March 2026 Report with market data through February Pertaining to Alamo,
though data for larger regions is sometimes used for greater context.
Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill,
Photo by David Abercrombie, used under the Creative Commons license
The Market Accelerates
Moving into spring, rising buyer demand vs. an inadequate supply of homes for sale is creating a rapidly heating market characterized by increasing buyer competition, faster sales and more overbidding of asking price. The upcoming months are typically the most active of the year and on current trends, conditions are expected to generate upward pressure on home values. Median home sales prices often hit their calendar-year highs in spring, due to the severe imbalance between supply and demand, as well as a seasonal surge in luxury home sales. More affluent buyers continue to play an outsized role in demand and home- price appreciation. The wild card in coming months is what sustained effects, if any, the Iran war may have on inflation, interest rates, financial markets and consumer confidence. There may be no significant impact on housing, unlike the tariff shock which caused an abrupt slowdown in last year’s spring market.
Report created in good faith using data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. Last period figures are preliminary estimates based on data available early in the following month. All numbers approximate and may change with late-reported activity.
Mortgage Interest Rates, August 2022 to 2026 YTD
30-Year Conforming Fixed-Rate Loans, Weekly Average Readings*
Rates vary widely according to the property, price, borrower and lender.
Per Freddie Mac (FHLMC), on March 5, 2026, the weeklyaverage, 30-year,conforming-loaninterest rate, illustrated on this chart, was 6%, essentially unchanged from the previous week. (However, as of 3/6/26, the daily average rate has risen to 6.14%, increasing 15 basis points since the Iran war began.)*
3/30/23
*Freddie Mac (FHLMC), 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Weekly Average: https://www.freddiemac.com/pmms.
Crude Oil, Price per Barrel
Since February 2, 2026*
Dramatic ups and downs in oil prices, if sustained, can have considerable effects on consumer prices, transportation costs, inflation, consumer confidence and financial markets.
*Per Yahoo! Finance, https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CL%3DF/history/. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors. All numbers should be considered approximate.
Updated through March 6, 2026
Iran war begins
Financial Markets, 2025 – 2026
YTD
Percentage Increases in S&P 500 & Nasdaq since 1/2/25
Nasdaq Index: % Change since 01/25
S&P 500 Index: % Change since 01/25
Large changes in stock markets can dramatically affect household wealth, consumer confidence and housing markets, especially more affluent markets.
Data per MarketWatch.com, https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/comp/downloaddata and https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/spx/download-data. Data from source deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. Financial market values change constantly and all numbers to be considered approximate.
Diablo Valley House Price Trendssince 2005
The 3-month-rolling Diablo Valley median house sales price in February 2026 was down about 3% year-overyear. The median sales price commonly peaks in spring.
Median sales price is that price at which half the sales occurred for more and half for less. It is a very general statistic, disguising an enormous range of sales prices in the underlying sales. It is often affected by other factors besides changes in fair market value. Monthly and seasonal fluctuations are common, which explain many of the regular ups and downs in this chart.
3-Month Rolling Median House Sales Price* $800,000 $600,000 $400,000 $2,000,000 $1,800,000 $1,600,000 $1,400,000 $1,200,000 $1,000,000
*3-month rolling median house sales prices reported to NorCal MLS Alliance, per Infosparks, large sample of regional sales. Analysis may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers approximate and may change with late-reported sales.
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill
The 3-month-rolling Diablo Valley median house $/sq.ft. value in February 2026 rose about 1% year-over-year. Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill
Median $/sq.ft. value is a very general statistic, disguising an enormous range of values in the underlying sales. It is often affected by other factors besides changes in fair market value. Monthly and seasonal fluctuations are common, which explain many of the regular ups and downs in this chart. Longer-term trends are much more meaningful than short-term changes.
Note: Median sales prices and $/sq.ft. values can be affected differently by different factors (such as changes in median home size).
