Bergen County Buyers Who Think the Market Has Softened Are Losing Homes to Those Who Don't

Written by:

Alejandra Rodriguez

Date:

10 Jun 2026

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A quieter quarter can be deceiving. Experts working in Bergen County, New Jersey, are pushing back against a narrative circulating among buyers: that the pendulum has finally swung in their favor and that patient, aggressive negotiation will get them a deal. The reality, according to veteran observers, is that buyers who act on that assumption are not winning homes, and the buyers who still treat the market as competitive are.

Jon Paul Molfetta, a broker associate and team leader at The Molfetta Team with Keller Williams Valley Realty, has been working the Bergen County and Rockland County, New York markets for two decades. He describes a pattern that has repeated itself over the past year: a slow quarter triggers alarm, buyers and their agents start treating it as a turning point, and then the market snaps back.

The fourth quarter of 2024 was the clearest example. Activity slowed, and some agents began advising clients that leverage had shifted. Then, in January 2025, listings drew a strong buyer response again for months. The summer brought another lull. That cycle – a quiet stretch followed by a return of competition, has made it genuinely difficult to read the market in real time.

The confusion is understandable. The frenzied pace of 2020 through roughly 2024, when multiple-offer situations with 20 or more bids were common, has not continued at that intensity. Sellers are hearing fewer stories of bidding wars. Some have started to wonder whether they missed their window. That shift in seller psychology is real, and it has nudged more inventory onto the market than Bergen County saw during the peak years.

But Molfetta argues that fewer offers do not constitute a buyer’s market. His measure is straightforward: a market tips when there are more properties available than there are buyers ready to purchase them. By that standard, Bergen County has not crossed that line. A home drawing five or eight offers still has more buyers competing for it than there are homes to go around. “The math still favors sellers,” he says.

The practical risk for buyers is that misreading the moment can lead to the loss of properties. Molfetta tells his agents not to coach buyers into expecting concessions that the market is not actually offering. Buyers who come in expecting to negotiate hard, expecting sellers to feel pressure, are consistently getting outbid by buyers who understand the competition is still real.

The picture is not uniformly strong across the region, however. Molfetta notes that certain towns have been more affected than others by recent softening. Bergen County as a whole has held up because inventory remains limited, but pockets where demand has cooled more noticeably exist. Buyers who are flexible on specific towns may find more room to negotiate than those locked into the most sought-after zip codes.

There is also a meaningful group sitting on the sidelines, but it is not the group most buyers imagine. Molfetta describes the holdouts as homeowners in comfortable situations who were waiting for interest rates to fall before listing, and who are now weighing whether waiting longer makes sense. The buyers and sellers who are transacting are largely doing so because life circumstances, a new job, a growing family, a change in household structure, are driving the decision rather than market timing.

That distinction matters for anyone trying to read inventory trends. A surge in listings would signal that the voluntary holdouts have finally decided to move. So far, that surge has not materialized in Bergen County in a way that would meaningfully tip the balance toward buyers.

For buyers currently active in the market, preparation still matters more than positioning. Molfetta’s observation is that buyers who arrive at a showing ready to move, financing in order, clear on their number, not waiting to see if a seller will blink, are the ones closing. The buyers waiting for a moment of weakness that the data does not yet support are watching homes go to someone else.

One concrete signal worth watching: the ratio of new listings to accepted offers in a given week. When that ratio starts climbing, more homes hit the market than go under contract, the balance begins to shift. In Bergen County, that ratio has not yet moved in buyers’ favor in any sustained way. Until it does, the market remains one where readiness, not patience, determines who gets the home.

About the Expert: Jon Paul Molfetta is a broker associate and team leader at The Molfetta Team with Keller Williams Valley Realty. He has been licensed for 20 years and focuses on residential real estate in Bergen County, New Jersey, and Rockland County, New York.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions