025. Forecast data as of December 2025. Census data as of 2023. Economic data as of November 2025. All data for informational purposes only.