Elma, 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 Elma, Erie County, New York
Elma is a town of 11,721 people in Erie County. Half its households earn more than $116,460 a year and half less, against $72,839 across Erie County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 89% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 11% 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 manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Elma is a suburban town in Erie County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, far more than across the county as a whole. Household incomes run well above the county's, and relatively few residents live below the poverty line. The population leans somewhat older, and many adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and very snowy, with January highs just around freezing, while July is pleasantly warm.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and professional and business services also common. Among the largest workplaces in Elma are Steuben Foods, a milk processor, the Iroquois Central School District, and Servotronics, which makes aircraft parts. The typical commute is a moderate one, and a fair number of people work from home.
Things to do. A short drive away is Highmark Stadium, a stadium where football is played, and the Buffalo River is also close by. Farther afield, a longer drive brings you to Niagara Falls, the famous waterfall, and to the Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
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- 4,545households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 12%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, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Elma
- Steuben FoodsMilk processing manufacturing691
- Iroquois Central School DistrictSchool district391FTE
- ServotronicsAircraft assemblies, subassemblies, and parts manufacturing275
- Mader Construction CoDrywall contractors88
- Cellino PlumbingPlumbing and heating contractors79
- Oakgrove ConstructionOverpass construction59
- Buffalo EnergyBlown-in insulation installation39
- Delaware North CompaniesHorses and other equine production23
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,276 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 wavesVery high
- Winter weatherVery high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Erie County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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.
Elma 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 Elma 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.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Elma21
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Elma11
Zip codes with a Elma address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Elma — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.