Median asking price for District homes drops to $527,500

Homes for sale in the District are taking longer to find buyers this fall, and sellers are asking less for them. The median home on the market in September 2026 had been listed for 58.0 days, according to monthly listing data.

A year earlier, in September 2025, that figure was 52.0 days. Time on market rose by 6.0 days, an increase of 11.5%.

Asking prices moved the other way. The District's median listing price fell to $527,500 in September, down from $589,000 a year before. That is a change of -$61,500, or a drop of 10.4%.

For buyers, longer listings and lower asking prices point to a calmer market than last fall. Homes that have sat for weeks may leave more room to negotiate. For sellers, pricing and patience may matter more than they did a year ago.

The slower pace did not arrive with a wave of new supply. Active listings in the District fell 2.9%, to 2,898 in September from 2,985 a year earlier. Fewer homes were for sale, yet the typical listing still sat longer.

How this fall compares with past years

A single month can be misleading, so it helps to look further back. The chart below shows the District's median listing price for every month since 2016, with each September highlighted.

A lower median asking price does not always mean the same home is worth less. The median can also fall if more smaller or less expensive homes, such as condos, come on the market. The data used here does not show which homes were listed, so it cannot say how much of the drop reflects that mix.

Time on market tells a longer story, too. The median District listing in September 2026 had been on the market 25.0 days longer than the median listing in September 2019.

Higher rates and a forecast of softer demand

Borrowing has grown more expensive. Freddie Mac's benchmark rate for a fixed-rate mortgage rose from the week before and was well above its level at the same time last year (Freddie Mac). Higher rates raise the monthly payment on any home bought with a loan.

Analysts cited by ARLnow.com projected that mortgage rates would fall by the end of 2026 (ARLnow.com). That forecast looks ahead to year's end, so it is too soon to judge it against October rates.

The same report described a forecast that the median sales price of homes sold in the D.C. region would drop in 2026, after an increase in 2025 (ARLnow.com). The outlook said, "Ongoing uncertainty around the federal government suggests weaker demand in the Washington D.C. metro" (ARLnow.com).

That put the region out of step with its neighbors. Every other major market in the Mid-Atlantic was projected to see price growth (ARLnow.com). The forecast still expected more homes to change hands, with total sales in the D.C. area projected to rise (ARLnow.com).

Those were regional predictions, not explanations of the District's September numbers. The listing data shows what changed. It does not show why.

Not every measure agrees

Other figures point in a different direction. The Joel Nelson Group reported that median days on market fell compared with the previous August (Joel Nelson Group). That runs opposite to the September trend in the listing data used here.

Sources count time on market differently. Some track homes that sold, while others track homes still listed, and monthly figures can swing. Readers should look at several months before drawing firm conclusions.

Other reports have also shown cooler activity. A market report carried by Yahoo Finance counted fewer new pending sales in July than in July 2025 (finance.yahoo.com).

What to watch next: the October listing data, in the next monthly release, will show whether the slower pace holds into late fall. Buyers and sellers should also track mortgage rates and whether active listings start to climb. More supply on top of longer selling times would tilt the market further toward buyers.

Sellers weighing a listing should also check how long similar homes in their ward have been sitting. A District-wide median can hide big differences between neighborhoods, from Chevy Chase to Congress Heights.

How we did this

We compared the District's median days on market, median listing price and active listings for September 2026 with the same figures for September 2025, using monthly listing data. We also compared time on market in September 2026 with September 2019 to show the longer trend, then checked the results against published forecasts and other market reports.

Median days on market: the middle value for how long listed homes have been for sale. As many listings have been on the market longer than this as shorter. Median listing price: the middle asking price among homes listed for sale in a month. It is not a sale price. Active listings: homes listed for sale during the month that had not yet gone under contract or sold. Pending sale: a home that has an accepted offer but has not yet closed.

Limitations

• Listing prices are what sellers ask, not what buyers pay. Final sale prices can be higher or lower.
• A median can move when the mix of homes for sale changes, such as more condos and fewer large houses, even if values for any given home hold steady.
• The data covers the District as a whole and does not break results out by ward or neighborhood.
• Different sources measure days on market in different ways, and some recent reports show the opposite trend for other months.
• The data shows what changed, not why. Forecasts and rate figures cited here offer context but do not prove a cause.
• Forecasts for the end of 2026 cover a period that has not finished, so they cannot yet be checked against results.
• Monthly listing figures can be revised and can swing from month to month.

Sources

• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Housing Inventory: Median Listing Price in District of Columbia, latest period September 2026, released Oct. 1, 2026; retrieved Oct. 14, 2026. Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Housing Inventory: Active Listing Count in District of Columbia, latest period September 2026, released Oct. 1, 2026; retrieved Oct. 14, 2026. Data
• Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED): Housing Inventory: Median Days on Market in District of Columbia, latest period September 2026, released Oct. 1, 2026; retrieved Oct. 14, 2026. Data