The Territory's Median Sale Landed Well Below Its Median Asking Price

This is a buyer's market, and it's not close.

The clearest evidence is the gap between what sellers are asking and what buyers are actually paying. The territory's median list price sits at $327,000. The median sale price landed at $270,000. That's a wide spread for a single week's closings, and it sits alongside 6.9 months of supply, a figure that tells you how long it would take to sell everything currently on the market at the current pace of closings. Anything north of six months typically tips the leverage toward buyers, and this week's number sits well past that line.

Closings themselves slowed hard. The territory recorded 19 sales this week, down from a four-week average of about 33.67, a drop of roughly 44%. New listings also fell, down from a baseline of 16 to 12, a decline of 25%. Active inventory eased too, down about 15.60% from its four-week average of 167 to 141. Fewer new listings and fewer closings moved in the same direction, but the closings fell faster, which is what's stretching supply out.

Not everything retreated. Median list price actually climbed, up 8.90% from a four-week average of $300,167 to $327,000. Median sale price rose even more sharply, up 26.60% from a baseline of $213,333 to $270,000. Price per square foot moved with them, up 18% from $158.19 to $186.69.

That's the tension worth sitting with. Sellers are asking for more, and the properties that did close sold for more too. But there are fewer of those closings, and there's more time on the shelf for what remains. Rising prices and slowing volume aren't a contradiction. They can describe a market where the properties that transact are getting pricier while overall activity thins out.

24343 is where that shows up most plainly. It posted 10 of the territory's 19 sales this week, more than half the total, at a median sale price of $303,450 against a median list of $289,900, meaning it closed above its own asking price even as the rest of the territory closed well under. It also had zero price cuts this week. 24333, by contrast, posted zero sales despite four new listings and four price cuts, and its median list sits at $299,000.

If you're selling, price for the market that's actually here, not the one from last month. A $327,000 median list against a $270,000 median sale tells you buyers are negotiating hard, and 6.9 months of supply means your listing is competing with a large, patient pool rather than a scarce one. Expect more room for buyers to ask for concessions before they commit.

If you're buying, this is a week that rewards patience. With supply at 6.9 months and closings down sharply from their four-week pace, you're less likely to be racing another offer. The spread between list and sale price suggests there's real room to negotiate, especially outside 24343, where the sale data actually shows list prices holding.

What's worth watching next is whether 24343's above-list closings are a one-week blip or the start of a pattern, and whether the territory's months of supply keeps climbing or starts to come back down as fewer new listings work their way through a slower-closing market.

Figures are from MLS data aggregated at the ZIP level via Listing Leads.