Montgomery County Housing Market 2026 So Far: What Actually Happened (Jan–Jul, In Plain English)

Part of: The Complete Guide to Buying a Home in Montgomery County, MD · The Complete Guide to Selling

If you've only read headlines this year, you've probably seen both "prices hit record high" and "market cooling" about Montgomery County within a few weeks of each other. Both were true. Here's the whole story of 2026 so far, told without jargon, using the Bright MLS numbers I track every month.

Last updated: September 15, 2026 (through August data). I'll keep this page current as each month's report comes in.

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The one-paragraph version

Montgomery County started 2026 starved for homes, peaked in May with the fastest sales and highest prices in the DC region, and then — quietly, without any crash — shifted toward balance over the summer. Prices are still rising, just slowly: the August median was up 3.3% from a year ago. Homes take about two and a half weeks to sell instead of one. Buyers have roughly 18% more homes to choose from than they did last summer. It is still technically a seller's market, but it no longer behaves like one on every street.

The numbers, month by month

	February	March	May	July	August
Median sold price	$606,750	$650,000	$693,500 (peak)	$656,000	$639,540
Change vs. a year earlier	+1.4%	+6.6%	+6.5%	−0.6%	+3.3%
Days to go under contract	26	10	8	15	18
Homes for sale (active listings)	1,275	1,470	2,002	2,070	2,023
Months of supply	1.58	1.81	2.44	2.51	2.47
Showings	16,261	21,988	23,800	17,763	16,981

Source: Bright MLS monthly reports for Montgomery County, MD. Full breakdowns: February, March, May, July, August.

A quick decoder for two of those rows:

• Days to go under contract is how long a typical home sat before a buyer's offer was accepted. Eight days means most homes had offers within their first weekend. Fifteen means you can see a house twice before deciding.
• Months of supply is how long it would take to sell every home currently listed if no new ones appeared. Under 3 is a seller's market; 4–6 is balanced. We went from 1.58 (extreme) to 2.51 (still seller-leaning, but the pressure is off).

Winter: not enough homes

February was the low point for choice. New listings were down 16% from the prior year and the whole county had about 1,275 homes for sale. Prices were only up 1.4% year over year — not because demand was weak, but because there was so little to buy that the sales mix was skewed. Homes took 26 days on average, which mostly reflects the winter product that lingered rather than any softness. If you tried to buy in February and felt like there was nothing out there, you weren't imagining it.

Spring: the pressure cooker

March flipped the switch. Sales jumped 10.5%, homes went under contract in 10 days, and the median rose to $650,000 — up 6.6% from March 2025, the strongest appreciation of any major jurisdiction in the DC metro. Buyers matched sellers almost one-for-one: 1,003 homes went pending against 1,002 new listings.

May was the peak. The median hit $693,500, homes sold in 8 days, and Montgomery County again led the region in year-over-year price growth. If you sold in April or May 2026, you sold at the top of the year — congratulations. If you bought then, you almost certainly competed with multiple offers and wrote an escalation clause.

The one number that hinted at what came next: active listings were already up 14% year over year in May. More sellers were showing up. Buyers just hadn't noticed yet.

Summer: the market exhales

By July the picture had changed more than most people realized:

• Prices flat. The median was $656,000, down 0.6% from July 2025 — statistically zero. That's not a decline; it's the first month all year that Montgomery County didn't outrun the region. The July median was also driven down by mix: fewer $1M+ homes settled in July, which pulls the county median lower even when individual homes haven't lost value.
• Inventory up 18.8% to 2,070 homes — the biggest year-over-year build in this cycle. New listings rose while pending sales fell, so homes accumulated.
• Days on market doubled from 8 to 15.
• Showings fell 7% year over year, the first decline of the year.

Region-wide, July was the month the higher-end segment slowed and condos moved to genuinely balanced territory (30 days on market, 4.2 months of supply). Detached single-family homes remained the strongest segment.

August: prices recover, demand keeps cooling

August settled the question July raised. The median came back to $639,540, up 3.3% from August 2025 — so July's −0.6% really was a mix effect, not falling values. Homes even sold a day faster than last August, at 18 days.

But the demand side kept softening. New pending sales fell 15.8%, the sharpest drop of any Maryland jurisdiction in the region. Closed sales were down 8.1% and showings down 6.3%. Inventory sat at 2,023 homes, still up 18.3% year over year, with 2.47 months of supply.

