Atlanta Housing Market Update: September 2026

Every month I break down the Atlanta housing market using GAMLS InfoSparks data for the 12 Atlanta Core Counties: Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, Paulding, and Rockdale. I’m a Realtor with Compass and I’ve spent more than 17 years selling homes across metro Atlanta, so the goal here is simple: give you the real numbers, explain what’s driving them, and tell you what I’d actually do with them as a buyer or a seller.

This is the September 2026 report, published in October.

Prefer to watch?Atlanta Home Sales Hit a 13-Year LOW (Here’s Why)October 2026 · 25 min · the same month on video

What happened in Atlanta’s housing market in September 2026?

Here’s September in two numbers. The median single family home in Atlanta sold for $420,000, exactly the same as a year ago. And the mortgage on that same home now costs about $237 more a month.

That’s the tension running through everything else in this report. Prices didn’t move. Rates did. September was the first full month where buyers were writing contracts at a one-year-high rate, and you can see the effect in how fast homes sold, how many sat, and how much sellers gave up to close.

What you won’t see is the single-family median falling. That’s the part most people get wrong about a slower market. In Atlanta right now, the discount shows up in price cuts and closing-cost help, not in the median.

How are mortgage rates affecting Atlanta home buyers?

Freddie Mac has the 30-year fixed rate at 7.28% for the week of October 1, 2026. That’s the highest reading in twelve months and nearly a full point above last year’s 6.34%. In mid-September it was 6.95%, so a good part of the climb happened during the month itself.

Here’s what that means on a real house. On a $420,000 home with 10% down, principal and interest run about $2,350 a month at last year’s rate and $2,586 at today’s. That’s roughly $2,800 more per year for the same house at the same price.

The 10-year Treasury, which mortgage rates tend to follow, is at 5.24%, just under its own one-year high of 5.29%. So nothing in the bond market is pulling rates lower yet.

So how did buyers respond? They kept showing up. Total showings across the 12 counties rose 7.7% to 46,039. But that’s mostly because there were more homes to see. Each single family resale listing drew about 2.5 showings a month, the same as last September and down a little bit from 2.6 the year before.

What changed is how many of those showings turned into contracts. On today’s count, pending sales fell 30.2%. I want to be careful with that number. This data was pulled three days after the month ended, and pending sales are always the slowest figure to settle, because some agents report late. When I measured July at the same early stage, single family pendings came in 26.6% below where they eventually finished. If September fills in the same way, the true decline is closer to 12%.

Closed sales came in at 3,913, down 16%. On current counts, that’s the fewest for any September since GAMLS began tracking in 2013. Total dollar volume was $2.0 billion, down 13.4%.

What are Atlanta home prices and inventory right now?

Here’s where prices stand on a rolling 12-month basis:

• Single family: $420,000, flat year over year
• Townhouse: $365,000, down 1.4%
• Condo: $285,000, down 1.7%

New construction single family homes have a median of $465,000, about $50,000 above resale homes at $415,000.

Inventory is where the market is clearly loosening. There are 21,830 active listings across all property types, up 7.0% from a year ago and the most for any September since 2015. At the same time, new listings fell 8.2% to 7,962. Fewer homeowners are listing. The homes already on the market just aren’t selling fast enough to clear.

A good way to see it is active listings per closing.

Months of supply for resale tells the same story by property type:

• Single family: 3.7 months. Balanced. Homes average 48 days on market and sell for 98.1% of list.
• Townhouse: 5.1 months, up from 4.3. Active townhouse listings are up 15.5%, and days on market rose to 56.
• Condo: 7.2 months, up from 6.1. That’s a buyer’s market, with 69 days on market and sales at 96.7% of list.

Which Atlanta counties are the strongest and weakest markets?

Broken down by county, the single family resale picture varies a lot.

Cobb County is the tightest market in metro Atlanta again, with 2.9 months of supply and 41 days on market, the lowest of all 12 counties on both. The median is $465,000.

Forsyth County has the highest median at $615,000, down 3.1% from a year ago.

Clayton County remains the most affordable, with a median of $240,000.

Rockdale County carries the most supply at 5.0 months, and it’s the only county where closings rose from last September, though on a small base of 68 sales.

Douglas County is the slowest, at 57 days on market.

Fulton County’s median rose 9.9% to $555,000. I’d read that carefully. It reflects more sales in pricier in-town and north Fulton neighborhoods, not a 10% price increase across the county.

At the city level, South Fulton posted the biggest single family price gain at +10.6%, while Stone Mountain saw the largest decline at -8.4%. And by zip code, homes in 30338 (Dunwoody) sold in a median of just 4 days, while 30052 (Loganville) took 86.

What should Atlanta home sellers do in this market?

First, the buyers haven’t disappeared. Your listing will still get looked at. It just has to convince someone paying 7.28%.

Second, half your competition has already adjusted. 50.1% of active single family resale listings have cut their price, by an average of 6.0%. On a $420,000 home, that’s about $25,000.

Third, plan for closing costs. Sellers paid toward the buyer’s closing costs on 68.6% of resale single family closings over the past year, with a median contribution of $8,250 when they did.

And watch the failed listings. 4,120 listings expired or were withdrawn in September, up 2.9% from last year. Across the metro, 52% of single family listings that left the market in September did so without selling. Pricing right the first time is the cheapest way to avoid becoming part of that number.

What should Atlanta home buyers do in this market?

Prices haven’t climbed, and your negotiating leverage is real, especially on townhouses and condos, where supply has been building all year and listings are sitting longer.

The payment is the real hurdle. So think beyond the purchase price. Seller-paid closing costs can be used toward a rate buydown, and at 7.28%, those dollars often lower your monthly payment more than the same amount taken off the price. With two out of three sellers already contributing, it’s a reasonable ask.

What should you watch in Atlanta housing this fall?

1. How far September pending sales revise. They’re down 30% on a very early count. If they follow July’s pattern, they’ll settle closer to 12%.
2. Whether mortgage rates hold at 7.28%. With the 10-year Treasury near its one-year high, there’s no sign of relief yet.
3. Townhouse supply crossing 6 months. At 5.1 months and rising, townhouses are one step from becoming a buyer’s market.

If you’re weighing a move in metro Atlanta and want to know what these numbers mean for your specific home or neighborhood, call or text me anytime. And if you’d like this update every month, it’s free on my YouTube channel and in The Richardson Report.

About the author

Terence Richardson is a Realtor with Compass and the founder of the Terence Richardson Group, which serves Metro Atlanta. He publishes Atlanta’s Housing Market Update every month on YouTube and in The Richardson Report.

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