Buffalo, Delano, Rockford & St. Michael Housing Market Update — May 2026

Every month I pull the rolling 12-month numbers for the four Wright County towns I track most closely: Buffalo, Delano, Rockford, and St. Michael. The goal isn't to predict the market; it's to give you the same data I'm looking at so you can make decisions based on facts rather than headlines.

Here's what the data through May 2026 shows, town by town.

Buffalo

Buffalo posted the strongest price growth of the four towns this month. The median sale price is $369,000, up 3.9% from $355,000 a year ago. Homes are taking a median of 27 days to sell, up slightly from 24 days last May. Closed sales are up 7.8% year-over-year (305 vs. 283), and inventory has crept up to 65 homes for sale, an 8.3% increase from last year's 60.

Sellers are getting 98.2% of their original asking price, unchanged from a year ago — a sign that well-priced homes are still selling close to ask, but pricing has to be right from day one.

Delano

Delano's median price held essentially flat at $445,000, identical to May 2025. But the headline number here is closed sales, up 31.9% year-over-year (215 vs. 163), while inventory tightened by 9.2% (59 homes for sale vs. 65 a year ago). Days on market dropped slightly to 30, and sellers are netting 97.7% of list price, up half a point from last year.

Read together, this is a market where more buyers are competing for fewer listings, but prices haven't moved to reflect it yet. For sellers, that's a window worth paying attention to. For buyers, it means listings that are priced and presented well are not going to sit.

Rockford

My hometown market remains the tightest of the four. Inventory is down 33% year-over-year — only 14 homes for sale, compared to 21 last May. Closed sales are up 5.6% (57 vs. 54), and the median price rose 1.3% to $362,500. Days on market ticked up slightly to 32 (from 31), and sellers are getting 98.6% of list price, down 0.1 point from a year ago.

With inventory this low, the math is simple: there are more buyers than there are homes for them to choose from. If you've been waiting for a specific type of home to come up in Rockford, it's worth having a conversation about how to position yourself before it does.

St. Michael

St. Michael is the largest of the four markets by volume — 460 closed sales over the past 12 months, up 11.7% from 412 a year ago. The median sale price came in at $435,000, down 3.3% from $449,900 last May. Inventory ticked up slightly to 129 homes (from 124), and days on market rose to 34 (from 32). Sellers are getting 98.0% of original list price, up 0.2 points from a year ago.

The price dip here is worth a second look rather than a reaction. With sales volume up sharply and inventory only marginally higher, this doesn't read as a market cooling off — it reads more like a shift in what's been selling. If you're considering listing in St. Michael, the pricing conversation should be specific to your home and your neighborhood, not the headline median.

The bigger picture

Beyond these four towns, here's what I'm seeing across the broader Twin Cities market right now: my current listing in New Hope (Hennepin County) has had steady showings and multiple offers, and my husband Scott's listings across the metro are all sitting in pending or active contingent status. Anecdotally, that points to a market that's balanced to leaning toward sellers, even though some agents have been calling this a buyer's market. I haven't seen the data behind that claim, and I'd rather work from what I'm actually seeing in front of buyers and sellers.

Wright County has historically moved a bit more slowly than Hennepin County, so if Hennepin County activity is picking up, it's reasonable to expect Wright County to follow, just on a longer timeline.

What this means if you're buying

Across all four towns, sellers are getting 97.7%–98.6% of their original list price. That's not a market where lowball offers are landing. If you're house hunting in Buffalo, Delano, Rockford, or St. Michael, come in with a strategy based on what comparable homes have actually sold for, not what you wish the market looked like.

What this means if you're selling

Pricing accuracy matters more than ever. Rockford and Delano show how quickly low inventory can shift leverage toward sellers, but only for homes that are priced and presented to match what's actually selling. St. Michael's numbers are a reminder that a soft median doesn't mean a soft market for every home; it means the conversation about your specific property needs to be grounded in your specific comps.

If you're thinking about a move in Buffalo, Delano, Rockford, St. Michael, or anywhere in the west metro, I'm happy to walk through what these numbers mean for your situation specifically — and just as importantly, when they don't.