What Waiting Cost Sellers in September

Three neighboring homes in Pfafftown, all built around the same time, tell most of September's story. One came on the market this summer, went under contract in seven days, and sold for $505,000. The other two each took about three months and two price reductions to sell. Together they closed for $175,000 less than where they started.

Nothing was wrong with those two houses. What separated them from the one next door was where they started on price, and how long they sat because of it. September gave us an unusually clear look at what that time costs a seller in Pfafftown right now. Then, after the month's sales were already locked in, mortgage rates jumped, which raises the question of whether that cost is about to go up. If you would rather watch than read, this month's market update video is at the top of this page. What follows goes a little deeper into what the numbers mean for homeowners here.

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Market Snapshot

These are the September 2026 numbers for Pfafftown. Several of them look more dramatic than they are, and I'll explain why below.

• New listings: 29, up from 26 last September (about 12%). Eight of the 29 were a single investor's package of rental homes.
• Closed sales: 12, down from 19 last September (about 37%).
• Median sales price, rolling 12 months: $341,000, up from $335,000 in August (1.8%) and from $326,000 a year ago (4.6%).
• Median days on market, rolling 90 days: 22, up from 17 in August and down from 24 last September.
• Months of supply: 4.6 for September, compared with 3.2 last September. The rolling 90-day figure is 3.5, up from 3.0 in August.
• Homes that went under contract in September: 19. There are 21 under contract today.
• Seller-paid closing costs: 9 of the 12 sales.

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Homes Sold in Pfafftown, NC — September 2026

Swipe left to view the full table on mobile.  

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What three neighbors showed us about price

The home that sold in a week needs little explanation. It came on the market at a price buyers recognized as right, and it was under contract in seven days at $505,000. The house beside it is almost exactly the same size. It had been listed since April at about $495,000, and it was still for sale when its neighbor came and went. It took 108 days and two price reductions before it closed in September at $410,000. The third home, a smaller one-level, started at about $395,000. Ninety days and two reductions later, it closed on the same day at $305,000. That is $85,000 and $90,000 below where each one began. The gap between asking price and final price is only part of the lesson. The sequence matters more. In my experience, a price reduction rarely brings back the buyers who passed on a home in its first weeks. By the time the first reduction arrives, they have moved on to something newer. By the second, the listing has been around long enough that it no longer gets a fresh look. From there a seller is following the market down. The home next door never had that problem, because it met buyers where they were on the first day. This was not limited to one street. Across all of September's sales, the homes that took more than 60 days to go under contract sold for about 10% less than the homes that sold in two weeks or less. On a $400,000 home, that is $40,000. Those are different houses, so I would not treat 10% as a fixed penalty. But I have been seeing the same pattern in other parts of Forsyth County, and I believe it reflects how buyers are behaving. A home gets its closest attention in its first two weeks. After that, buyers stop asking how quickly they need to move and start asking what is wrong with it.

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The middle of the market went missing

Of the 12 homes that closed in September, four went under contract in 12 days or less. One took about four weeks. The other seven had been on the market for more than seven weeks, and some of those for four and five months. Compare that with August, when ten sales fell in the ordinary two-to-six-week range. In September, one did. Last month I was watching to see whether that normal middle would hold. It did not. What we have instead is a market that sorts homes into three groups. New listings that are priced and prepared well sell in days. Homes that sat and then lowered their price sell at a discount. And homes that sat without adjusting are still for sale. That third group is a large part of current inventory. More than half of the homes on the market in Pfafftown have been listed for over six weeks, and about three out of four of those listed more than a month have already reduced their price at least once. This also explains the days-on-market figure. The rolling 90-day median rose from 17 days to 22, which sounds like a slowdown. But September's quick sales went under contract in zero, five, seven, and twelve days, as fast as anything from the summer. The median moved because seven long-listed homes finally closed in the same month. And at 22 days, the typical Pfafftown home is still selling slightly faster than it did a year ago, when the figure was 24.

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Three numbers that look bigger than they are

September produced three statistics that could each make a headline, and each one deserves some context. Closed sales fell about 37% from last September. But August was unusually strong, with 27 closings. Average the two months and Pfafftown is selling 19 or 20 homes a month, which is where we were a year ago. Some of September's sales simply closed early. Months of supply rose to 4.6 from 3.2 a year ago, which reads as though inventory surged. Months of supply is the number of homes for sale divided by the number that sold that month, so a slow sales month pushes it up even if little else changes. Measure today's inventory against last September's sales pace and the answer is about three months, close to where we were. The rolling 90-day figure, which smooths out single-month swings, did rise from 3.0 to 3.5. I had hoped to see it level off this fall. I think most of the increase traces back to one slow closing month, but it is a number I will keep watching. The rolling 12-month median price moved to $341,000 after three straight months at exactly $335,000. That changed because of which homes sold. Almost half of August's sales were under $300,000. In September only a quarter were, and one sale closed above $1 million. The same thing is behind the year-over-year comparison. Two months ago that comparison showed Pfafftown prices down 2.6%. Last month it was down 0.6%. This month it is up 4.6%. Home values did not fall in July and recover by September. A group of higher-priced sales from last year dropped out of the calculation, and the comparison flipped. My read is that Pfafftown values are steady. They were steady when the comparison said prices were down, and they are steady now that it says they are up.

