Scranton, Pennsylvania, Shifts Toward a Buyer's Market as Inventory Climbs and Sellers Resist Price Cuts

Lackawanna County just completed its first property tax reassessment in 68 years, and some homeowners in and around Scranton are reconsidering their options. According to Julissa Contreras, a bilingual agent with LUXE Homes Real Estate who has worked the Scranton market for nearly six years, the reassessment is one factor contributing to a noticeable rise in inventory – arriving alongside higher interest rates and persistent seller resistance to pricing adjustments. The signs are visible daily on the local MLS: price reductions, motivated sellers, and buyers with more choices than they have had in years.

Overpriced Listings and the Absorption Problem

The central tension in Scranton right now is between what sellers want and what the market can support. Contreras says a significant share of her listings are priced above what current conditions will absorb. Many sellers remain anchored to the pricing environment that existed during the low-rate period five to six years ago.

“A lot of my sellers, respectfully, they want to put their homes at these prices, and the market just cannot absorb it right now because interest rates are higher, inflation,” she says. The result is longer days on market and a growing pattern of price reductions across the MLS.

Contreras frames the issue less as stubbornness and more as emotional attachment. “I could never put a price on someone’s home because a home is not just the money – it’s the memories, it’s the sacrifices,” she says. “But we also have to be realistic and know that the market at the end of the day will absorb what it will absorb.”

Multifamily Demand From First-Time Investors

While single-family homes sit, demand for multifamily properties in Scranton remains strong – driven largely by Hispanic buyers moving from first-time homeownership into small-scale investing. Contreras estimates roughly 85 percent of her clientele is Spanish-speaking, and she says multifamily purchases now make up the majority of her buyer-side work.

The appeal is straightforward: the long-standing idea of living in one unit while collecting rent from the others. But Contreras is careful to note that the math does not always work as simply as the narrative suggests. “Live on one side and your tenant will pay your mortgage – first of all, that’s not necessarily true, because the numbers have to make sense,” she says. When sellers price multifamily properties too high, the deal arithmetic breaks down for buyers running the numbers carefully. Contreras says those gaps usually get resolved through negotiation, but the mismatch between asking prices and investment returns is slowing transactions.

She finds the increasing financial literacy among these buyers encouraging. “I absolutely love when I see people educate themselves and understand the terms and the numbers,” she says.

An Information Gap, Not a Knowledge Gap

One of the less visible barriers to homeownership in Scranton’s Hispanic community is not a lack of desire or capability but a lack of accessible information. Contreras draws a distinction between knowledge and information: prospective buyers are motivated, but many do not know what programs or pathways exist.

She points to ITIN lending as an example. Buyers without Social Security numbers but with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers often assume homeownership is out of reach. “They’re under the impression that they can never buy a home, and that’s not true,” Contreras says, noting she has closed sales with three ITIN buyers over the course of her career. She also references county-funded programs for first-time homebuyers that many prospective clients do not know about until she connects them.

The pipeline from renter to buyer to investor is one she says she sees playing out directly. She describes a client who started as a tenant in a rental Contreras helped place years ago, closed on her own home earlier in 2026, and called last week to discuss investing within the next year or two.

Where Inventory Moves – and Where It Sits

Not all parts of the Scranton market behave the same way. Contreras identifies the west side of Scranton as particularly active, citing its schools, growing business presence, and strong community as factors that attract the kind of family renters investors want. For investors evaluating the area, she says proximity to schools is a reliable indicator of rental demand and tenant stability.

The Pocono communities tell a different story. Properties in gated or restricted communities like Pocono Country Club face structural marketing limitations – no yard signs, no open houses – that make them harder to sell. “It’s a little difficult to sell a secret, really,” Contreras says. Those homes tend to be seasonal purchases, driven by summer visitors who discover them through online platforms rather than in-person exposure. Without the ability to market them visibly, they sit longer regardless of condition or price.

Migration From New York and New Jersey

Scranton’s relative affordability compared to New York and New Jersey continues to draw buyers from those markets. Contreras, who moved from New York herself, says she regularly fields calls from people relocating from those areas – some looking to rent first, others ready to buy. The city’s proximity to New York makes it accessible for people who still need to visit family or maintain connections there.

She says social media is playing a growing role in shifting the perception among potential buyers, particularly in the Hispanic community, that homeownership is out of reach. More people are reaching out to ask questions and explore pre-approval, even if they are not ready to purchase immediately. “I think once you start the conversation of real estate, you know, people are now not necessarily maybe buying a house tomorrow, but they’re definitely asking questions,” she says. “There’s a dialogue there and that’s what’s important.”

Looking Into 2027

Contreras expects the shift toward a buyer’s market to continue through late 2026 and into 2027. She sees the combination of rising inventory, price reductions, and elevated interest rates as conditions that require some adjustment on the seller side. “Something’s got to give,” she says.

For buyers who have been waiting, the next several months may offer more negotiating leverage than any period since the low-rate years. For sellers, the pricing decisions they make at listing – not after weeks of sitting on the market – will likely determine how quickly their homes move.