Published October 7, 2026 in Market Update

Homes Priced $500K to $650K Are Winning More Often

By Deb Hayne

Real estate, Standard Export

Not every price range is playing the same game right now. I pulled every listing through October 7, 2026, and one number stopped me: 65.5% of homes priced between $500,000 and $650,000 sold at or above what they first asked. That is the highest of any range in this market. The range above it, $650,000 and up, came in at 50.9%. That is a 14.6-point gap between neighbors on the same street, just in different price brackets.

Homes that waited too long paid for it

Two homes in the same neighborhood tell the story clearly. A home on Norris went on the market and found a buyer in 2 days. It was first priced at $739,900 and sold for $742,500, above what it asked. A home on Bennett sat for 450 days. It first asked $649,900 and sold for $600,000. Same general area. Very different results.

The difference was not the home. It was the price and the timing. The home on Bennett first asked $649,900 and sold for $600,000, while the home on Norris first asked $739,900 and sold for $742,500. That is not a small thing. It is the cost of starting too high and chasing the market down.

Across the whole market, the typical home sold for 94.9% of what it first asked. That sounds close. But on a $650,000 home, that 5.1% gap is more than $33,000. Getting the first price right is not a small detail.

The monthly numbers show how the market moved this year. The typical sold price started at $475,000 in January, jumped to $518,000 in February, dipped back to $477,500 in March, then climbed steadily through spring and summer. By August it reached $549,000. September came in at $534,000. The overall direction has been up, but not in a straight line, and the gap between a strong month and a soft one can be more than $70,000.

The first half of the year, January through May, saw 515 homes sell with a typical price of $500,000. The second half, May through October, saw 708 homes sell at a typical price of $534,000. More homes sold, and they sold for more. That shift matters if you are trying to decide whether to list now or wait for spring.

Bedroom count also shapes what a home brings. The typical 3-bedroom sold for $444,013. A 4-bedroom brought $580,000. A 5-bedroom reached $700,000. Each step up adds real money, but it also puts you in a different part of the market with its own pace and its own buyer pool.

There are 281 homes for sale right now. At the pace homes have been selling, all of them would be gone in 2 months. Anything under 4 months favors sellers. This market is well inside that line.

Still, nearly 1 in 4 homes for sale has already dropped its price. The typical cut is $25,000, or 4.2% of what the home first asked. That tells you two things at once: the market is strong overall, but sellers who overprice are finding out quickly.

What this means if you are selling or buying right now

If you are selling, the $500,000 to $650,000 range is where buyers are showing up most ready to compete. That does not mean you can name any number and win. The homes that got full price or better got there by starting at the right price, not by starting high and hoping. The homes that sat, like the one on Bennett, sold for $600,000 against a first ask of $649,900, a gap that grew with every week it sat unsold.

If you are buying, 24.9% of homes for sale have already cut their price, which means there is room to negotiate on some listings, especially above $650,000 where only about half of sellers got their full asking price. Rates are not helping: the 30-year fixed averaged 7.28% as of October 1, 2026, up from 7.03% the week before, according to Freddie Mac's weekly rate survey. That jump changes what a given price actually costs each month. Know your number before you make an offer.