Folsom’s housing market pulled off an unusual split this summer: prices came down even as buyers stepped up. According to newly released data from Redfin, the median sale price across the three months ending August 2026 was $759,497, down 5.1% from $800,000 a year earlier — one of the steeper year-over-year price declines among cities in the region. At the same time, 250 homes changed hands, up 21.4% from the 206 sold in the same stretch of 2025.

A price dip alongside stronger sales

The drop in the median sale price stands out because it came during a period of rising, not falling, buyer activity. Sales volume increased more than a fifth year over year, and the share of homes selling above asking price climbed to 29.5%, up from 18.9% a year ago. Buyers, in other words, were competing harder for homes even as the headline price figure fell.

Part of that apparent contradiction is explained by the price-per-square-foot figure, which tells a different story than the median. While the median sale price fell 5.1%, the median price per square foot actually rose 2.1%, to $381 from $374. That divergence suggests buyers this summer leaned toward smaller or lower-priced homes, pulling the overall median down even as the underlying value of each square foot edged higher.

On a month-to-month basis, the median sale price rose 1.3% from $750,000 in the three months ending July. Sales were essentially flat, down 0.8%. Over a longer horizon, prices remain modestly higher than in past years: the current median sits above the $747,500 recorded two years ago, and prices have risen 6.2% over the past five years, a pace that has trailed the broader run-up in national home values. Nationally, the S&P/Case-Shiller index was up year over year through June.

A tight market that favors sellers

Despite the softer median price, the balance of the market still tilts toward sellers. Folsom had 462 active listings at the end of the period, virtually unchanged from 458 a year ago, and just 1.8 months of supply based on the current pace of sales. A market with under two months of supply is generally considered a sellers’ market, leaving buyers with limited choice.

Homes did take somewhat longer to sell than a year ago. The median time on market was 29 days, up from 26 days in the same period of 2025 — homes sitting roughly three days longer. The month-over-month figure looks more dramatic, rising 45% from 20 days in the three months ending July, but a slowdown in selling pace heading into late summer is a normal seasonal pattern as the busiest spring buying months fade.

New listings totaled 287, up slightly from 274 a year earlier, giving buyers a modestly larger pool of fresh inventory to work with. The sale-to-list ratio held at 99.3%, meaning the typical home sold just below its asking price.

Affordability and the cost of borrowing

For buyers doing the math, the price decline offered some relief that was partly offset by borrowing costs. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.67% in August, up from 6.54% in July and 6.59% a year ago, according to Freddie Mac data compiled by the Federal Reserve. Even so, the combination of lower prices and only a small rate move means the monthly principal-and-interest payment on a median-priced Folsom home, assuming 20% down, works out to about $3,909 — roughly $174 less per month than a year ago, when the same calculation produced $4,083.

Affordability remains stretched by longer-term standards. At current prices, a median-priced home costs about 5.4 times the median household income of $139,804, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — above the 5x threshold generally considered unaffordable. That monthly payment represents about 33.5% of median household monthly income, which the National Association of Realtors would classify as stretched but not out of reach.

Folsom, home to about 95,680 residents after 2.1% population growth over the past year, continues to see steady demand pressure that has kept its market tight even as the median price has eased. The picture that emerges from the summer data is a market where buyers turned out in greater numbers and competed more often above asking, yet the mix of homes sold pulled the headline price lower than it was a year ago.