Greater Princeton
Housing Market

August gave the cleanest signal of the year, and it is not in the price line. Every one of the seven inventory groups I track got older on active days-on-market. Not five of seven, not six, all seven. Princeton's unsold listings went from a 38-day median at the end of May to 76 days now, exactly double; over the same three months Lawrence went 35 to 53 days, the West Windsor-Plainsboro district 29 to 49, Robbinsville 17 to 36, South Brunswick 23 to 40, Montgomery 29 to 43, and even Hopewell, the healthiest of the group, drifted 22 to 32. Meanwhile the homes that actually closed still moved: a 16-day median across the six core towns, unchanged since January, with 48% finishing above their original ask, West Windsor at 10 days and Hopewell at 12. Both things are true at once, and together they say the market has sorted its inventory into two piles rather than that it is falling. Prices reflect the pile that sells: Princeton reached $1.7M, its highest in our records back to 2016, but part of that move is the lower end going quiet, with its trailing sale count down from 166 to 145 and year-to-date volume off 15%. Read volume year to date, not by the month. Across the eight towns, closings are flat at 1,168 versus 1,188, but that rests entirely on Hopewell's new-construction deliveries; strip Hopewell out and the other seven are down 8.6%. Price cuts are spreading unevenly, sharply in Lawrence and Robbinsville, easing in Montgomery and South Brunswick. The thesis holds and hardened: prepared and priced right still sells in two weeks, often above ask. Priced on spring expectations, you now join a pile that got bigger in every town, and by fall you will compete against more of it.