Published September 29, 2026 in Market Update

Homes are taking longer to sell in Upper Marlboro

By Tamika R. Johnson, MBA, Associate Broker

Real estate, Upper Marlboro, MD

The biggest shift in Upper Marlboro right now is time. Homes are sitting longer before going under contract, and sellers who do not account for that from the start are the ones who feel it most.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted homes across both ZIP codes for the three months ending July 31, 2026. That is the period behind every number on this page.

How long homes are sitting

Those are not small moves. Twenty-three extra days in 20772 is a meaningful change in how buyers are behaving. They are taking more time. That means a seller who prices too high on day one has more time to sit and watch the market pass them by.

Realtor.com reported that pending sales nationally turned negative, down 0.2% year over year in August 2026. Upper Marlboro is feeling that same hesitation. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows combined pending sales in 20774 and 20772 were down 2.6% compared with the same three months of 2025.

What is happening to prices

Prices have not collapsed. The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows the median sale price in 20774 was $486,000, up 0.7% from a year ago. In 20772 it was $510,670, up 5.3%. Homes are still selling close to asking. But the sale-to-list ratio slipped in both ZIPs compared with last year, down 0.4 points in 20774 and down 0.9 points in 20772.

That slip is small, but it is a signal. Buyers have a little more room to push back than they did a year ago. Not a lot. But some.

Inventory is up, and that changes the competition

More homes for sale means buyers have options. When a buyer has options, a home that needs work, or is priced a little high, or shows poorly, gets skipped. That is the real consequence of rising inventory. Your competition is not just the market. It is every other home on the same street.

Some homes are still moving fast

About 1 in 4 homes in both ZIPs went under contract within two weeks of listing, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator. That share is down from a year ago, especially in 20772, where it dropped 22.1 points. But it still tells you that well-priced, well-presented homes are not waiting around.

In 20772, 35.2% of homes sold above list price. In 20774, 32.1% did. Those are real numbers. The market is not broken. The gap between the homes that win and the homes that sit is just wider than it was.

What the national picture adds

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. house prices rose 2.1% year over year between the second quarter of 2025 and the second quarter of 2026. That is a slower pace than many markets saw in prior years. CNBC reported the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at 7.45% as of September 24, 2026. That rate is keeping some buyers on the sideline, which is part of why homes everywhere, including Upper Marlboro, are taking longer to sell.

Realtor.com also reported that 20.4% of listings nationally saw a price cut in August 2026, and median list prices fell 1.3% year over year. Upper Marlboro has held its median sale prices better than that national list-price trend. But sellers here still need to know that buyers are price-aware right now.

One more thing worth saying: the numbers above cover full ZIP codes. What is happening on one street can read very differently from the whole ZIP. A block with recent sales, a specific school boundary, or a cluster of new listings can shift the picture fast. The ZIP code average is a starting point, not the final word on your home.