Luxury Home Prices Slip as the Entry Point Falls to $1.2 Million, Its 30th Straight Annual Decline, While Top-Tier Homes Sell Faster

Franklin, Tenn. — October 15, 2026

Luxury home prices in the United States slipped again in September, as the price at which a home counts as luxury extended a two-and-a-half-year slide, but buyers at the top of the market are moving faster than they were a year ago, according to new data from Realtor.com.

Luxury home prices by tier

The national luxury threshold, defined as the 90th percentile of listing prices, was $1,199,321 in September, down 3.6% from a year earlier and 0.1% from August, Realtor.com said in its September Luxury Housing Report, released Oct. 14. It was the 30th consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The threshold is the lowest since January 2023 and sits 14.1% below its May 2023 peak of roughly $1.40 million. The declines extend higher up the ladder: the 95th-percentile price fell 3.5% to $1,885,731, and the 99th-percentile price, which Realtor.com calls ultraluxury, fell 5.3% to $5,128,119.

Luxury homes sell faster

Lower prices have not meant slower sales. Listings at the 90th percentile spent a median of 76 days on the market in September, three days fewer than a year earlier, and listings at the 95th and 99th percentiles also sold three days faster, at 86 and 100 days. The typical listing nationwide sat for 61 days, unchanged from last September. "Luxury prices keep drifting lower, but buyers haven't gone quiet. Homes are selling faster than a year ago in every tier," Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith said, as quoted by Inman.

Supply at the top has grown more slowly than the market as a whole. The number of million-dollar listings rose 1.2% from a year earlier while total active listings rose 5.4%, so million-dollar homes made up 12.5% of listings, down half a percentage point. Closed-sale data point the same way. Inman reported that National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said sales of homes priced at $1 million or more rose 4% from a year earlier in September, the only price band to post an annual gain. Overall existing-home sales ran at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.99 million, down 2.2% from a year earlier, NAR said on Oct. 13.

The broader market has softened more. Realtor.com's September housing trends report found that 20.8% of listings had a price reduction, the highest share in a single month since October 2022, and that the national median list price fell 1.4% to $419,250. The number of homes under contract was 4.1% below a year earlier.

Williamson County follows the national pattern

Middle Tennessee's priciest county has followed the national pattern of loosening supply. Williamson County closed September sales at an average of $1,294,033 and a median of $950,000, according to Realtracs data compiled by Nashville broker Grant Hammond of Compass. The county's months of supply rose from 4.01 in June to 5.33 in September, which Hammond described as a shift for Franklin and Brentwood sellers from a scarce market to a balanced one. Davidson County's average sale price fell from $730,085 in June to $642,502 in September, though Hammond cautioned that a single month of a county average is volatile.

Jumbo loan rates and financing

Financing at this end of the market often falls outside conforming loan limits. Loans above the 2026 national conforming limit of $832,750 are classified as jumbo mortgages. In the week ended Oct. 9, the Mortgage Bankers Association put the average contract rate on a 30-year jumbo loan at 7.49%, with 0.70 point, nearly identical to the 7.50% average on conforming balances. Freddie Mac has noted that adjustable-rate mortgages remain most popular among higher-balance, nonconforming loans, and MBA reported that the ARM share of all applications rose to 10.5% that week, the highest since October 2025. With jumbo and conforming averages a hundredth of a point apart in the MBA survey, loan size alone carried little rate penalty that week, leaving price, down payment and loan structure as the larger variables for upper-tier buyers.

Sources

• Realtor.com Economic Research, Anthony Smith, "September 2026 Luxury Housing Report," Oct. 14, 2026: https://www.realtor.com/research/september-2026-luxury/
• Inman, Jessi Healey, "Luxury list prices hit 3-year low as higher-end homes sell fastest," Oct. 14, 2026: https://www.inman.com/2026/10/14/luxury-housing-market-list-prices-3-year-low/
• National Association of Realtors, "Existing-Home Sales Increased 1.5% in September, According to NAR Report," Oct. 13, 2026: https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/existing-home-sales-increased-1-5-in-september-according-to-nar-report
• Realtor.com Economic Research, Jake Krimmel, "September 2026 Monthly Housing Trends," Sept. 30, 2026: https://www.realtor.com/research/september-2026-data/
• Grant Hammond, "Middle Tennessee Real Estate Market Update September 2026" (Realtracs MLS, report date Oct. 4, 2026): https://www.granthammond.com/market-analysis/nashville-housing-market/middle-tennessee-real-estate-market-update-september-2026/
• Mortgage Bankers Association, "Mortgage Applications Decrease in Latest MBA Weekly Survey," Oct. 14, 2026: https://www.mba.org/news-and-research/newsroom/news/2026/10/14/mortgage-applications-decrease-in-latest-mba-weekly-survey
• Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey and FAQs: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms