New York Housing Market Holds 300,489 Properties with High Sale Propensity
In New York's complex and varied real estate market, a significant pool of potential transactions is building away from public view. As of August 2026, 300,489 properties across the state are identified as having a high propensity to sell, representing 5.7% of all scored properties. A striking 89.6% of these likely-to-sell homes are currently off-market, signaling a deep well of opportunity for investors and agents equipped with the right data.
New York State Overview
New York's real estate landscape is home to a substantial number of properties poised for transaction, according to BatchData's BatchRank (Sale Propensity) Report. The state contains 300,489 properties classified with a high likelihood of selling in the near future. This figure represents 5.7% of the 5,248,243 total properties scored within New York, indicating a concentrated segment of motivated sellers. Nationally, New York ranks #12 among all states for its volume of high-propensity properties, accounting for 2.7% of the U.S. total. The state's count of 300,489 properties also sits comfortably above the national per-state average of 223,499, underscoring its significance as a major market for real estate investing.
The composition of these high-propensity properties is exclusively residential. All 300,489 properties fall into the residential category, making up 100.0% of the high-propensity pool. This singular focus suggests that the current signals for sale propensity are concentrated in single-family homes, condos, and small multi-family units rather than commercial or industrial assets. For investors and agents specializing in the residential sector, this provides a clear and defined target market. The data points to a market where homeowner decisions and circumstances are the primary drivers of potential turnover, creating a specific set of opportunities across the state's diverse communities.
What's Driving New York's Market
The distribution of high-propensity properties across New York is not uniform, revealing specific geographic pockets of opportunity and a market dynamic heavily skewed toward off-market deals. While the New York City metro area is a powerful economic engine, the data shows that the highest concentrations of likely sellers are found in counties outside the five boroughs, challenging common assumptions about where investment opportunities lie. This granular view is essential for developing effective acquisition strategies.
Geographic Hotspots Defy Expectations
A detailed county-level analysis reveals that the greatest concentration of high-propensity properties is located outside of New York City's core. Monroe County, home to the city of Rochester, leads the state with 42,479 properties flagged as likely to sell, ranking #1 among all 62 counties. This is a significant finding, placing an upstate county far ahead of the state's more populous and well-known regions. The suburban powerhouse of Nassau County on Long Island follows in the #2 spot with 29,008 high-propensity properties.
The first of the five boroughs to appear is Kings County (Brooklyn), which ranks #3 with 23,783 properties, followed closely by Queens County at #4 with 22,755. Perhaps most surprisingly, Chautauqua County in the far western part of the state ranks #5 with 16,787 high-propensity properties, demonstrating that significant opportunity exists in smaller, more rural markets. This distribution indicates that factors driving sale propensity, such as economic shifts, demographic changes, or property-specific distress, are not confined to the New York City metropolitan area. Rounding out the top tier are major suburban and urban centers including Westchester County (#6 with 14,088), New York County (Manhattan) (#7 with 13,500), and Suffolk County (#8 with 11,821), which collectively show a strong concentration of potential deals in and around the downstate region but still trail Monroe County's impressive lead.
The Overwhelming Off-Market Advantage
The most critical insight for investors and agents in New York is the nature of the high-propensity inventory: the vast majority is not publicly listed for sale. A full 89.6% of these properties, totaling 269,139 homes, are currently off-market. This creates a massive hidden market accessible only to those who can identify motivated sellers before they engage an agent and list on the MLS. This dynamic fundamentally shapes the competitive landscape, rewarding proactive sourcing strategies over reactive ones. For investors, this underscores the importance of tools like direct mail, targeted digital outreach, and skip tracing to connect with homeowners directly.
In contrast, only 10.4% of the high-propensity properties, or 31,350 homes, are currently on-market. While still a substantial number, these listings represent the most visible and therefore most competitive segment of the market. These are the properties where buyers will face bidding wars and compete with traditional homebuyers, often driving up prices and compressing margins. The 89.6% off-market figure highlights a strategic imperative: the greatest opportunity to find favorable deals lies in sourcing properties before they are exposed to the wider market. This is where a robust property search platform and access to a comprehensive property data API become indispensable tools for building a scalable acquisition pipeline.
Statewide Concentration and Disparities
The concentration of opportunity in a handful of counties is stark when viewed against the rest of the state. While leaders like Monroe and Nassau contain tens of thousands of high-propensity properties, many of New York's more rural counties have far smaller pools of potential deals. This highlights a market of extremes, requiring investors to tailor their strategies based on location. For instance, Onondaga County (Syracuse) ranks #9 with 10,832 properties, and Niagara County ranks #10 with 10,634, showing that opportunities remain significant in other upstate urban centers.
At the other end of the spectrum, the state's least populous counties offer a much smaller scale of opportunity. Yates County has the fewest high-propensity properties in the state, with just 183. It is followed by Wyoming County with 186 and Hamilton County, in the heart of the Adirondacks, with 204. These figures, while small, do not imply a lack of opportunity but rather a different kind of market that may be better suited for local investors or those with highly specific acquisition criteria. The vast difference between Monroe County's 42,479 properties and Yates County's 183 illustrates the incredible diversity of New York's real estate landscape and the need for data-driven targeting to allocate resources effectively. Analyzing these trends through comprehensive market reports allows investors to focus their efforts on the geographies that best match their business models.
Investor Takeaways
For real estate professionals operating in New York, the August 2026 BatchRank data offers a clear strategic roadmap. The primary takeaway is the overwhelming dominance of off-market opportunities. With 269,139 high-propensity properties not publicly listed, the path to finding undervalued assets and motivated sellers runs through proactive, data-driven outreach rather than relying on the MLS. This environment heavily favors investors who can leverage property intelligence to identify and engage homeowners before their properties hit the open market.
Second, opportunity is geographically diverse and defies conventional wisdom. The fact that Monroe County leads the state, surpassing all New York City boroughs and affluent suburbs, is a powerful reminder that lucrative deals can be found far from the most crowded and competitive markets. Investors should look beyond the headlines and use granular data to uncover promising activity in secondary and tertiary markets like Chautauqua, Onondaga, and Niagara counties. A statewide strategy that ignores upstate New York would miss the single largest concentration of high-propensity properties.
Finally, the 100.0% residential focus of the high-propensity pool provides a clear mandate for investors. The current market signals are pointing squarely at single-family homes, condos, and small apartment buildings. This allows for specialized marketing and acquisition approaches tailored to the needs and pain points of individual homeowners. By combining this property-type focus with geographic insights and a strategy centered on off-market sourcing, investors can build a powerful and sustainable advantage in the dynamic New York housing market.