2005 - 2006 Great recession
house
Median Dollar per Square Foot Value by House Size
Diablo Valley & Lamorinda 2025 House Sales*
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette, Moraga, Orinda
Dollar per Square Foot is based upon interior living space and doesn’t include garages, attics, basements, rooms built without permit, decks, patios or lot size (though these can add significant value). All things being equal, a smaller home will typically sell for a higher dollar per square foot value (but all things are rarely equal).
NorCal
Median House Sales Prices: 3-Bedroom & 4-Bedroom Homes by Bay Area County, 12 Months Sales*
DiabloValley:Alamo,Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill
San Mateo
Santa Clara
$2,400,000
$1,830,000
$2,160,000
$1,880,000
San Francisco
Marin
Diablo Valley Region
Alameda
$2,091,000
$1,580,000
$1,787,500
$1,325,000
$1,650,000
$1,300,000
$1,550,000
$1,175,000
Napa
Contra Costa (all)
Sonoma Solano
$1,107,500
$875,000
$971,500
$780,000
$857,500 $785,000
$680,000
$565,000
Median House Sales Prices
4BR/3BA, 2000 - 2300 Sq.Ft. House
3BR/2BA, 1400 - 1750 Sq.Ft. House
Median price is that price at which half the sales occurred for more and half for less. It is a very general statistic that typically disguises an enormous range of sales prices in the individual underlying sales. Counties and regions contain submarkets of widely different values. How these prices apply to any particular home is unknown without a comparative market analysis.
Median House Dollar per Square Foot Values
Santa Clara San Mateo
San Francisco Marin
$1,209
$1,009
$1,155
$1,132
$981
$951
$865
$810
$813
$766
$758
$730
Santa Cruz
Diablo Valley Region Alameda Napa Sonoma
Contra Costa (all) Solano
$743
$644
$558
$528
$509
$404
$501
$451
$362
$317
by Bay Area County, 12 Months Sales* Sales reported to NorCal MLS Alliance in the 12 months through 2/28/26. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. Not all sales are reported to MLS. All numbers approximate and may change with late-reported sales.
Diablo Valley: Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill
Median House $/Sq.Ft. Values
3BR/2BA, 1400 - 1750 Sq.Ft. House
4BR/3BA, 2000 - 2300 Sq.Ft. House
$/sq.ft. is based upon interior living space and doesn’t include garages, attics, basements, rooms built without permit, decks or lot size. All things being equal, a smaller home will typically sell for a higher $/sq.ft. value.
Counties contain submarkets of widely different values. How these values apply to any particular home is unknown without a comparative market analysis.
Median Condo Sales Prices*
The 3-month-rolling Diablo Valley median condo sales price in February 2026 fell about 3% year over year.
Median sales price is that price at which half the sales occurred for more and half for less. It is a very general statistic, often affected by other factors besides changes in fair market value. Monthly and seasonal fluctuations are common, and longerterm trends much more meaningful than short-term changes.
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville,
*3-month rolling median house sales prices reported to NorCal MLS Alliance, per Infosparks, large sample of regional sales. Analysis may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers approximate and may change with late-reported sales.
Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill
Overbidding List Prices in Diablo Valley
Percentage of Home Sales Closing over List Price
Sales in one month mostly reflect market conditions in the previous month. Higher overbidding percentages signify more buyer competition for new listings. The percentage of home sales over asking price in February 2026 soared to 52%, its highest reading in 12 months.
Sales reported in Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill.
Average Sales Price to Original List Price Percentage Diablo
Valley Market Dynamics: Over/Under Bidding
100% = an average sales price at original list price. 110% = an average sales price 10% over asking price; 96% = 4% below asking price.
Diablo Valley refers to Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Walnut Creek.
This statistic fluctuates according to
Average Days on Market: Speed of Sale
Diablo Valley: Market Dynamics & Seasonality
Diablo Valley refers to Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Walnut Creek.
A measurement of how quickly the listings which sell go into contract. This statistic typically ebbs and flows per seasonal demand trends and is a lagging indicator of market activity 3-6 weeks earlier.
