Somebody in your family has already looked this up. Probably late at night, probably on a phone, probably after the conversation about your mother's house went somewhere nobody meant for it to go. And whoever looked it up came back to the group text with a number: houses are selling in about a month right now.
That number is real. The National Association of Realtors published it six days ago, on August 11, and it says the median home that sold in July was on the market 29 days.
Here's the part that doesn't make the group text. Eight days before that, Realtor.com published its own July report, and its median days on market was 57.
Both numbers are correct. Nobody is spinning your family, and no agent who quotes you the first one is being dishonest. They're 28 days apart because they are counting two different sets of houses, and that gap is worth understanding before anyone in your family agrees to a date.
For about eight years I bought houses from families in transition, and the most useful thing I ever knew walking into a kitchen was which number the family already had in their head. I left that side of the table. What carried over is knowing how that number gets set, and it almost always gets set by whoever is standing closest to the sale.
So let's set yours on purpose.
What the Two July Reports Actually Said
The National Association of Realtors reported existing-home sales running at an annual rate of 4.06 million in July, down 1.7 percent from June and up 0.7 percent from a year earlier. The median price across all housing types was $434,100, up 2.0 percent from July 2025. Unsold inventory stood at 1.54 million units, a 4.6-month supply, unchanged from both the prior month and a year ago. Median time on market: 29 days, up from 28 in June and 28 a year earlier. Lawrence Yun, the association's chief economist, described sales as "remarkably stable, even amid the rising mortgage rate environment," with year-to-date sales up 2.4 percent.
Realtor.com's July Monthly Housing Trends Report, released August 3, describes the same month differently. Its median days on market was 57, four days longer than June and one day shorter than a year earlier. Its national median list price was $428,950, essentially flat against June but down 2.4 percent from a year ago, the ninth straight month of annual declines. Sellers cut the price on 20.0 percent of active listings in July, up 1.2 percentage points from June. Danielle Hale, the company's chief economist, called it "a market that is cooling seasonally, not coming apart."
Financing context, since it shapes every buyer looking at your parents' house: Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.67 percent on August 13, down from 6.69 percent the week before and up from 6.58 percent the same week last year.
None of those figures contradict each other. But if you set a family timeline using the first report and your parents' house behaves like the second one, you will spend September wondering what went wrong when nothing did.
The 29 Days Belongs Only to Houses That Already Sold
The Realtors' figure comes from its Realtors Confidence Index survey, which asks member agents about their most recent completed transactions. So it describes closings. It is a portrait of the winners, assembled after the fact.
Realtor.com's 57 days is measured across listings that were on the market during July, counted from the list date. That population includes the house that went under contract in eleven days and also the house that has been sitting since May with a new price and fresh photos.
Your parents' house is not in the first group yet. On the day you list it, it joins the second one. That is not pessimism, it's just which bucket you are actually standing in. A median of 29 days is a fact about houses that have already crossed the finish line, and it cannot tell you how long yours will take to get there.
This matters most for the houses families like yours are usually selling. A home that has been lived in for thirty years, with the original kitchen, a roof somewhere in its second decade, and a bathroom nobody has updated since the children moved out, is not the house driving a 29-day median. The 29-day median is being driven in large part by homes that show well on the first weekend.
Asking Prices and Sold Prices Are Moving in Opposite Directions
Look at the two price numbers side by side and the same lesson shows up again.
The Realtors reported a median sale price of $434,100 in July, up 2.0 percent from a year earlier. Realtor.com reported a median list price of $428,950, down 2.4 percent from a year earlier.
One measures what closed. The other measures what sellers are asking across everything currently for sale. When those move apart, it usually means the homes that are selling look different from the homes that are sitting, and the asking prices on what's sitting are being walked back.
The regional splits say the same thing in a smaller frame. In the South, which is where most families reading this live, the Realtors put the July median sale price at $371,700, up 0.9 percent from a year earlier, while Southern median list prices fell 2.5 percent over the same stretch. Meanwhile Southern sales dropped 3.1 percent from June to an annual rate of 1.86 million, level with July 2025.
So a headline saying prices are up is true. A headline saying prices are down is also true. Whichever one your brother saw first is now the number he is going to argue with at Thanksgiving.
