Market Update · August 15, 2026 · 6 min read
Existing-home sales slipped 1.7% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.06 million, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. That's still above where we were a year ago, which tells you something important: people are still buying and selling, just not at the clip we'd like to see.
But the real headline isn't the sales number. It's inventory.
Yesterday HousingWire ran a piece titled "Summer heat sets in across Northeast housing markets," and the common denominator from Rochester to Boston to Buffalo is the same thing I'm seeing every weekend at open houses in Harford, Baltimore, and Howard Counties: limited inventory and buyers ready to chase.
We talked about this a few days ago when I covered the Northeast inventory crunch. It hasn't gotten better. If anything, it's gotten more pronounced as we head into the final stretch of summer.
Here's what that looks like on the ground: I had an open house last Sunday in Bel Air. Fifteen groups through in three hours. Four offers by Tuesday morning. The seller had been nervous about listing in August because "everyone says the market slows down after July Fourth."
Everyone is wrong.
If you've been sitting on the fence about selling your house in Cecil County, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, or anywhere in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, let me be blunt: this is still a seller's market in most price points and locations.
Buyers are out there. They're qualified. And they're tired of losing.
NAR's July report shows sales held relatively steady despite mortgage rates that have been elevated all summer. Freddie Mac's latest survey puts the 30-year fixed at 6.67% as of August 13. That's not low, but it's better than the spike we saw earlier this summer, and buyers have adjusted their expectations.
What they haven't adjusted to is losing out on every halfway decent house that hits the market.
So if you're thinking about selling, now is not the time to get cute with your pricing or skip the prep work. Inventory is tight, yes, but that doesn't mean buyers will overpay for a house that needs $30,000 in deferred maintenance. I put together a no-nonsense prep list for Prince George's County sellers a few days ago, and the same advice applies across all my markets: clean, declutter, fix the obvious stuff, price it right, and let the lack of competition do the rest.
The data backs this up. According to NAR, the median existing-home price has stayed elevated even as sales volume dipped slightly. Translation: good houses are still commanding strong prices because there simply aren't enough of them.
If you're buying right now, you already know it's tough. I'm not going to sugarcoat it.
But here's the thing: the market is shifting slightly in your favor in ways that aren't showing up in the headline numbers yet. Redfin reported last week that the number of U.S. homebuyers dropped to a record low in July, with sellers outnumbering buyers by 51%. That's the highest imbalance we've seen outside of December.
What does that mean in practice? More negotiating power. Not a lot, but some.
I had a buyer in York County, Pennsylvania, write an offer two weeks ago with a request for $5,000 in closing cost assistance and a 10-day inspection period. Six months ago that offer would've been laughed out of the room. The seller countered, we met in the middle, and my buyer is closing next month.
You're not going to get everything you want. But you might get something, which is more than you could say in 2025.
The other piece of good news: mortgage rates have come down a bit. We covered this earlier this week, and while 6.67% isn't going to make anyone jump for joy, it's workable if you're buying in the right price range with realistic expectations.
You've probably seen the foreclosure stories making the rounds. HousingWire ran a smart piece yesterday explaining why 2026 foreclosure gains are not a housing crash signal. The New York Fed's foreclosure index is still below 2019 levels, and new listings remain muted, which means there's no flood of distressed inventory coming to save buyers from this tight market.
I've been doing this long enough to remember 2008. This isn't that. Not even close.
What we have is a market where a lot of people bought or refinanced at 3% and have zero incentive to move unless life forces their hand. Meanwhile, new household formation continues, people still need to relocate for jobs, and builders haven't kept pace with demand for over a decade.
That's the structural problem, and it's not going away because foreclosures ticked up slightly from historic lows.
Redfin also noted that U.S. pending home sales edged up 0.4% week over week during the four weeks ending August 9. A 0.4% bump is nothing to write home about, but it's better than the declines we saw in June.
New listings showed a similar flicker of life. Not a surge, but a pulse.
I'm seeing the same thing locally. August started slow, but this week I've had three new listing appointments in Baltimore County and one in New Castle County, Delaware. Sellers are starting to realize that waiting for some mythical "perfect" market isn't a strategy. The market we have is the market we have, and if you need to sell, you need to sell.
If you're selling: list now, prep smart, price it right. Don't wait for September. The buyers who are out there in August are serious, and you're competing with fewer listings than you will be in the fall.
If you're buying: stay patient but stay ready. Work with a realtor who knows the local market—whether that's Harford County or Howard County or DC proper—and who can help you move fast when the right house shows up. Inventory is tight, but it's not zero. Take a look at what's available and get pre-approved so you're not scrambling when you find something.
And if you're a first-time buyer in Maryland, make sure you understand programs like the Maryland Mortgage Program before you start writing offers. I wrote about the hidden MMP rule that trips people up just yesterday, and it's worth a read if you're considering down payment assistance.
Existing-home sales dipped 1.7% in July, but that's not the story. The story is that inventory remains stubbornly low across the Northeast, including Maryland, DC, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Buyers are still active, sellers still have leverage in most markets, and this strange, slow-motion market we've been living in since mid-2025 shows no signs of a dramatic shift in either direction.
If you've got questions about your specific situation—whether you're thinking about selling in Anne Arundel County or buying in Lancaster—reach out. I've been doing this long enough to know that national headlines only tell you so much. What matters is your street, your price point, and your timeline.
And right now, in August 2026, the answer for most people is: don't wait. The market isn't going to get dramatically easier or harder in the next sixty days. It's just going to keep doing what it's been doing, which is rewarding the people who make a decision and move.
Katrina Kirton Sherrod, REALTOR® · Samson Properties · Licensed in MD, DC, PA & DE · 443-616-9770 · Katrina@kkstherealtor.com
“The best time to buy a home was five years ago. The second best time is after we talk.” — Every honest realtor, eventually