Realtor.com: September Prices Cool, Inventory Rises

Realtor.com's September data show national price per square foot declined 0.8% month‑over‑month while active inventory edged up 0.2% to 1,100,407 listings. Most of the 10 metros tracked saw median listing prices slip month‑over‑month, with San Diego posting the highest median at $866,000 (price‑per‑sqft down 0.9%) and Memphis suffering the steepest per‑sqft drop (‑5.8%). New Orleans was an outlier with a 0.2% per‑sqft increase despite a slight median price dip. Other large markets including Austin ($574,990), Colorado Springs ($469,675), Fort Worth ($345,000), Houston ($329,422) and Jacksonville ($294,950) recorded month‑to‑month median declines. Inventory trends diverged across metros — listings fell in Austin (‑5.9%), San Diego (‑3.6%), Jacksonville (‑3.0%), Houston (‑1.4%) and New Orleans (‑2.6%), while Wichita (+4.8%), Kansas City (+2.9%) and Memphis (+2.3%) saw gains. Homes are generally taking longer to sell than a year ago: national days on market averaged 62, with metro averages ranging from 43 days (San Diego, Wichita) to 91 days (New Orleans), signaling cooling price momentum and mixed supply dynamics heading into fall.