What the Price Cuts Are Telling You
One in five active listings took a price cut in July. That is the number to actually plan around, because a price reduction is what a timeline problem looks like from the outside.
Nobody lists a house intending to reduce it. A price cut happens when a seller's expectation and the market's answer stopped matching, and the seller ran out of patience before the buyer did. Twenty percent of sellers hit that point in a single month.
For a family selling a parent's home, that pressure lands harder than it does on a typical seller. If your mother has already moved into assisted living, the house is costing you every month it sits. Taxes, insurance, utilities, lawn care, and a vacant-home insurance rider that costs more than the policy she used to have. That monthly bleed is what turns a patient family into a family that accepts a lowball offer in week nine. It is also precisely the pressure that made my old business work, and the cash buyer knocking on that door in week nine knows the arithmetic better than you do.
Cash still made up 26 percent of July transactions, down from 31 percent a year earlier. Individual investors and second-home buyers accounted for 14 percent, down from 20 percent. The cash-buyer share is shrinking. It has not disappeared, and it never shows up early. It shows up when a house has been sitting.
What To Do With This
Ask which number you're being quoted
When an agent tells you homes are moving in about a month, that is almost certainly the sold-homes median, and it's a fair thing to say. Ask the follow-up anyway: what's the median for listings currently on the market in this ZIP code, in this price band, at this condition level? A good agent has that number or can pull it in ten minutes. The answer changes your calendar more than anything else in the conversation.
Get the number for the house, not the country
A national median blends a $622,200 median sale price in the West with $342,900 in the Midwest. It has nothing to do with your parents' street. Ask for the last six months of sold comparables within a mile, and ask specifically for the ones that needed work, because those are the honest comparison for a house that hasn't been updated in twenty years.
Build the calendar off the slower number
If you plan around 57 days on market plus roughly a month to close, you have a realistic window and you can carry it without panic. If you plan around 29 days and it takes 90, every week past day 30 feels like failure, and families that feel like they're failing take the first offer that ends the feeling. Plan slow, be pleasantly surprised, and never let the calendar be the thing that makes the decision.
Decide readiness before you decide price
The market numbers cannot tell you whether your family is ready to sell. They can only tell you what happens after you decide. If your parent's care situation isn't settled, if the siblings aren't aligned, if the power of attorney isn't in place, none of that gets better because inventory sits at a 4.6-month supply. Settle those first. The market will still be there.
Do the condition work on your timeline
The single strongest lever you have over which bucket your parents' house lands in is condition, and condition takes months, not days. A roof, a repaired soffit, a decluttered garage, and fresh paint are all things you can do calmly this fall for a fraction of what a buyer will demand off the price for them next spring. Do them before anybody's clock is running, not after.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to sell a house in 2026?
It depends on which measurement you use. The National Association of Realtors reported a median 29 days on market for homes that sold in July 2026, while Realtor.com reported a median 57 days across listings on the market that month. The first counts only completed sales; the second includes homes still waiting. For planning a family timeline, the longer figure is the safer basis, and you should still add roughly a month for closing.
Why do the Realtors and Realtor.com report different days on market?
Because they count different houses. The Realtors figure comes from its Realtors Confidence Index survey of agents' most recent closed transactions, so it describes homes that already sold. Realtor.com measures listings that were on the market during the month, from the list date forward, which includes homes that are still sitting. Neither is wrong, and neither one on its own predicts a specific house.
Are home prices going up or down right now?
Both, depending on what you measure. The National Association of Realtors put the July 2026 median sale price at $434,100, up 2.0 percent from a year earlier. Realtor.com put the median list price at $428,950, down 2.4 percent from a year earlier and the ninth consecutive month of annual declines. Sale prices reflect what closed; list prices reflect what sellers are currently asking.
Should we wait for a better market to sell my parents' house?
The market is usually the wrong variable to wait on, because you cannot control it and nobody reliably calls its turns. Readiness is the variable you can control: care arrangements settled, legal documents in place, siblings agreed, and the property's condition addressed. A house sold from a position of readiness generally beats a house sold into a slightly better market from a position of chaos.
