In August 2026, the median sale price in the San Antonio Board of REALTORS® multiple listing service was $299,275. SABOR's September 10 release called that unchanged from August 2025, but the comparison table in the same release lists the August 2025 median at $310,000. One month earlier, SABOR reported the July median up 2% from a year before. Texas A&M's Texas Real Estate Research Center, using its home price index rather than a median, had San Antonio prices down 1.1% from a year before in that same July.
None of these figures is wrong. They measure different things. Most of the summer's swing in the median came from changes in which price tiers closed, not from homes losing value. For a buyer setting an offer, the headline median is the weakest number in the release.
One August, Read Three Ways
SABOR's August 2026 release opens with this sentence:
"The average price was $372,989 and the median price was $299,275, both unchanged from August 2025."
The table further down the same document shows these figures for the area-wide MLS:
| August | Total sales | Average price | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 3,017 | $368,787 | $313,995 |
| 2025 | 2,952 | $382,419 | $310,000 |
| 2026 | 3,104 | $372,989 | $299,275 |
Using the table, the August 2026 median is about 3.5% below the year before and the average about 2.5% below. Sales rose about 5.1%, a bit more than the 4% given in the headline. The Bexar County section of the same release tells a similar story to the table. It reports 2,068 Bexar County sales in August 2026, up 8.8%, with the median down 3.1% to $280,999 and the average down 2.6% to $336,979.
So one document contains three readings: flat, down about 3%, and up 4% in volume. The more useful question is what pulled the median down while sales went up.
What Closed, Not What Changed
A median is the middle sale in whatever group of homes closed that month. If fewer expensive homes close, the middle moves down even when no single house is worth less. SABOR publishes the share of sales in each price tier every month, and the summer's numbers show this happening.
| Share of closed sales, SABOR MLS | June 2026 | July 2026 | August 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest tier, under $200,000 | 12.33% | 13.72% | 16.07% |
| $200,000 to $499,999 | 66.89% | 67.48% | 66.73% |
| $500,000 to $749,999 | 12.79% | 11.98% | 10.47% |
| $750,000 and above | 7.99% | 6.82% | 6.73% |
| Median price | $329,730 | $315,000 | $299,275 |
Homes at $500,000 and up made up 20.78% of June closings and 17.2% of August closings. Applied to each month's total sales, that is roughly 720 such closings in June and about 530 in August. Over the same period, the lowest tier grew from roughly 430 sales to about 500. The median dropped about $30,000 between June and August, which matches a month that had more modest homes and fewer large ones at the closing table.
The year-over-year comparison follows the same pattern on a smaller scale. In August 2025, homes at $500,000 and up were 18.75% of SABOR's closings, and the middle tier was 64.7%. By August 2026, the upper tiers had slipped to 17.2% and the middle tier had grown to 66.73%. Part of the 3.5% drop in the median is that shift between tiers.
The July release gives one more signal. That month's median rose 2% year over year, while average price per square foot stayed at $176, the same as July 2025. When the median rises and price per square foot doesn't, the homes that sold were larger. They weren't more valuable per foot.
A Second Measure, Read Separately
The Texas Real Estate Research Center tracks prices with a home price index, a different instrument from SABOR's monthly median. Its September 2026 report, covering July data, puts San Antonio prices down 1.1% year over year, an improvement from a 1.7% decline in June. The figure is a three-month moving average. The same report puts San Antonio metro active inventory up 4.4% year over year, at a 6.2-month supply.
The index covers the metro area and SABOR's release covers its MLS area, so the two don't line up exactly. Still, the index shows San Antonio prices in midsummer 2026 slightly below a year earlier, with the decline slowing. That is a much smaller move than either July's 2% gain in the median or August's 3.5% drop, and it fits the tier shifts above. By this measure, the summer looked like a soft plateau, not a slide.
For a relocating buyer looking at an estate in the upper tiers, this matters in both directions. A falling regional median does not mean a $900,000 home in your target area is now 3% cheaper. And a seller who quotes July's 2% rise is pointing to a figure that the research center's index and SABOR's own flat price per square foot do not support.
Where the Leverage Actually Shows Up
If the median says little about one property's value, the other figures in the releases say more about how much room there is to negotiate.
In August 2026, homes sold for an average of 92.8% of their original list price, after an average of 82 days on market. Both figures are up from August 2025, when sellers received 91.4% and homes averaged 74 days. Homes are taking longer to sell, yet sellers are recovering slightly more of their first asking price. One likely reason is that original list prices are set more realistically than they were a year ago. If so, the asking price on a fresh listing already includes some of the discount buyers expected to negotiate.
Within the summer, the discount widened slightly. Sellers received 93.8% of original list in June 2026, 93% in July and 92.8% in August. Statewide in July, the Texas Real Estate Research Center reports a median seller price cut of $13,000, or 3.6% of the initial list price. Unsold listings at the end of July had been on the market 92 days, compared with 63 days for homes that sold. Those are Texas-wide figures, not San Antonio ones. They support a pattern buyers will recognize: a listing that has sat well past the typical time on market is the one most likely to come down in price.
Ed Zapata, SABOR's 2026 chair, said in the August release, "Buyers have time and choice, while sellers need to be thoughtful about pricing and positioning their homes." The cost of borrowing is also moving. The research center reports that mortgage rates were above 7% even before the Federal Reserve's 25-basis-point rate hike on September 16, and it expects higher financing costs to be the main headwind for the rest of the year. For buyers who use financing, that weighs on monthly payments more than a few points of movement in the median.
Building Comps That Hold Up
Because the regional median is mostly a reading of what mix of homes sold, a solid offer rests on comparisons that keep the mix fixed. A comp set for any upper-tier home should include:
- Sales in the same price tier and property type. A $750,000 estate should be compared with nearby sales above $750,000, not with an area median in the low $300,000s.
- The same months. June and August closings came from different mixes this year, so sales from a single season give a cleaner baseline.
- Price per square foot next to price. July's flat $176 per square foot showed what the 2% median gain left out.
- Each comp's percentage of original list price and days on market. These show how much negotiation actually happened, which a sale price alone does not.
- Status changes on the subject property. A listing past 90 days, or one already reduced, is in a different negotiating position than a new one.
One caution on pending sales. SABOR's August 2025 release reported 2,459 pending sales, while its August 2026 release reports 2,575 and describes that as an 8% decline. Those figures don't reconcile across the two documents, so compare pending sales within a single release, not across two releases a year apart.
FAQ
Is there September 2026 data yet? As of October 5, 2026, SABOR's press release page listed August 2026 as the most recent month. The research center notes that inventory usually pulls back from its summer peak heading into fall.
Do these figures describe a specific neighborhood? No. SABOR's monthly release covers its area-wide MLS, which spans more than ten counties including Bexar and Kendall. County reports are published separately. For a particular address, use a comp set built from nearby same-tier sales.
Did prices fall this summer? By the research center's index, slightly. That index had San Antonio down 1.1% year over year in July, and that decline was smaller than June's.
Upper-tier sales made up a smaller share of San Antonio closings this summer, which is why a comp set built for one specific home matters more than the regional median. Binkan Cinaroglu builds valuations from same-tier sales, price per square foot and list-to-sale history, for buyers weighing an offer and for sellers setting an original list price. Request a private consultation to have one prepared for the property you are considering.
