Alden, New York.
. Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,478 (+116%) since Jan 2020.
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- New York$2,755
- United States$1,922
Living in Alden, Erie County, New York
Alden is a village of 2,604 people in Erie County. Half its households earn more than $70,541 a year and half less, against $72,839 across Erie County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Erie County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Alden is a small village in Erie County, with a population that skews a little older than a typical American community. Household incomes run a little below the county's, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are pleasantly warm, with July the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing. Among the larger workplaces in Alden are the Alden Central School District, Tops Markets and Bennett Mfg. The typical commute is a fairly long one, and few people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away, Six Flags Darien Lake is an amusement park, and Darien Lakes State Park offers protected woodland and open space nearby. Viper, a tourist attraction, is also a short drive away. For a bigger outing, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the Buffalo Zoo are a longer drive away.
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- 1,196households
- 27%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 29 mintypical commute
- 6%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Erie County had 464,902 jobs in 2025, 0.3% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 32° and lows near 15°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 58°. About 109 inches of snow and 44 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Wales weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Alden
- Zoladz Construction CoBlasting, construction site307
- Alden Central School DistrictSchool district263FTE
- Tops MarketsGrocery stores122
- Bennett MfgPatterns, industrial, manufacturing39
- Tractor Supply Company StoreGeneral merchandise stores22
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 490 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Alden’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Erie County and the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY metro.
Alden home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Alden listings — the market is roughly in balance.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Alden15.03%
- United States26.36%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Alden19
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Alden6
Zip codes with a Alden address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Alden — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.