Montgomery County home buyers canceled 7.6% of purchase contracts in September, one of the lowest rates in the country.
The figure, drawn from a Redfin housing market report released Monday, Oct. 12, puts the county among the five metros with the lowest rates. The others: San Francisco (2.8%), Nassau County, New York (4.8%), San Jose, California (5.5%), and New York City (7.7%).
Nationally, 14.5% of deals fell through in September, the highest share in Redfin's records outside the early pandemic months of 2020. The broader Philadelphia metro area came in at 12.4%, as Patch reported.
Redfin classifies Montgomery County as one of five seller's markets among the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Buyers here have less room to walk away and find something better because homes remain in high demand and listings are scarce, according to the report.
Local market data backs that up. In Plymouth Meeting, homes sold in an average of 16 days in August, with 1.7 months of supply, according to a market report from Carmella Thompson of eXp Realty. Blue Bell listings moved in 22 days with 2.0 months of supply. Both figures sit well below the four-to-six-month range that signals a balanced market.
The county-wide median sale price hit $508,832 in September, up 5.2% from a year earlier, according to Redfin. Pending sales dipped 1.6% year over year, the smallest decline among the 50 largest metros Redfin tracks. Closed sales were flat.
New listings rose 5.4% compared with September 2025, but active inventory still fell 4.6%, a sign that fresh supply is being absorbed quickly.
The picture looks different across the wider Philadelphia region. Pending sales there dropped 11.7% year over year, closed sales fell 14.7%, and the median sale price barely budged at $279,358, up 0.1%.
Rising mortgage rates are squeezing buyers everywhere. The weekly average 30-year fixed rate climbed to 7.28% at the end of September, a three-year high, according to Freddie Mac data cited in the Redfin report.
Chen Zhao, Redfin's head of economic research, said higher rates are thinning the buyer pool but creating openings for those still in the market. "For buyers, less competition means more room to negotiate: on price, on closing costs, on repairs, and sometimes sellers even pay for a mortgage-rate buydown," Zhao said in the report. She added that slower sales could mean prices flatten or fall in coming months.
New listings in Montgomery County rose 5.4% year over year even as active inventory shrank, suggesting homes are still moving off the market faster than they arrive.
