Washington County's August numbers came in this week and they resolve some of the ambiguity July left behind. The median sale price landed at $520,000, down 2.67% from $534,250 in August 2025, and 295 homes closed against 359 a year earlier, a drop of 17.8%. July had the median rising while closings fell, which is the sort of split that makes a market read like noise. August moved both measures the same direction.
The average fell faster than the median, and that matters
The average sale price dropped from $664,447 to $635,895, a steeper slide than the median took. When the mean falls faster than the middle, the usual explanation is compositional rather than directional. The upper end of the market transacted less, which pulls the average down without every individual home losing value. In our county that reads as the luxury tier taking a month off, and 32 of the 295 August closings were at $1,000,000 or more, roughly one in nine.
This distinction is worth making out loud with sellers. A homeowner who reads "average sale price down $28,000" and assumes their house lost $28,000 is going to price defensively or pull the listing altogether. The median is the better instrument for a specific house in a specific price band.
Absorption barely moved, which complicates the easy narrative
Active listings finished August at 1,886, up 4.4% from 1,807 a year ago. That sounds like inventory building, and it is, but months of supply came in at 5.21 against 5.24 last August. Essentially flat. New listings were also slightly down year over year, 577 against 587.
So the inventory increase is not sellers rushing for the exit. It is closings falling while listing volume holds steady. Those are different conditions with different implications, and the second one is far less fragile than the first.
Median days on market was 53, average 77. Well-prepared homes in the middle of the market are still transacting on a normal timeline. The spread between the median and the average is where the overpriced inventory lives.
How I am using this on listing appointments
- Lead with the median for the subject property's price band, not the county average.
- Show the 60-day closed comps before showing any active competition, because active list prices are aspirations and closed prices are facts.
- Name the 17.8% closing decline directly rather than letting the seller discover it later. Sellers handle a hard number better than they handle being managed.
- Use the flat absorption rate against "I will just wait for spring." Supply is not collapsing and it is not spiking.
Year to date we are at 2,922 closings countywide at a $527,900 median, so the annual picture is steadier than any single month suggests. Every figure here comes from the Washington County MLS market summary I pulled on September 1, 2026.
I publish this breakdown monthly with city by city numbers for St. George, Washington City, Hurricane, Ivins, Santa Clara and Cedar City. The full report lives at the St. George market summary.
Lance Clifford, Lance Clifford & Associates, KW Ascend Keller Williams, St. George, Utah. 435-200-5508.
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