Homes typically sell fastest in spring as buyers respond to the rush of new listings. In midwinter, sales are dominated by listings that have been on the market for longer
of time.
Average days on market in February 2026 plunged from January and were 3 days lower than in February 2025.
Percentage of Listings Accepting Offers
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill
Absorption rate is the comparison of buyer demandvs. the supply ofhomes forsale: The higher the percentage, the more heated and competitive the market. Absorption rate usually rises through spring. As the increase in demand outpaced the supply of listings, the absorption rate rose in February.
*EastBayMLS reported data for houses, condos and townhouses, per Broker Metrics. Last month’s data estimated using available data, may change with late reported activity. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers approximate.
New Listings Coming on Market by Month
Diablo Valley Market Dynamics & Seasonality
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill
The number of new listings in February 2026 ticked up from January and should continue to rise in coming months. It was 7.5% higher year over year.
Diablo Valley Homes Market
Diablo Valley refers to Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon & Walnut Creek.
As of 3/1/26, the number of listings was climbing and 10.5% higher year over year. Listing inventory will almost certainly continue to rise through summer or fall.*
The # of active listings on a given day is affected by 1) the # of new listings coming on market, 2) how quickly buyers put them into contract, 3) the sustained heat of the market over time, and 4) sellers pulling their homes off the market without selling.
* Active/Coming-Soon listings posted to NorCal MLS Alliance. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors and subject to revision. Not all listings for sale are posted to MLS. All numbers approximate. The number of active listings constantly changes.
Diablo Valley: Supply vs. Demand
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor and Pleasant Hill
inventory of active listings at the 12-month rate of sale. The lower the MSI, the stronger the buyer demand as compared to the supply of listings on the market.
As buyers jump back into the market in the new year faster than sellers list their homes, March is typically one of the months in which the supply of listings is lowest as compared to demand. These MSI readings are generally low to extremely low, signifying heated, competitive markets - especially for houses.
Listings Accepting Offers (Going into Contract) Diablo
Valley Market Dynamics & Seasonality
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill
The number of listings going into contract in February 2026 jumped from January as the new year’s market woke up but was unchanged year over year. The count will commonly surge higher through spring.
Price Reductions on Active Listings
The
Contra Costa County Market Dynamics & Seasonality
The number of county price reductions in February 2026 fell 9% year over year.
Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Blackhawk, Diablo, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Walnut Creek
Sales in one month mostly reflect accepted offers in the previous month. Sales volume began its seasonal
in
Diablo Valley: Luxury Home Sales by Month
Homes Selling for $3 Million+ since January 2021
Diablo Valley refers to the MLS areas of Alamo, Blackhawk, Danville, Diablo, Pleasant Hill, San Ramon, Walnut Creek, Rossmoor.
Closed sales mostly reflect accepted-offer activity in the previous month. The luxury home market typically ebbs and flows by season: Peaking in spring, hitting its low in mid-winter.
Additional Economic & Demographic Data
VIX Volatility Index*
By Day in 2025
“The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, is a real-time market index representing the [stock] market’s expectations for volatility over the coming 30 days. Investors use the VIX to measure the level of risk, fear, or stress in the market when making investment decisions.” Quote from Investopedia
► On 3/6/26, the VIX Volatility Index hit its highest point since the tariff shock in April 2025.
Mar-25
*CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), per https://www.cboe.com/tradable_products/vix/vix_historical_data/ and/or Yahoo! Finance: https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/%5EVIX/history/. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors. All numbers approximate.
The CAPE ratio is a stock market valuation measure created by economist Robert Shiller. It is defined as the current price of the S&P 500 divided by the moving-average of 10 years of inflation-adjusted earnings and is principally used to assess likely future returns over longer periods. A higher CAPE ratio can suggest investors are expecting higher future growth, or that the stock market is overvalued.
As of early 2026, the CAPE ratio has been running at its highest readings since the dotcom bubble.
Economic Policy Uncertainty Index*
By Month since January 2000
The Economic Policy Uncertainty Index reading has plummeted since the April 2025 tariff shock butreboundedhigher in JanuaryandFebruary2026 toa level very high by long-term standards. This chart pre-dates the start of the Iran war.
