The Washington metro area is the only part of the Mid-Atlantic region where home sales prices are projected to decline next year.
In a forecast issued Wednesday (Dec. 3), multiple-listing service Bright MLS predicts the median sales price of homes sold in the D.C. region in 2026 will drop 1% to $616,700, following a projected 3% increase in 2025.
“Ongoing uncertainty around the federal government suggests weaker demand in the Washington D.C. metro,” the forecast suggests. “More affordable markets [across the Mid-Atlantic] are expected to see stronger sales and faster home price growth in 2026.”
Analysts added:
“The Mid-Atlantic housing market is traditionally more stable than other regions. Like most markets across the country, the Mid-Atlantic housing market will move towards a more balanced market in 2026. However, still-low inventory will make the region’s housing market more competitive and sellers will still have an advantage in many local markets across the region.”
Bright MLS’s coverage area includes about 70 cities and counties incorporating all or parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Its projections for broader coverage areas beyond D.C.:
- The median sales price in 2026 for the Philadelphia metro area is expected to be $400,360, up 2.8% from 2025
- The median sales price for the Baltimore area is expected to be $412,110, up 2.5%
- The median sales price for north-central Virginia is expected to be $505,980, up 1.5%
- The median sales price for the Maryland/West Virginia Panhandle is expected to be $320,580, up 1.9%
- The median sales price for the Delmarva coastal area is expected to be $425,450 up 2.1%
- The median price for Maryland’s Eastern Shore is expected to be $459,710, up 2.1%
- The median price for central Pennsylvania is expected to be $308,030, up 3.1%
Across the entire Mid-Atlantic, the median sales price is anticipated to be $436,270 in 2026, up 2.6%.
The 2026 rates of home-price growth are projected to be lower than 2025 in all areas except the Delmarva peninsula, where the 2.1% growth rate in 2026 is expected to exceed the projected rate of 1.6% in 2025.
Nationally, the median sale price of $417,600 in 2026 is expected to rise 0.9% from 2025.
While median sales prices are expected to decline slightly in the D.C. region, total sales are expected to rise 9.6% to 55,650.
Year-over-year sales increases are expected in each of the other areas of the Mid-Atlantic, with double-digit growth anticipated in central Pennsylvania (+15%), Philadelphia (+10.8%) and the Eastern Shore (+10.6%).
“We are expecting more home sales in 2026 because of lower mortgage rates, which are projected to fall to an average of 6.15% by the end of 2026, as well as more inventory coming onto the market,” Bright MLS analysts say.