Here's the part that surprises people: sellers pulled back too. New listings were down 2.9%. So inventory is high not because a wave of sellers arrived, but because buyers stopped absorbing what was already there. That's a slower, stickier kind of rebalancing than a supply shock — and it's why I'd expect this to persist into the fall rather than snap back.

The one-sentence version of August: this is a velocity problem, not a price problem. A correctly priced home still sells in about two and a half weeks. An aspirationally priced one now sits, and the pool of buyers who might rescue it is smaller than it was in the spring. Full detail in the August Montgomery County report.

What this means if you're selling this fall

The April playbook — price aspirationally, wait for the bidding war — stopped working in July. Homes that are priced to the last 60 days of comparable sales still go under contract in the first week or two, especially in strong school clusters. Homes priced to the spring peak sit, and a price reduction in this market costs you more than pricing correctly from day one would have. Read: why overpricing costs you money in Montgomery County and what to do before selling your house in Maryland.

Two more practical notes: staging and curb appeal matter more now than they did in May, because buyers are comparing you against 19% more competition. And if you own a condo, price conservatively — that segment changed more than any other.

What this means if you're buying this fall

July was the best month to be a Montgomery County buyer since 2022, and the fall is shaping up similarly. You can get an inspection contingency again. Escalation clauses are occasionally necessary in the tightest neighborhoods but are no longer the default. You have time to see a home twice.

What hasn't changed: mortgage rates (tracked weekly by Freddie Mac) remain the swing factor, and waiting for them to drop hasn't paid off for two years. If the monthly payment works today, the inventory improvement you were waiting for has arrived. Start with how much house you can afford in Montgomery County and the first-time buyer guide.

How Montgomery County compares to the rest of the DC metro (August 2026)

Market	Median price	vs. last year	Days on market
Arlington County, VA	$860,729	+14.8%	14
Loudoun County, VA	$771,250	+0.9%	16
Fairfax County, VA	$752,250	−0.4%	13
Washington, DC	$681,500	+1.7%	28
Montgomery County, MD	$639,540	+3.3%	18
Prince George's County, MD	$445,000	+1.1%	27
DC Metro overall	$640,000	+2.4%	19

Montgomery County now tracks the metro average almost exactly — its median is within $500 of the region's and it sells a day faster. For a county that outperformed everyone all spring, tracking the average is the news. Note how far Fairfax and Loudoun have fallen back: both led the region for most of 2026 and both have now flattened. See the full regional picture in the DC Metro August 2026 report, how Washington DC itself is doing, and the Northern Virginia breakdown.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are home prices in Montgomery County going down in 2026?

No — they're rising slowly. The August 2026 median of $639,540 was up 3.3% from August 2025, after July briefly printed −0.6% on a sales-mix effect. Prices are below the May 2026 peak of $693,500, but that's normal seasonality plus a slower high-end segment, not depreciation.

Is Montgomery County still a seller's market in 2026?

Yes, but a softer one. At 2.47 months of supply in August, the county is still well below the 4–6 month "balanced" range. Detached single-family homes remain firmly seller-favored (2.15 months region-wide); condos have moved to genuinely balanced at 4.30 months. The practical difference: correct pricing now matters far more than it did in the spring.

Is fall 2026 a good time to buy a house in Montgomery County?

For buyers who've been waiting for more choice, yes. Inventory is up 18.3% year over year, new pending sales fell 15.8% (fewer competing buyers), homes take about two and a half weeks to sell, and inspection contingencies are back on the table. Rates remain the wildcard, but on inventory and competition, this is the most buyer-friendly stretch since 2022.

What was the peak of the Montgomery County housing market in 2026?

May 2026: a $693,500 median sold price, homes going under contract in 8 days, and the strongest year-over-year price growth (+6.5%) of any major DC-metro jurisdiction.

How long does it take to sell a house in Montgomery County right now?

About 18 days from listing to accepted offer as of August 2026, up from 8 days in May — though that's actually a day faster than August 2025. Well-priced homes in strong school clusters still sell in the first week; overpriced homes are the ones pushing the average up.

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Data: Bright MLS monthly market reports, Montgomery County, MD, February–August 2026. Analysis: Edward Dumitrache, REALTOR® with Pearson Smith Realty, licensed in MD, DC, and VA. Want to know what the fall market means for your specific home or search? Let's talk — (301) 357-1170.