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The question September's numbers cannot answer

Everything above describes decisions buyers made weeks ago. Ten of the 12 homes that closed in September went under contract in August. Since then, mortgage rates have moved from the high sixes to the mid sevens, a stretch that included the largest weekly jump since 2022. On a $300,000 loan, that adds roughly $180 to the monthly payment for the same house at the same price. So far, Pfafftown buyers have kept buying. Nineteen homes went under contract in September, and 12 of those came in the second half of the month, when rates were already climbing. That is encouraging. I do not know yet whether it holds. Most of those contracts are still in due diligence, which means the buyer can still walk away, and a buyer whose payment just rose by $180 a month has a reason to reconsider. There are 21 homes under contract in Pfafftown right now. How many of them close will tell us more about the direction of this market than any figure in this column, and I will report that number next month. It matters for sellers because of everything September showed. Starting high and waiting was expensive this summer, before rates moved. If payments stay higher, buyers will have even less room to stretch for a home priced ahead of the market.

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What This Market Actually Feels Like

The facts are these: well-priced homes are still selling in days, long-listed homes are selling at meaningful discounts, and sellers contributed to the buyer's closing costs in 9 of September's 12 sales. What follows is my own interpretation of what sits behind those facts. Buyers in Pfafftown are active, but they are selective in a way they were not a couple of years ago. They compare every listing to everything else available, including homes that have been sitting and, near new construction, what the builders are offering. When a home is clearly priced right and ready to show, they still move quickly and pay full price. When it is not, they have enough choices to wait, and they know it. For sellers, that makes the first two weeks the most valuable time a listing will ever have, and it only happens once. The sellers doing well right now are pricing from what is selling today, rather than from a sale two years ago, an online estimate, or the amount they need to walk away with. They also have the home fully ready before it goes on the market instead of finishing projects after it is listed. It helps to work with someone who sells in Pfafftown regularly and knows what local buyers are comparing you against. For buyers, there is more room to negotiate than there has been in a while, especially on homes that have been listed for some time and have already come down. That does not apply to the fresh, well-priced listing, which can still be gone in a week. And with rates where they are, the conversation with a lender needs to happen before the house hunt, not after you have found the one you want.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are home values in Pfafftown going up or down? They are steady. The rolling 12-month median is $341,000, up 4.6% from a year ago, but most of that change comes from which homes happened to sell rather than from individual homes gaining value. The same comparison showed a small decline two months ago for the same reason. Does 4.6 months of supply mean Pfafftown is flooded with homes? No. The figure rose mainly because only 12 homes closed in September. Measured against last year's sales pace, current inventory works out to about three months, close to where it was a year ago. How much does it really cost to start too high? In September, homes that took more than 60 days to sell closed for about 10% less than homes that sold in two weeks or less. Individual results vary, and the two neighboring homes described above ended up $85,000 and $90,000 below their original prices. Have higher mortgage rates slowed Pfafftown buyers? Not in the numbers so far. Nineteen homes went under contract in September, most of them after rates began rising. The real test is whether the 21 homes now under contract make it to closing. Should I wait for rates to come down before I sell? Nobody can tell you when or whether that will happen. What September shows is that a home priced and prepared correctly still sells quickly in this market. Whether the timing is right depends on your home and your plans, and that deserves a conversation rather than a rule of thumb.

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Key Takeaways

• Pfafftown home values are steady. The swings in the median price over the last three months reflect which homes sold.
• Time on the market carried a real cost in September: homes that took more than 60 days sold for about 10% less than those that sold in two weeks or less.
• The market has split into three groups: fresh listings that sell in days, reduced listings that sell at a discount, and unadjusted listings that are still sitting.
• The jump in months of supply to 4.6 comes mostly from a slow closing month, not a surge of new inventory.
• Mortgage rates rose after September's sales were set. Whether the 21 homes now under contract actually close is the number to watch next month.

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If You Are Weighing a Decision

Market-wide numbers can only tell you so much about one house. What your home would sell for, which of those three groups it would likely fall into, and whether the timing makes sense with rates where they are all depend on details that never appear in a monthly report. If you would like to talk through your own situation, reach out to me. I am glad to have that conversation, and there is no pressure to take any action.