What you actually keep each month house-hacking a Buffalo two-, three- or four-unit, at three real prices, across rates and rents, with the state and regional assistance programs that fund it and the income lines that decide which one you get. September 2026 edition, 22 pages, PDF.
The free Buffalo page on my site gives you one number: what the median surviving deal keeps at today's rate. This report is what you need when you are standing in a three-unit listed at $239,900 wondering whether it is the good kind of Buffalo deal or the bad kind.
Buffalo is a triplex market, and this report leads with that rather than with the series' usual duplex. 129 of the 235 listings that survived the Foothold screen are three-unit buildings and only 86 are duplexes. The entry triplex keeps $1,552 a month; the same building as a plain duplex keeps $251, and the duplex is carried through every table as the conservative floor. As plain duplexes the median and upper-quartile deals lose money, and the report shows that on the same page as the good news.
Inside: the same building priced line by line at the entry ($239,900), median ($285,000) and upper-quartile ($375,500) asking price, as a duplex and as a triplex. A rate-by-price grid (5.50% to 7.50%) so the day you get a lender quote you read your own answer. Rent bands from four published readings, with the rent input named and dated rather than blended. The ZIP table of where the surviving listings actually sit, where 47 of the 235 are in a single ZIP.
The three things that make Buffalo its own case, all from primary sources. First, there is no city assistance for this buyer at all: the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency program requires a one-family dwelling and East Buffalo DPAL Plus has been closed since January 2025, so the program table carries them as explicit "does not apply" rows rather than quietly omitting them. Second, there are two rental registries, and the third unit that makes Buffalo work is the unit that can put you into the City's. Buffalo is also one of the 25 communities of concern under New York's Lead Rental Registry law, and the report prints Erie County's own Community of Concern ZIP list against the survivor table, so you can see that 49 of the 235 sit in a listed ZIP and that the two largest survivor ZIPs do not. Third, Buffalo has not opted into Good Cause Eviction, verified against New York State Homes and Community Renewal's own published list of the nineteen municipalities that have. That is a point in Buffalo's favor today and a live legislative risk, and it is reported as both.
A worked example against my own $470,000 duplex, a 90-day checklist, the formula printed once so you can rebuild it, and 30 dated sources.
$29, flat. The free Buffalo page and every calculator on the site stay free either way; the $29 covers the data refresh. Buyers of this edition get the December 2026 data edition at no charge. If it does not give you a clearer read on Buffalo than the free page did, reply within 30 days for a full refund.
Education, not financial advice. This is arithmetic on public data about a city, not a recommendation to buy any building or use any loan or program, and it knows nothing about your income, credit, debts or tax situation. Program rules and rates change without notice; every figure carries the date it was read. Talk to a SONYMA-participating lender, a HUD-approved housing counselor and a tax preparer before you act. Van to Vault is not a lender, broker, agent or advisor and receives no compensation from any lender or program named in the report.