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San Diego Housing Market Update: July 21, 2026
William Routt·Jul 23, 2026·5 min.
San Diego's market has entered its lull phase: inventory up 4%, demand at a 14-year July low, and market time now 101 days. Prices are holding — but 60% of listings have been sitting a month or more.
Updated July 2026 | Data as of July 21, 2026
San Diego County's housing market has entered what Reports on Housing calls the "lull phase" — the slower stretch that arrives after the spring rush, when homes linger, sellers get impatient, and the pace of the market drops noticeably.
The dynamic this cycle is straightforward: supply is rising, demand is falling, and the gap between them is widening. Inventory jumped 4% in two weeks while pending sales dropped 5% to the lowest mid-July reading since tracking began in 2012. The result is a market taking 101 days to sell the average listing — and a lot of sellers deciding to take the sign down instead.
Prices are still holding. Volume is what's slowed.
Inventory: 5,956 active listings countywide, up 239 homes (4%) in two weeks — the largest jump since late April, and the highest level since last September. Still below normal supply, but building fast.
Demand: 1,768 pending sales over the prior 30 days, down 85 (5%) in two weeks. That's the largest drop of the year and the lowest mid-July reading in the 14 years this has been tracked.
Market time: 101 days to sell the average listing at the current pace, up from 93 two weeks ago. Highest level since mid-January. Last July it was 105 days — nearly identical.
Mortgage rates: 6.55%, the highest of the year and the highest since August 2025. This is the single biggest reason demand dropped.
Sitting inventory: 60% of available homes have been listed at least 30 days. 34% have been sitting more than two months.
Sellers giving up: 6,487 homes were pulled off the market January through June — more than the entire current active inventory.
There are 5,956 homes on the market across San Diego County, up 239 in the past two weeks. That's a meaningful reversal from earlier this year, and it puts inventory at its highest point since September 2025.
Context keeps it in perspective. Last year at this time there were 6,410 homes available — 454 more, or 8% above today. The three-year pre-COVID average (2017–2019) was 7,049, about 18% higher than where we sit now.
The lock-in effect is still doing the heavy lifting. Through June, 20,562 homes came to market countywide — 7,987 fewer than the pre-COVID norm, a 28% shortfall. Homeowners holding 3% mortgages continue to stay put, which is why inventory can't build the way it did in prior cycles even in a slow market.
More detail: San Diego housing inventory, tracked
This is where the story is. Buyer demand — pending sales over the prior 30 days — fell from 1,853 to 1,768, a 5% drop in two weeks. It's the largest decline of 2026 and the lowest mid-July reading since tracking began in 2012.
The cause isn't a mystery: mortgage rates hit 6.55%, their highest point of the year. Rates function as the gas pedal for this market — when they fall, activity accelerates almost immediately; when they rise, it decelerates just as fast. This drop tracked the rate move almost exactly.
Year over year, demand is roughly flat (last July: 1,840, about 4% above today). Against the pre-COVID pace of 3,261 pending sales, though, today's market is running at well under half the transaction volume of a normal year.
More detail: San Diego buyer demand and how mortgage rates move the San Diego market
With supply up 4% and demand down 5%, the Expected Market Time rose from 93 to 101 days — the number of days it would take to sell every current listing at today's buying pace. That's the slowest reading since mid-January.
The year-over-year comparison is the useful one: last July it was 105 days. Today's market is essentially where it was a year ago, not materially worse. Against the pre-COVID average of 66 days, though, it's running roughly 50% slower.
Attached and detached homes are moving at very different speeds. Condos and townhomes are at 122 days (up from 106 two weeks ago), while detached homes are at 95 days (up from 88). Both figures are close to where they were a year ago, but the gap between them is real and persistent.
More detail: How long does it take to sell a house in San Diego? and condos vs. detached homes
Sale prices continue to hold. Homes closed at 100.0% of list price countywide, and June saw 2,276 closed residential resales — up 13% from June 2025's 2,009, and up 6% from May. Transaction volume slowing at the front of the funnel hasn't yet translated into weaker closings.
[CONFIRM] — median sale price for June 2026. The July 21 report covers closed sales volume and sales-to-list ratio but doesn't include the median. Pull from MLS before publishing and update the prior figure ($910,000 in May 2026, up ~3% year over year).
