Montgomery County MD Housing Market August 2026: $639,540 Median, Pendings Down 15.8%

Key Takeaways: The Montgomery County median sold price was $639,540 in August 2026 (Bright MLS) — up 3.3% year over year, reversing July's negative print. Homes sold in a median of 18 days, one day faster than last August. But new pending sales fell 15.8%, showings fell 6.3%, and active listings rose 18.3% to 2,023. Months of supply reached 2.47. Prices held. Demand did not.

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Last month I wrote that July's −0.6% year-over-year median was the first negative print in three years, and that I believed it was sales mix rather than depreciation. August settles that argument.

The median came back to $639,540, up 3.3% from August 2025. Days on market actually improved by a day versus last August. If Montgomery County were genuinely depreciating, neither of those numbers would look like that.

So prices didn't break. What did?

The demand side. New pending sales — the truest forward-looking number in any monthly report, because it measures offers written this month rather than deals struck in June — fell 15.8%. That is the sharpest drop of any Maryland jurisdiction in the region. Showings fell 6.3%. Closed sales fell 8.1%.

That is the whole story of August: this is not a price problem, it is a velocity problem.

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Montgomery County August 2026 Market Snapshot

Metric	August 2026	Year-over-Year Change
Closed Sales	779	−8.1%
Median Sales Price	$639,540	+3.3%
Median Days on Market	18 days	−1 day
New Pending Sales	697	−15.8%
New Listings	783	−2.9%
Active Listings	2,023	+18.3%
Months of Supply	2.47	+0.33 months
Showings	16,981	−6.3%

Source: Bright MLS, August 2026, Montgomery County, MD. Data as of September 4, 2026.

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$639,540: The Negative Print Was Mix, Not Depreciation

In July's report the median was $656,000 and the year-over-year change was −0.6%. I argued that the drop came from composition — fewer high-end settlements in a county with a lot of high-end product — rather than homes losing value.

August's +3.3% is the confirmation. Prices in this county did not go backwards; a single month's mix moved the median around, the way a single month's mix always can.

The longer arc is worth holding in your head, because it explains why the monthly number bounces:

Month	Median	YoY	Days on Market
February 2026	$606,750	+1.4%	26
March 2026	$650,000	+6.6%	10
May 2026	$693,500	+6.5%	8
July 2026	$656,000	−0.6%	15
August 2026	$639,540	+3.3%	18

Source: Bright MLS monthly Local Markets data

The median moved from $606,750 to $693,500 and back to $639,540 inside seven months. That range is seasonal and compositional. The year-over-year column is the one that tells you about value, and it is positive again. If you want the fuller arc, I wrote up Montgomery County's 2026 so far.

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New Pendings −15.8%: The Number That Actually Matters

Closed sales tell you what happened 30 to 45 days ago. New pending sales tell you what buyers are doing right now. In August, Montgomery County buyers wrote 15.8% fewer contracts than they did a year ago.

That is the sharpest year-over-year pending decline of any Maryland jurisdiction in this region, and it is the number I would watch if I only got to watch one.

Showings fell 6.3% to 16,981 — a smaller decline than the pending drop, which is its own signal. Buyers are still touring. They are touring and then not writing. That gap between traffic and contracts is what a hesitant market looks like: people are in the market, they are looking, and they are choosing to wait.

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Inventory Is Building From the Demand Side, Not the Supply Side

Active listings rose 18.3% to 2,023. Months of supply climbed 0.33 months to 2.47.

Here is the part most coverage gets wrong. Inventory did not build because a wave of sellers arrived. New listings fell 2.9%. Fewer homes came to market in August 2026 than in August 2025.

Sellers are holding back too. They see the rate environment, they do the math on trading a low mortgage for a current one, and they stay put. So the inventory build is almost entirely arithmetic: buyers absorbed less than they used to, and what didn't sell stacked up.

That distinction matters for how you read 2.47 months of supply. This is not a market flooded with competing sellers. It is a market where the homes that are listed are taking longer to clear. At 2.47 months, Montgomery County is still a seller's market — balanced is 4 to 6 — but it is a seller's market that no longer rescues mistakes.

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18 Days: Correctly Priced Still Sells in Two and a Half Weeks

The median home in Montgomery County went under contract in 18 days in August, a day faster than August 2025.

I want to be careful with this number, because it is easy to misuse in both directions. It does not mean the market is hot — the pending and showing data say otherwise. And it does not mean the market is slow — 18 days is fast by any national standard.

