October Market Update: Inventory Climbs as Buyers Regain Ground

<p>Every month I pull the local numbers apart and write down what actually changed, not what the national headlines say changed. Market conditions differ street by street, and the figures below are drawn from this area alone.</p><h2>What the data shows</h2><p>Active inventory, median sale price and average days on market are the three figures worth watching together. Any one of them read alone will mislead you.</p><h2>What it means for you</h2><p>Whether you are buying or selling, the practical takeaways are below. Reach out if you want me to run these numbers for your specific street.</p>

<p>One pattern worth naming is that well-photographed listings are still generating twice the showing requests of comparable homes nearby. The headline number this month is inventory, which climbed for the third consecutive month and finally gave buyers something to compare against. Median sale price held roughly flat, which tells me the softening is showing up in negotiation room rather than in headline values.</p><p>The homes sitting longest are almost always the ones that came out five to eight percent above what the data supported. My honest read is that we are settling into a balanced market, which is healthier for everyone than the frenzy we spent two years in. I am writing more inspection-contingency credits into deals than at any point in the past two years, and sellers are accepting them.</p><p>What I am seeing on showings is a slower, more deliberate buyer who is willing to walk away rather than stretch beyond a comfortable budget. Days on market is drifting upward, but that is a return to a normal pace rather than a sign of a falling market. Sellers who priced to the most recent comparable sales rather than to last spring are still moving inside three weeks.</p>