For anyone worried about a 2008 repeat, the distress picture answers it: just 78 distressed homes are on the market countywide — 32 foreclosures and 46 short sales — amounting to 1.3% of all listings. Foreclosures and short sales each accounted for 0.3% of June's closed sales, meaning 99.4% of sales were made by sellers with equity.
More detail: Is the San Diego housing market going to crash?
The countywide 101-day figure hides a market that behaves very differently by bracket — and the pattern has shifted meaningfully from a year ago.
$0–$750k — 115 days. Now the slowest non-luxury tier, and slower than last year's 96 days. This band holds 37% of all inventory but generates only 32% of demand. Affordability constraints hit hardest here.
$750k–$1M — 81 days. The fastest-moving segment in the county, and the one place where demand share (26%) exceeds inventory share (21%).
$1M–$1.5M — 84 to 90 days. Steady, and improved from last year's 101–106 days.
$1.5M–$2M — 86 days. Also improved year over year, from 117 days.
$2M–$4M — 113 days. Slower than two weeks ago (100 days), but a significant improvement on last year's 152.
$4M–$6M — 293 days. Sharply slower, up from 178 days two weeks ago.
$6M+ — 408 days. Effectively stalled. More than a year to sell at the current pace.
The takeaway: the "San Diego market" you're actually in is defined by your price bracket far more than by any countywide number — and the entry-level and low-luxury tiers have essentially traded places over the past twelve months.
More detail: San Diego market time by price range and the San Diego luxury market
Above $2 million, the market has stalled out. Luxury inventory rose 5% to 923 homes while luxury demand fell 10% to 182 pending sales — pushing luxury Expected Market Time from 131 to 152 days, a 21-day jump in two weeks. At that pace, a luxury seller listing today would be looking at closing around December 2026.
Year over year the picture is less alarming: active luxury inventory is down 18%, and last July's Expected Market Time was 182 days — slower than today.
More detail: San Diego luxury home market
Two numbers capture the mood of this market better than anything else.
First: 60% of available homes have been on the market at least 30 days, and 34% have been sitting more than two months. Above $2 million, at least 41% have been listed for two months or longer.
Second: 6,487 sellers pulled their homes off the market between January and June — up 7% from 2025, up 107% from 2024, and up 170% from 2023. That figure represents 109% of the entire current active inventory. More homes have been withdrawn this year than are currently for sale.
But the homes that are priced correctly still move. Of June's 2,276 closed sales, 1,081 went into escrow within the first two weeks — 47% of them. Price, condition, location, and upgrades are the difference between selling in fourteen days and sitting for four months.
More detail: Why homes sit on the market in San Diego, should you pull your home off the market?, and how to price a home in San Diego
If you're selling, the window on the summer market is closing. Housing hits the autumn market by the end of August, and the spring peak is well behind us. Precise pricing against recent pendings and closings matters more right now than it has in years — nearly half of June's sales happened in the first two weeks, and those were the well-priced, move-in-ready homes. If you're above $2 million, plan for a longer timeline and price to it from day one.
See also: best time of year to sell in San Diego
If you're buying, you have more leverage than at any point since 2022. With 34% of inventory sitting past 60 days and thousands of sellers already withdrawing listings, motivated sellers are not hard to find — particularly above $1.5 million, where demand share is thinnest. The trade-off is the rate environment: at 6.55%, your monthly payment is doing the work that a lower price would have done.
See also: how much negotiating room do San Diego buyers have?
If you're waiting for prices to drop meaningfully, the data doesn't support that bet. Sales are still closing at 100% of list, distress is near zero, and 99.4% of sellers have equity. Supply is rising, but from a level still 18% below the pre-COVID norm. A plateau — not a decline — is what the numbers point to.
See also: is San Diego a buyer's or seller's market?
Countywide numbers only get you so far. Market time varies enormously by city — Carlsbad is at 68 days while Coronado sits at 225. We track every San Diego County city individually.
See: San Diego market time by city
Market data via Reports on Housing, as of July 21, 2026. Analysis by William Routt, Routt Home Team (DRE 01937558). Thinking about making a move this year? Reach out — we'll walk you through what the numbers mean for your specific neighborhood and price point.
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