What it means is specific: a correctly priced, well-presented home still sells in about two and a half weeks. The median is a measure of the homes that sold, and the homes that sold were, mostly, the ones priced to the market.

The homes that were priced aspirationally are not in that 18-day median. They are in the 2,023 active listings. And the pool of buyers who might eventually stretch to rescue an overpriced listing is 15.8% smaller than it was a year ago. That is the entire mechanism I laid out in why overpricing costs you money, and August is the month where it stops being theory.

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Montgomery County vs. the Region

Market	Median Price	YoY	DOM	Months of Supply
Arlington County, VA	$860,729	+14.8%	14 days	2.44
Loudoun County, VA	$771,250	+0.9%	16 days	2.09
Fairfax County, VA	$752,250	−0.4%	13 days	1.97
Alexandria City, VA	$752,500	+9.1%	19 days	2.35
Washington, DC	$681,500	+1.7%	28 days	4.91
Montgomery County, MD	$639,540	+3.3%	18 days	2.47
Frederick County, MD	$525,000	+2.7%	25 days	2.52
Prince George's County, MD	$445,000	+1.1%	27 days	3.33
DC Metro overall	$640,000	+2.4%	19 days	2.73

Source: Bright MLS, August 2026 Local Markets data

Montgomery County is tracking the metro almost exactly again — the median is within $460 of the regional figure, days on market within a day, supply within 0.26 months. The county outperformed the region all spring and has now converged back to it.

Worth noting on the ends: Arlington at +14.8% and Alexandria at +9.1% are running hot, while Fairfax is slightly negative. Washington, DC remains the outlier on supply at 4.91 months — genuinely balanced, and the only jurisdiction in the table where a buyer has real structural leverage.

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The Condo Divergence Is the Most Important Thing in This Report

Region-wide property-type data for August makes clear that "the market" is really three markets:

Segment	Median	YoY	DOM	Months of Supply	Closed Sales YoY	Active Listings YoY
Detached single-family	$835,000	+0.0%	14 days	2.15 (−0.10)	−5.0%	−1.3%
Townhome / attached	$588,000	−0.7%	17 days	2.37 (+0.20)	−2.7%	+9.6%
Condo	$386,500	−5.7%	34 days	4.30 (+1.19)	−22.7%	+28.2%

Source: Bright MLS, August 2026, DC Metro region property-type data

Detached is at 2.15 months and 14 days, with supply tightening year over year. Condos are at 4.30 months and 34 days, with prices down 5.7%, closed sales down 22.7%, and active listings up 28.2% against new listings up only 6.0%.

Those are not two ends of one market. They are two different markets that happen to share a county line. A Montgomery County condo seller who prices off the county-wide $639,540 median and the county-wide 18-day clock is pricing off numbers that describe somebody else's property type.

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What This Means for Montgomery County by Situation

You're selling a detached single-family home — Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Kensington: You are in the strongest segment in the region. Regionally, detached supply tightened to 2.15 months and days on market improved by three to 14 days. Prices were flat at 0.0% year over year, which in a month where every other segment fell is a good outcome.

Your practical instruction: price to the last 60 days of comparables in your own submarket, not to the spring run-up and not to the county median. Budget for a two-to-four week marketing period rather than a single weekend. And spend the money on pre-list preparation — with 18.3% more active listings competing for a smaller buyer pool, presentation is doing more work than it was in April. I went through the actual numbers on this in what staging costs and whether it's worth it. Run your bottom line before you list, too — my seller closing cost calculator for Montgomery County will get you within a few hundred dollars of your net.

You're selling a condo anywhere in Montgomery County: Read the segment numbers before you read the county numbers. Regionally: 4.30 months of supply, 34 days on market, prices −5.7%, closed sales −22.7%, active listings +28.2%. Condo supply rose 1.19 months in a single year.

Concretely, this means three things. First, your launch price is close to your only price — a reduction in this segment costs weeks, not days, because the buyer pool is thin and slow. Second, budget a 60-to-90 day marketing window and plan your next move around it; do not sign a contract on your next home contingent on a fast condo sale. Third, if your building has a pending special assessment or a fee increase, disclose it early and price for it. Condo buyers in this market are reading budgets and reserve studies, and a surprise at week six kills the deal. If you want the buyer-side view of the same segment, buying a condo in Montgomery County lays out what they're screening for.

