Line up the last four Augusts. August 2023: 158 sales, $903,000 median, 16-day DOM. August 2024: 162 sales, $1,002,500, 20 days. August 2025: 159 sales, $930,000, 24 days. August 2026: 135 sales, $910,000, 13 days. Volume held within four sales of itself for three straight years and then dropped 15%. The clock went the other way and cut nearly in half. Those two facts are the same fact. When fewer homes come to market, the ones that do face the whole month's buyers at once. A 13-day median and 99.1% of ask is what that pressure looks like from the seller's side. The share closing above ask went from 18.2% to 29.6% in twelve months, which is not a market running out of demand. It is a market running out of inventory, and 641 active listings against 36,665 row homes is the number underneath it. For sellers, thin supply is leverage you only hold while you are priced correctly. A third of August listings went under contract inside a week, and those are the sellers who got the 99 cents. For buyers, a 13-day median is not a reason to abandon judgment. The median price still fell 2.2% year over year, which means speed and price are moving in opposite directions and buyers are still declining to chase. The thinnest August in four years was also the fastest. Scarcity does not raise prices on its own. It shortens the time you have to decide. |
