Is it a Buyer’s Market in Summit County?

One of the most common questions buyers want to know is if it is a seller’s market or a buyer’s market in the Summit County real estate market. One of the best ways to understand a real estate market isn’t to read the headlines, it’s to look backwards. Watching how the market acts and reacts always tells a story. Some stories can be told in a month or a year. But sometimes the story is incomplete. To get the full context, it’s best read over many years.

Supply and demand is the best way to see the market. It’s a concept that’s more easily understood. And it makes a great visual. Supply and demand is a great indicator to see what home prices will be doing. It tells us if it’s a seller’s market, a transitioning market, or a buyer’s market. That information tells us negotiating tactics, offer tactics, pricing strategy. There’s a wealth of information in one chart.

Inventory vs pending real estate sales

Notice the blue area of the chart. It represents active inventory; homes available for sale. The black line represents properties under contract. Together they show us how the supply (the blue area) compares to the demand (the black line). That, in turn, tells us everything about who has the upper hand in our market at any given moment.

This chart looks back to 2008. If you remember, that is when we were in the Great Recession. The bottom fell out of the real estate market. Home prices fell a lot. You can see inventory was high, well over 1,500 active listings at times, while the number of properties under contract ran relatively low. That’s a classic buyer’s market. You see lots of blue on the graph. The more blue, the stronger the buyer’s market in Summit County. There are plenty of homes to choose from. Sellers are competing for the next buyer. Prices are facing downward pressure. Buyers had the time and the advantage.

Now fast forward to 2021–2022. The chart looks completely different. Inventory had collapsed to historic lows while there were actually more properties under contract than there were for sale. There is very little blue on the chart and the black line is above the blue area. That’s the pandemic market. Buyers competing aggressively for whatever came available, bidding wars driving prices dramatically higher. Sellers could list on a Friday and have multiple offers by Sunday. Buyers had no time to think. Sellers had the advantage.

Two completely different worlds, captured perfectly in one chart.

The seasonal flow of the Summit County market

Those peaks and valleys you see throughout the chart aren’t chaos, they’re Summit County’s natural rhythm. We always see more listings and more sales activity in the summer months. Properties come off the market for owners to rent or use for the winter. Buyers decide they want to buy while they are visiting in the winter and come back in the summer to shop for their ski home. Having something before ski season begins is a common priority for buyers.

The chart shows those higher peaks of inventory each summer as well as the higher peaks of buyers just slightly later in the year. They both drop for winter, then surge again the following summer.

A closer look at the last two years

We can see the big picture with the chart back to 2008, but it’s difficult to see the details of what’s happening now. This chart is zoomed in for a closer look at the last two years. Inventory has been recovering, we saw active listings climb toward 900 by late summer 2025, the highest levels since before the pandemic. That’s meaningful. Buyers have more choices than they’ve had in years. It looks to be on an upward trend, which would lead us to believe we will see even more inventory this summer.

But look at the pending line. Our summer peaks in sales activity aren’t as defined as they used to be. Buyer activity is looking a little sluggish. When you compare it to the long-term chart, it looks similar to conditions around 2011 when our market was transitioning. The buyer’s market was not as strong as it once was. Buyers may have felt they missed the best opportunities. They were a little sluggish. Our transition right now is heading in the opposite direction, from a seller’s market into a buyer’s market, but still transitioning with similar, sluggish, buyer activity.

Is it a buyer’s market in Summit County?

You should be able to answer this question yourself just by looking at the chart. You can see how tight the market was at the beginning of 2025. There blue area was just slightly above the black line. Then at the beginning of 2026, there’s a wider patch of blue. Inventory is growing as we transition towards a buyer’s market. You can also see, we are a long ways from the buyer’s market of 2008 when housing prices fell drastically.

If you’re a buyer: You have more options and more negotiating room than at any point since the pandemic. You can wait for the right property to come along because time is probably on your side.

If you’re a seller: The market isn’t distressed and well-priced properties are still selling. But the days of listing at any price and waiting for multiple offers are behind us for the foreseeable future. Positioning in the market & preparation matter more now than they have in years. The best opportunity for a sale may be right now.

Within the overall Summit County real estate market there are many submarkets. Each of those markets can have trends of their own. Understanding the portions that pertain to you will help you make even better decisions. We know that and are here to help make that happen.

If you are considering buying or selling Summit County real estate, reach out and get all of the information.