You're selling a townhome — Rockville, Germantown, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg: The middle segment, and the most predictable. Regionally: $588,000 median, −0.7%, 17 days, 2.37 months of supply. Supply rose 0.20 months and active listings rose 9.6%, so you have more competition than a year ago but nothing like the condo picture. Normal preparation, honest pricing, normal timeline.

You're buying in Montgomery County: Your position improved again. There are 18.3% more active listings than last August, 6.3% fewer competing buyers touring, and 15.8% fewer competing offers being written. That last number is the one that should change how you behave.

Practically: you can see a house twice. You can keep an inspection contingency in most price bands. You can negotiate on a listing that has been sitting — and with supply building from slow absorption rather than seller flood, there are more of those than there were in the spring. Escalation clauses are no longer the default outside the tightest school clusters.

The constraint is still financing. Bright's read is that elevated rates and worsening affordability are exactly why buyers are stepping back, and Freddie Mac's weekly 30-year fixed average has run roughly in the 6–7% band over the past year, drifting toward the upper end of it recently (Freddie Mac PMMS). Before you shop, know your actual number — how much home you can afford in Montgomery County walks through the math with current rates.

You're deciding whether to wait: Bright expects a relatively slow fall: fewer buyers, fewer sellers, slower price growth, and longer times to sell. If you're a buyer, that description is a description of your leverage improving. If you're a seller, it's a reason to be realistic about the calendar rather than a reason to withdraw. My longer view on where this ends up is in the 2026 market forecast.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the median home price in Montgomery County right now?

The median sold price was $639,540 in August 2026, up 3.3% from August 2025. That's below July's $656,000 and well below the May peak of $693,500, but both of those moves are seasonal and compositional. The year-over-year figure is the one that measures value, and it is positive.

Are Montgomery County home prices falling in 2026?

No. August's median was up 3.3% year over year after July's −0.6% print, and homes sold a day faster than they did last August. What is falling is transaction volume: new pending sales −15.8%, showings −6.3%, closed sales −8.1%. That is a demand slowdown, not a price decline.

How fast are homes selling in Montgomery County?

The median was 18 days from list to contract in August 2026 — one day faster than August 2025, though slower than the 8 days recorded in May. A correctly priced, well-presented home still goes under contract in roughly two and a half weeks. An aspirationally priced one now joins the 2,023 active listings.

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

For detached and townhomes, yes. The county sits at 2.47 months of supply, where 4 to 6 months is balanced, and regional detached supply actually tightened to 2.15 months. The condo segment is the exception: at 4.30 months and 34 days on market region-wide, it has crossed into balanced territory and is behaving like a different market entirely.

Why are there more listings if fewer sellers are listing homes?

Because inventory is building from the demand side. New listings actually fell 2.9% in August, yet active listings rose 18.3% to 2,023. Buyers wrote 15.8% fewer contracts, so homes that would have sold in prior years stayed on the market and accumulated. This is a slower-absorption inventory build, not a wave of sellers rushing for the exit.

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Related Market Reports

• Montgomery County housing market — July 2026 — the month I called the mix, for comparison
• Montgomery County housing market — 2026 so far — the full year-to-date arc
• Montgomery County market forecast 2026 — where I think this ends up
• Why overpricing costs you money — the mechanism behind an 18-day median
• Seller closing costs in Montgomery County — what you actually net
• Buying a condo in Montgomery County — the segment with 4.30 months of supply

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What I'm Seeing on the Ground

The thing I'm spending the most time on right now is the conversation about the first two weeks.

Sellers keep asking me what price gets them the most money, and the honest answer in an August-2026 market is: the one that gets the home sold inside its first 18 days. The buyer pool that sees a new listing in week one is the biggest pool that listing will ever get. It is 15.8% smaller than last year's version of that pool, and it does not come back when you reduce in week five. It just gets replaced by a smaller, more skeptical one.

On condos I'm being blunter than I used to be. I'd rather lose a listing than take one at a price the 34-day, 4.30-month segment will not support, because the six-month version of that story is worse for everyone.

On the buy side, my clients are having the easiest time they've had in years. More to compare, less competition on the offer, contingencies intact.

Investors are seeing the same thing from a different angle: a thinner buyer pool is harder on a flip's exit than an 18-day median suggests, which is why I underwrite resale velocity rather than price alone in how to flip a house in Montgomery County. The deals I'm sourcing are on my investment deals page.

If you want to know where your specific home or search sits — Bethesda to Germantown, detached to condo — I'll give you the straight version, with your actual comparables rather than a county median.

Get in touch → or call me directly at (301) 357-1170.