What happens if my parents' house sits on the market too long?
Carrying costs keep running, which is the real risk. Taxes, insurance, utilities, and yard maintenance continue every month a vacant house sits, and vacant-home coverage often costs more than a standard policy. That pressure is what leads to price cuts, which happened on 20.0 percent of active listings in July 2026, and it's what brings cash buyers to the door with an offer built around the family's fatigue rather than the home's value.
About Ryan Riggins
Ryan Riggins is a senior transition advisor and former house flipper. After 8+ years buying homes from families in transition, he walked away from the cash-buyer side to help families avoid the $50K mistakes he used to profit from. Based in Greensboro, NC. NC Real Estate License #361546, eXp Realty. Founder of Riggins Strategic Solutions and the SeniorSafe app.
Want to know what the sale would actually net? The free Net Proceeds Calculator shows what's left after commission, repairs, payoff, and closing costs: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/tools/net-proceeds-calculator
Want a step-by-step guide? The Senior Transition Blueprint is free, all 20 modules and 69 tools: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/the-blueprint
Not sure where your family stands? The free Family Readiness Score takes five minutes and shows the gaps across the home, the money, the legal documents, care, and family alignment: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/tools/family-readiness-score
Need a personalized plan? The Senior Transition Roadmap is free, by application. It adds calls with Ryan and 90 days of email support: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/the-roadmap
Selling a parent's home? Ryan finds and vets the right local agent for your situation and stays in your corner on the whole sale, at no added cost to your family: rigginsstrategicsolutions.com/in-your-corner
Coordinate the family in one place. SeniorSafeApp keeps daily check-ins, medications, and documents where the whole family can see them: seniorsafeapp.com
Sources
All sources checked August 17, 2026.
National Association of Realtors, "NAR Existing-Home Sales Report Shows 1.7% Decrease in July," released August 11, 2026 (nar.realtor). The 4.06 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the 1.7 percent monthly decline and 0.7 percent annual increase, the $434,100 median price across all housing types and its 2.0 percent annual increase, total housing inventory of 1.54 million units, the 4.6-month supply unchanged from the prior month and a year earlier, median time on market of 29 days up from 28 days in June and 28 days a year earlier, first-time buyers at 29 percent of sales, cash sales at 26 percent of transactions down from 31 percent a year earlier, individual investors and second-home buyers at 14 percent down from 20 percent a year earlier, the South's 3.1 percent monthly sales decline to a 1.86 million annual rate and its $371,700 median price up 0.9 percent from July 2025, the West median of $622,200, the Midwest median of $342,900, the Northeast median of $563,800, and the Lawrence Yun quotation on sales stability and year-to-date sales up 2.4 percent.
National Association of Realtors, Realtors Confidence Index Survey methodology (nar.realtor). The survey collects information from member agents about their most recent completed transactions in the month, which is why its days-on-market figure describes homes that sold.
Realtor.com Research, "July 2026 Monthly Housing Trends Report," released August 3, 2026. The median 57 days on market, four days longer than June and one day shorter than a year earlier; the $428,950 national median list price, essentially unchanged from June and down 2.4 percent year over year in a ninth consecutive month of annual declines; price reductions on 20.0 percent of active listings, up 1.2 percentage points from June and down 0.6 percentage points from a year earlier; regional median list price changes of down 3.9 percent in the West, down 2.5 percent in the South, down 1.4 percent in the Northeast and up 0.2 percent in the Midwest; and the Danielle Hale quotation. Realtor.com's published methodology calculates median days on market across listings in the month from the list date to the closing, pending, or off-market date.
Freddie Mac, Primary Mortgage Market Survey, weekly series MORTGAGE30US as published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (fred.stlouisfed.org). The 30-year fixed-rate average of 6.67 percent for the week ended August 13, 2026, 6.69 percent for the week ended August 6, 2026, and 6.58 percent for the comparable week in August 2025.
Education, not advice. Every figure above is a national or regional median describing many thousands of transactions, and none of it forecasts what a specific house will sell for or how long it will take. Local conditions, price band, and property condition move individual outcomes far more than any national number. Talk to a licensed local professional about your own situation.
