Homes in Davis are changing hands noticeably faster than they were a year ago. Over the three months ending July 2026, the typical home sold in 20 days, down from 27 days in the same period of 2025 — a drop of nearly 26%, according to newly released data from Redfin. In practical terms, homes are spending about a week less on the market before finding a buyer, a sign that demand in this college town of 66,000 remains firm even as prices have eased.

A faster market despite softer prices

The quicker sales pace stands out because it comes alongside a decline in prices. The median sale price in Davis was $831,584 over the three months ending July, down 3.3% from $860,000 a year earlier. Price per square foot told a similar but milder story, easing 0.9% to $484 from $488. Together, those figures suggest that the price softening has been modest rather than broad-based, and that homes are still moving briskly once listed.

Nearly 30% of homes sold above their asking price, up from 24% a year ago, and the typical home sold at exactly its list price, a sale-to-list ratio of 100%. Both figures point to a market where sellers are still commanding their asking prices in most cases.

Recent momentum has cooled slightly on the timing front. Compared with the three months ending June 2026, when homes sold in a median of 18 days, the July figure of 20 days marks a small uptick — homes taking about two days longer. The median price, meanwhile, edged up 1.4% month over month from $820,000, a modest gain consistent with typical late-spring and early-summer activity.

More homes, more sales

Sales volume climbed year over year. Buyers closed on 141 homes over the three months ending July, up 16.5% from 121 a year earlier. Active inventory rose 9.9% to 256 listings, and new listings increased to 160 from 150. Even with more homes available, the market remains tight: at the current sales pace, Davis has just 1.8 months of supply, well within sellers’-market territory, where buyers face limited choice.

For longer-term perspective, the current median price sits below the $867,500 recorded in the three months ending July 2024, and homes are selling far more slowly than the frenzied pace of that period, when the typical home found a buyer in just nine days. Over five years, prices are up 5.9% from $785,000 in the summer of 2021 — a gain that has trailed broader inflation over the same stretch. Nationally, home prices continued to rise modestly, with the S&P/Case-Shiller index up year over year.

Affordability and borrowing costs

Affordability remains a significant hurdle in Davis. At the current median price, a home costs roughly 9.2 times the median household income of $90,045, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures — far above the level generally considered affordable. A buyer putting 20% down on a median-priced home at July’s average 30-year fixed rate would face a monthly principal-and-interest payment of about $4,222, equal to 56.3% of median monthly household income, well beyond the 43% threshold lenders typically view as manageable.

There is some relief on the borrowing side. That monthly payment is about $226 lower than a year ago, when the same purchase would have cost roughly $4,448 — the result of both the price decline and lower mortgage rates. The 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.54% in July, according to Freddie Mac, down from 6.72% a year earlier, though up slightly from 6.49% in June. The 15-year fixed rate averaged 5.91%.

What the numbers show

Taken together, the data describes a Davis market that is active and competitive but no longer overheated. Homes are selling faster and in greater numbers than a year ago, and inventory remains thin at under two months of supply. At the same time, prices have slipped modestly on both a median and per-square-foot basis, and affordability remains stretched relative to local incomes. The share of homes selling above asking price has risen, underscoring that, for many properties, buyers are still competing to close deals in a matter of weeks.