San Diego County’s housing market split in two this year. Detached houses got scarcer and more expensive while condos and townhomes got easier to buy, and the countywide average hides both halves. August 2026 is where the gap became impossible to miss.
Data as of September 2026. Prices and market conditions change, so we refresh the numbers in this post as new data comes in.
all property types
countywide
accepted offer
list price
Source: Greater San Diego Association of REALTORS® (SDAR) Monthly Indicators, August 2026, published September 5, 2026. San Diego County, all property types.
What is the San Diego housing market doing right now?
San Diego County is still a seller’s market, with 2.9 months of supply in August 2026 and homes selling at 97.8% of original list price (SDAR, August 2026). A balanced market is usually described as five to six months of supply, so 2.9 is tight by any normal standard. Homes moved a little faster than a year ago too, going pending in an average of 38 days versus 41.
That county number is an average of two segments behaving nothing alike, and nobody shops in the average.
Houses got tighter. Condos got easier.
Detached houses in San Diego County ran 2.3 months of supply in August 2026 while condos and townhomes sat at 4.0 (SDAR, August 2026). Detached inventory fell 20.7% year over year to 2,883 homes. Attached inventory rose 4.6% to 2,767. Those two counts are nearly level now, and a year ago houses outnumbered attached homes by almost a thousand.
New listings explain most of the split. Sellers brought 7.5% more condos and townhomes to market in August 2026 and 2.9% fewer houses (SDAR, August 2026). Plenty of house owners are sitting on a mortgage in the threes and have no interest in trading it for one in the sixes.
Source: SDAR Monthly Indicators, August 2026. Detached and attached figures are reported separately by SDAR and are not blended here.
Where do mortgage rates stand?
The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.76% for the week ending September 10, 2026, and the 15-year fixed averaged 6.09%, according to the Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey. Rates have edged up three weeks running, from 6.66 to 6.71 to 6.76%. That’s a small move in absolute terms, and the direction tends to matter more than the size, because a few weeks of drift is usually what pushes fence-sitting buyers to either move or stop looking.
Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending September 10, 2026. PMMS reports national averages, not San Diego rates, and your actual rate depends on your lender, credit profile and loan structure.
What the split means for you
If you’re buying
Condo and townhome buyers have real negotiating room right now. Attached homes averaged 44 days on market and 97.2% of original list price in August 2026, against 35 days and 98.0% for detached (SDAR, August 2026). One honest tradeoff comes with it. Read the HOA documents carefully before deciding the discount is free money, since older central San Diego buildings sometimes carry special assessments for roofs, plumbing or seismic work. Start with San Diego homes for sale to see what’s active.
If you’re selling
Sellers with a detached house are listing into the tighter half of the market, with detached inventory down 20.7% year over year (SDAR, August 2026). Fewer competing listings is a genuine advantage. Condo and townhome sellers have the harder job and need to price right in the first week, because a listing that sits and then chases the market down almost always nets less than one priced correctly on day one. Get a real number on our San Diego sell my home page, or run a quick home valuation to start.
What this looks like in central San Diego
Central San Diego neighborhood medians swing hard because the samples are small. North Park’s median sale price was $859,701 over the three months ending June 2026 and Kensington’s was $1,437,806 over the three months ending August 2026, both down year over year (Redfin). Neither figure means those neighborhoods lost value. Redfin’s neighborhood medians mix all home types together, so a quarter with more condos closing pulls the median down even when every house held its price, and Kensington’s number rests on just 19 sales.
Every central neighborhood has its own supply picture, so it’s worth looking at yours directly.
Sources: Redfin neighborhood market data for North Park (June 2026) and Kensington (August 2026). Redfin neighborhood medians cover all home types combined on a rolling three-month basis, so they are not directly comparable to SDAR’s monthly county figures.
Homes for sale in San Diego right now
This list updates itself as homes come on and go pending. You can also see what’s open this weekend on our San Diego open houses page.
San Diego housing market FAQ
Is it a good time to buy a house in San Diego right now?
It depends which segment you’re buying in. San Diego County condos and townhomes carried 4.0 months of supply in August 2026 and took an average of 44 days to go pending, while detached houses carried 2.3 months and went pending in 35 days (SDAR, August 2026). Condo buyers have meaningfully more negotiating room than house buyers at the moment.
What is the median home price in San Diego in 2026?
San Diego County’s median sale price across all property types was $965,000 in August 2026, up 7.1% from August 2025 (SDAR, August 2026). Detached houses had a median of $1,120,000 and condos and townhomes had a median of $670,000. Those three numbers describe different things, so it’s worth being specific about which one you mean.
Is San Diego a buyer’s market or a seller’s market?
San Diego County had 2.9 months of supply in August 2026, well below the five-to-six-month range typically called balanced, so the county overall still favors sellers (SDAR, August 2026). The condo and townhome segment at 4.0 months is closer to balanced than the detached segment at 2.3 months. A single label doesn’t fit both halves of this market right now.
How long does it take to sell a house in San Diego?
Homes in San Diego County went pending in an average of 38 days in August 2026, down from 41 days in August 2025 (SDAR, August 2026). Detached houses averaged 35 days and condos and townhomes averaged 44. Those figures measure time to an accepted offer, not time to close, so add roughly 30 more days for escrow on a typical financed sale.
Written by Patrick Mercer. Patrick is a San Diego native and the team leader of Mercer Group Real Estate at Keller Williams La Jolla (CA DRE #01964971), specializing in the central San Diego neighborhoods.
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