![\"Wood](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1766929568_780_CVC-L-STREETSCAPE-0710-5.jpg\")
Wood Street, the leftmost street stretching to the horizon, and Academy St. the rightmost street stretching to the horizon, in Wilkes-Barre, on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\nReal estate professionals anticipate a more even housing market in the new year throughout Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data points to a market that remains healthy but less frenetic \u2014 characterized by stable pricing, slower turnover, and a more balanced dynamic between buyers and sellers,\u201d said Charlie Kasko, a Realtor for Classic Properties, who is based in Kingston.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the average number of days homes have remained on the open market increased by 14.3% (42 to 48) in Lackawanna County and 20% (35 to 42) throughout Luzerne County in November compared to the same time last year, taking some pressure off prospective buyers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little less chaotic than it had been in the past,\u201d said Sara Levy, broker\/owner of Clarks Green-based Levy Realty Group. \u201cSellers are giving a little more time for buyers to make decisions, they\u2019re not expecting it to happen in two or three days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leah Gianacopoulos, a Realtor with ERA One Source Realty in South Abington Twp., believes the longer time between sales reflects the overall financial landscape.<\/p>\n
\u201cDays on market have been longer than expected but that has also been due to the shift of what is going on with the economy,\u201d she said. \u201cReal estate tends to follow what the world is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The number of closed sales decreased by 3.6% from November 2024 to November 2025 in Lackawanna County; however, Gianacopoulos expects renewed interest starting next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been pretty status quo,\u201d she said. \u201cI think everyone is kind of waiting until next year to see what happens with the (interest) rates, but I anticipate 2026 to be a good market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Additionally, the median sales price in Lackawanna County increased 4.9% from November 2024 to November 2025, from $235,550 to $247,000, according to the Greater Scranton Board of Realtors.<\/p>\n
Wood Street, the leftmost street stretching to the horizon, and Academy St. the rightmost street stretching to the horizon, in Wilkes-Barre, on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (JASON ARDAN \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n
Kasko expressed optimism about the year ahead in Luzerne County.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe economy seems to be growing and we\u2019ve seen a lot more activity in the recent weeks on all aspects of the real estate market,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the rates coming down is helping quite a bit, and I think just the general direction of the overall economy has given people some hope. We\u2019re really seeing some nice growth in our area on a number of different fronts. Manufacturing is growing and the warehouse industry is strong. We\u2019re seeing some nice migration into the area from New York and New Jersey, because our cost of living is still pretty reasonable. We\u2019re hitting on all cylinders in Northeast Pennsylvania, which is really nice to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Levy feels the prevalence of residents staying in their current homes rather than looking to sell and relocate has slowed the market a bit in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there are still a lot of people in houses, in very low interest rates, that aren\u2019t moving,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hard transition to go from a 3% or 3.5% interest rate, to a 6% or 6.5%, and have to spend more money. That\u2019s where kind of the cog in the wheel is a little bit where you have people that would normally be making moves, and they\u2019re not. We have buyers in the market; we need more sellers to come into the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
The median sales price for a residential home in Luzerne County was $221,800 in November 2025 \u2014 up from $195,000 in November 2004, a 13.7% increase, according to county Multiple Listing Service data.<\/p>\n
Kasko doesn\u2019t envision any drastic price swings throughout 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see them staying the same or maybe a slight increase, but I don\u2019t see any dramatic shifts,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were seeing 13% to 14% a year increases \u2014 we\u2019re not going to see that, but I can see a 2% to 3% increase over the next 12 months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terry Solomon-August, co-owner of Antonik and Associates Real Estate in Nanticoke and a district vice president for the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, also expects more of a stabilization in the market for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re going to see more sellers getting into the market and we\u2019ve got a lot of buyers out there, they just haven\u2019t quite found what they\u2019re looking for at a price they can afford,\u201d she said. \u201cI think with prices stabilizing, they will be able to purchase. Interest rates are down a little, but every little bit counts. I don\u2019t know if we will ever see 3% again, but when I got into the business, years and years ago, they were 12 to 13%, so being between 6% and 7% is not too terrible overall.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real estate professionals anticipate a more even housing market in the new year throughout Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[60,201,182,803,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-71993","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-lackawanna-county","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-luzerne-county","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-scranton","14":"tag-scranton-headlines","15":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}