Tariff shock►
The Economic Uncertainty Index is constructed from data analysis of 1) an index of search results from 10 large newspapers for terms related to economic and policy uncertainty, 2) reports by the Congressional Budget Office, and 3) the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia's Survey of Professional Forecasters.*
*Source: 'Measuring Economic Policy Uncertainty' by Scott Baker, Nicholas Bloom and Steven J. Davis, 3component index, www.PolicyUncertainty.com, https://www.policyuncertainty.com/us_monthly.html.
U.S. Jobs Report*
MonthlyChangeinNumber of Jobs, in Thousands*
Note: BLS often revises its monthly estimates, sometimes very substantially.
*U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “All employees, thousands, total nonfarm, seasonally adjusted”: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CES0000000001&output view=net 1mth. Last 2 readings are labeled “preliminary” and often substantially revised. Data from sources deemed reliable but may contain errors. Monthly Change in U.S. NonFarm Employment, in Thousands Employment trends and job security continue to be major concerns of consumers and economists.
Contra Costa County Population
Breakdown Estimates by Race/Ancestry
Approximately 27% of the population was foreign-born.
The Bay Area has one of the most diverse populations in the world.
As self-identified by residents: Categories as delineated by U.S. Census.
Statistics are generalities, essentially summaries of widely disparate data generated by dozens, hundreds or thousands of unique, individual sales occurring within different time periods. They are best seen not as precise measurements, but as broad, comparative indicators, with reasonable margins of error. Anomalous fluctuations in statistics are not uncommon, especially in smaller, expensive market segments. Last period data should be considered estimates that may change with late-reported data. Different analytics programs sometimes define statistics – such as “active listings,” “days on market,” and “months supply of inventory” – differently: what is most meaningful are not specific calculations but the trends they illustrate. Most listing and sales data derives from the local or regional multi-listing service (MLS) of the area specified in the analysis, but not all listings or sales are reported to MLS and these won’t be reflected in the data. “Homes” signifies real-property, single-household housing units: houses, condos, co-ops, townhouses, duets and TICs (but not mobile homes), as applicable to each market. City/town names refer specifically to the named cities and towns, unless otherwise delineated. Multi-county metro areas will be specified as such. Data from sources deemed reliable, but may contain errors and subject to revision. All numbers to be considered approximate.
Many aspects of value cannot be adequately reflected in median and average statistics: curb appeal, age, condition, amenities,
views, lot size, quality of outdoor space, “bonus” rooms, additional parking, quality of location within the neighborhood, and so on. How any of these statistics apply to any particular home is unknown without a specific comparative market analysis.
Median Sales Price is that price at which half the properties sold for more and half for less. It may be affected by seasonality, “unusual” events, or changes in inventory and buying trends, as well as by changes in fair market value. The median sales price for an area will often conceal an enormous variety of sales prices in the underlying individual sales.
Dollar per Square Foot is based upon the home’s interior living space and does not include garages, unfinished attics and basements, rooms built without permit, patios, decks or yards (though all those can add value to a home). These figures are usually derived from appraisals or tax records, but are sometimes unreliable (especially for older homes) or unreported altogether. The calculation can only be made on those home sales that reported square footage.
Photo use under the Creative Commons License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Compass is a real estate broker licensed by the State of California, DRE 01527235. Equal Housing Opportunity. This report has been prepared solely for information purposes. The information herein is based on or derived from information generally available to the public and/or from sources believed to be reliable. No representation or warranty can be given with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the information. Compass disclaims any and all liability relating to this report, including without limitation any express or implied representations or warranties for statements contained in, and omissions from, the report. Nothing contained herein is intended to be or should be read as any regulatory, legal, tax, accounting or other advice and Compass does not provide such advice. All opinions are subject to change without notice. Compass makes no representation regarding the accuracy of any statements regarding any references to the laws, statutes or regulations of any state are those of the author(s). Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
