Published November 1, 2026 in Market Update

More homes are for sale in Primary market, but contracts still lag

By The Mike Webb Team

Real estate, Primary market

The one fact that changes what you should do: more homes are sitting on the market at the same time fewer deals are closing. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 342 homes for sale across Arlington's five ZIP codes in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 18.8% from the same months of 2025. At the same time, homes sold fell 9.9% to 427. More sellers, fewer buyers. That gap is the whole story.

Pending sales tell the same story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 401 pending sales across the market, down 9.5% from a year before. Fewer signed contracts means sellers cannot count on the same speed or terms they got in 2025. New listings, at 498, rose 6.9%. More homes are coming in than going under contract.

That picture is not the same in every ZIP code. Some parts of Arlington are moving fast. Others are slowing down. The numbers below show how different each area looked in the three months ending August 31, 2026.

How each ZIP code stacked up

22205: a different market entirely

ZIP 22205 stood apart from the rest. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted just 0.9 months of supply there, down 0.2 months from 2025. The median sale price was $1,247,500, up 0.2% from a year before. Homes sold at 102.6% of list price on average, up 3.7 points. Half of all homes sold above list price. That is a 19.3-point jump from the same period in 2025. The median home went under contract in 21 days, 13 days faster than a year before.

That 70.8% figure is up 24 points from the same months of 2025, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Nearly 3 in 4 homes in 22205 went under contract within two weeks. That is a sharp contrast to what was happening across the rest of Arlington.

22204: inventory piled up, sales slowed

ZIP 22204 told the opposite story. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 130 homes for sale there, up 51.2% from 2025. Homes sold fell 16.3% to 113. Months of supply rose to 3.5, up 1.5 months from a year before. The median home sat on the market for 51 days, 12 days longer than in 2025. Pending sales fell 17.3% to 105. The share of homes that went under contract within two weeks dropped 14.1 points to 37.1%.

22206: prices dipped, but deals still closed

ZIP 22206 was the one area where the median sale price slipped. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put it at $592,000, down 0.5% from 2025. Homes for sale rose 26.7% to 57. Days on market stretched 8 days longer to 35. The share of homes sold above list fell 10.7 points to 22.2%. Still, pending sales in 22206 rose 12.7% to 71. That is a bright spot in an otherwise softer picture.

22201 and 22203: prices up, sales down

In ZIP 22201, the Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price at $727,500, up 16.5% from 2025. That is a strong gain. But homes sold fell 8.1% to 114, and pending sales fell 11.9% to 104. Homes for sale actually dipped 2.3% to 86. The share going under contract within two weeks fell 3.5 points to 41.4%.

In ZIP 22203, the median sale price rose 4.1% to $525,000. Homes sold fell 15% to 68, and pending sales fell 17% to 73. New listings rose 12.5% to 90. More homes came to market, but fewer found buyers. The share going under contract within two weeks jumped 17.3 points to 48%, which shows that well-priced homes still moved quickly.

What national numbers add to the picture

The slowdown in Arlington is not just local. The National Association of Realtors reported that existing-home sales nationally reached 3.99 million units in September 2026. Inventory nationally rose to 1.60 million homes. Freddie Mac put the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.24% as of October 29, 2026. That is a real cost for buyers, and it slows decisions.

Realtor.com reported that active inventory nationally rose 8.0% year over year as of the week ending October 24, 2026. The national median days on market was 64 days that same week. Arlington's fastest ZIP codes are well below that. But 22204's 51 days is closing in on that national figure.

One street can read very differently from the ZIP code around it. These numbers cover broad areas. Your block, your building or your street may be ahead of or behind what the data shows here. Reach out and I will tell you what is happening right where you are.