If you're buying or selling in Long Beach, you need numbers you can trust, not headlines. Everything below comes straight from my MLS data for September 2026, and I'm splitting single family homes and condos out separately, because right now they're telling two very different stories.
Single Family Homes: Still Moving, But Slower
Long Beach single family homes closed September with a median sold price of $1,022,000, up 2.1% month over month. Homes sold at 99.7% of list price, with a median of just 17 days on market, and inventory sits at 2.32 months, down 1.7% from a year ago. That's still a tight market. Sellers who price correctly and present a turnkey home are getting close to full asking, fast.
267 homes were actively listed at a median list price of $1.09M, and 67 homes closed for a combined $81.2M in sales volume.
Condos: A Different Pace Entirely
Long Beach condos told a much slower story in September: a median sold price of $570,000, 41 days on market, 98.3% of list price, and 4.77 months of inventory, up 10.9% from a year ago. That's more than double the days on market of single family homes, and inventory that's been building steadily for a year.
Why the Gap? Condition and Financing
Two things are driving the difference between a 17-day sale and a 41-day sale.
Condition. Move-in ready homes and condos are selling quickly. Anything that needs updating, a dated kitchen, an older roof, deferred maintenance, is sitting significantly longer. Buyers who are already stretching to qualify at today's rates don't have extra cash left over to renovate on top of a mortgage payment.
Financing. This one is specific to condos. Buildings considered unwarrantable, meaning they can't be financed with a conventional loan, are sitting the longest of anything on the market. That could be because of high rental ratios, pending litigation, insufficient reserves, or too much commercial space in the building. When a building can't get conventional financing, the buyer pool shrinks down to cash buyers only, and that shows up directly in the days-on-market numbers.
Interest Rates Are the Backdrop
On September 16th, the Federal Reserve raised rates to a range of 3.75% to 4%, the first hike in over three years. Mortgage rates responded immediately: the 30-year fixed climbed from around 6.76% before the hike to 7.28% by October 1st, compared to 6.34% a year earlier. That's nearly a full point higher than this time last year, and it's a major reason inventory is building and days on market are stretching, especially for condos where buyers lean more heavily on financing.
Comparing August to September, Long Beach's median price pulled back after the hike, which lines up with the timing of the rate increase. I want to be careful here: my data is monthly, not weekly, so I can't say exactly which week the shift happened, only that the softening shows up in the first full month after the hike.
The Fannie Mae Condo Rule You Need to Know
As of September 1, 2026, every condo purchase now requires a full Fannie Mae project review. The limited review option that used to speed certain transactions through is gone. That means longer escrow timelines, more documentation required from HOAs, and more buildings getting flagged as unwarrantable and losing access to conventional financing altogether. More changes are expected in January, so if you're buying or selling a condo in Long Beach right now, this isn't optional information, we need to plan around it from day one.
(For the full breakdown, see my earlier post on the Fannie Mae condo lending changes.)
My Outlook Through Year End
Long Beach single family homes remain a seller's market, but the margin is narrowing. Condos have already shifted toward more balanced, buyer-friendly conditions. Unless buyer confidence adjusts to this higher-rate environment, I expect sales to keep slowing through the end of the year, with turnkey, well-priced properties continuing to move quickly and anything dated, overpriced, or in a financing-challenged building taking considerably longer to find a buyer.
If you're thinking about buying or selling in Long Beach before year end, let's talk about where your property or your target neighborhood fits into all of this. You might also like my posts on the most walkable neighborhoods in Long Beach and School of Choice for Long Beach families if you're weighing a move within the city.
Costanza Genoese Zerbi is ranked in the top 1.5% of agents nationwide by RealTrends, with rankings dating back to 2017. 600+ closed transactions, $525M+ in career sales, and #1 in Long Beach by sales volume in the 2024 RealTrends rankings.
Costanza Genoese Zerbi & Associates | eXp Realty of Greater Los Angeles | DRE #01941438
Check out this article next
