The San Antonio-area median sale price was $302,999 in September 2026, about 2% below a year earlier, according to the San Antonio Board of REALTORS® September release. A 2% dip is a small change, and a buyer could easily read it as a stable market.
A different line in the same release says more. In September, homes closed at an average of 92.4% of their original list price, after an average of 88 days on the market. The median records where prices ended up. The original-list ratio records how far they fell on the way there. Right now most of the price movement happens inside the listing period, between the first asking price and the signed contract. Someone watching only the median misses most of it.
Two months of the same pattern
The August and September numbers line up closely. That consistency is why the gap reads as a trend rather than a one-month blip.
| Metric | August 2026 | September 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $299,275 | $302,999 |
| Average days on market | 82, up 11% YoY | 88, up 11% YoY |
| Sold price vs. original list | 92.8% | 92.4% |
| Months of inventory | 5.87 | 5.95 |
| Pending sales | 2,575, down 8% YoY | 2,091, down 16% YoY |
The median stayed between about $299,000 and $303,000. At the same time, days on market kept climbing, the original-list ratio slipped, and pending sales fell faster. In the August release, SABOR itself described the 92.8% figure as "providing room for negotiation while reinforcing the importance of competitive pricing."
What 92.4% looks like on an actual listing
Because the ratio is an average, any single home can land well above or below it. Still, a simple illustration shows the scale.
- A home first listed at $325,000 that closed at the September average of 92.4% would sell for about $300,300. That's roughly $24,700 below its first asking price.
- At August's 92.8%, the same home would sell for about $301,600.
- Either way, the closing price sits right around the metro median. The asking price that pulled a buyer in sat well above it.
Most of that gap doesn't come from one round of hard bargaining at the kitchen table. It builds up over time. With homes averaging 88 days on the market in September, the typical listing has time for one or more price reductions before an offer arrives. A buyer who finds a home in its first week is looking at a price that, by the averages, still has room to come down. A buyer who finds the same home in week ten may be looking at a price that has already come down.
That changes what a listing's history is worth. Two homes with identical current asking prices can be in very different places. One may be newly listed and priced optimistically. The other may have been reduced twice and be sitting close to where the market has settled. The current number looks the same on both. The days on market and the reduction history are what separate them.
Why this number looks worse than the ones you've seen elsewhere
If you've been reading statewide coverage, you may have seen much tighter figures. The Texas Real Estate Research Center's September 2026 report puts the Texas median sale-to-list price ratio at 96.4% for July 2026, with a median seller price cut of $13,000.
Those figures don't contradict San Antonio's 92.4%. They measure different things. The TRERC number is a statewide median ratio for a different month. SABOR's number is a San Antonio-area average measured against the original list price, so every cut a seller made along the way is counted in the gap. A sale-to-list figure can look healthy even in a market where sellers are cutting prices regularly, because once a price comes down, the sale lands close to the lowered number. The original-list ratio is the one that records the price cuts.
For a San Antonio buyer or seller, the original-list figure answers the more useful question. It shows how far first asking prices are running from what buyers actually pay.
The Bexar County puzzle
The county breakdown adds a wrinkle. In September 2026, Bexar County single-family sales rose 6% from a year earlier to 1,839, while the county median fell 4.8% to $282,680, with 5.4 months of inventory. August showed the same pattern: Bexar sales were up 8.8% to 2,068, and the median was down 3.1% to $280,999.
More sales at lower prices can mean two different things, and the public data doesn't settle which one is happening.
- A change in which homes are selling. If a bigger share of this fall's closings came from lower-priced homes, the median falls even if no individual home lost value.
- Real price softening. Sellers who cut prices may be the ones getting deals done, and the extra volume may reflect buyers responding to those cuts.
Both explanations fit the numbers. What a buyer or seller can take from either one is the same. In the county with the most transactions, deals are closing at lower prices, and the year-over-year rise in sales came with that price drop.
What pending sales and rates point to next
Closed sales report on decisions made a month or two earlier. Pending sales are the closest public signal of what's coming. In September 2026, pendings dropped 16% to 2,091, while active listings rose 4% to 17,155 and new listings rose 3% to 4,172. Fewer contracts are being signed, and the supply of homes keeps growing.
Borrowing costs help explain the slowdown. Freddie Mac's Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed rate at 7.40% as of October 8, 2026, up from 7.28% the week before and from 6.30% a year earlier.
A rough illustration shows what that 1.1-point increase does. On a $280,000 loan, principal and interest come to about $1,733 a month at 6.30% and about $1,939 at 7.40%. That's a difference of roughly $200 a month before taxes and insurance. A buyer whose budget has a fixed monthly ceiling can afford less house at the higher rate. The price cuts that build up while homes sit on the market are one way prices adjust to that ceiling.
None of this predicts the October median. It does suggest the same pressures will still be in place when October and November closings are reported. Each month's report since the summer has shown longer listing times and a wider gap from original list.
How an appraiser reads a list price
This is where Melissa's 25 years of appraisal work come in. An appraisal is built from closed comparable sales: what buyers actually paid for similar homes nearby, adjusted for differences. Active asking prices may tell an appraiser something about where the market is heading, but they aren't evidence of value.
In a market where homes close at an average of 92.4% of original list, that difference matters on both sides.
- For a seller, an asking price set by looking at nearby active listings may be anchored to prices that will themselves be cut. A price built from recent closed sales starts closer to where buyers and lenders will end up. In the September release, SABOR's 2026 chair, Ed Zapata, made a similar point about current comparable sales and realistic asking prices.
- For a buyer, an offer is ultimately tested against the appraisal if the purchase is financed. An appraisal looks at the closed sales around a home, not its first asking price.
TPR's coverage of the August report quoted Zapata describing a market where buyers have more time and choice. In practice, that extra time shows up as a longer listing period and more room between the first asking price and the final one.
Frequently asked questions
Does 92.4% mean every San Antonio home sells for about 7.6% under asking? No. It's an average across all closed sales in September 2026. Some homes close at or above their original price, and some close far below it. The average is useful for seeing the overall direction, not for predicting a single sale.
Is there neighborhood or ZIP-level data on this gap? SABOR's public releases report metro and Bexar County figures. The Texas Real Estate Research Center says its detailed ZIP-level statistics are available only through the Texas REALTORS® MarketViewer portal. For a specific street or subdivision, the closed sales around a property tell you the most.
Why does the median look so stable if prices are being cut? The median is calculated from final sale prices, and price cuts happen before a sale closes. A home cut from $325,000 to $300,000 enters the median at $300,000 and looks like an ordinary sale. Only the original-list ratio records the cut.
If you're pricing a home this fall or weighing an offer on one that has been listed for a while, Melissa Boehringer can pull the closed comparable sales around that specific property and show you how close its current price is to the prices buyers have actually been paying. Schedule a free consultation to get an appraisal-informed read before you set a list price or make an offer.