Closed home sales across the Mid-Atlantic region served by Bright MLS rose 6.2% year-over-year in September with 18,607 homes. Last month’s sales increase pushed the 2025 year-to-date sales total ahead of the full year’s activity of 2024.
The number of new pending contracts was up by 0.5% from September 2024 while new listings were up 9.7% and the total number of active listings were up by 27%, marking the largest increase since April.
As the housing supply expanded, price growth slowed. The median sold price in the Bright MLS Mid-Atlantic region was $419,900, just 2.4% higher than last September, the slowest pace in over two years.
“Mortgage rates came down in August and early September which brought some buyers into the market,” said Lisa Sturtevant, Bright MLS chief economist. “Sellers are adjusting to a new market reality. Buyers now have more options and more negotiating power, and price trends are starting to reflect that shift.”
However, the region had one troubling corner in the Washington, DC metro area, where the housing market responded to the federal government’s shutdown. New pending sales in this market fell 3.3% year-over while the median days on market in September was 21 days, 10 days longer than last year. However, there were also 3,894 closed sales in September, a 4.4% increase over last year, and the regional median sold price at $600,500, up just 0.3% from a year ago.
“The Washington, DC area is showing us how sensitive the market is to broader economic and political uncertainty,” observed Sturevant. “In places where the federal government has a strong presence, such as DC, we’re already seeing the impact of the shutdown and job insecurity.”
Elsewhere in the region, the Philadelphia metro area recorded a 6.1% year-over-year increase in closed sales and a 2.0% uptick on new pending sales over the same period. The market’s inventory grew 14.4% to nearly 13,000 active listings at month’s end while the median sold price of $390,000 was up by 2.7% from September 2024.
In the Baltimore metro area, closed sales in September climbed 6.5% year-over-year, with 2,597 total sales, while the number of new pending sales was down 3.1% compared to one year earlier. New listings increased 6.1% and month-end inventory surged 31.7% year-over-year, while the median sold price in September was $400,000, virtually unchanged (+0.5%) the previous year.
