Published October 7, 2026 · Market Education / Seller Authority · CapeCoralListingAgent.com
I've watched a lot of sellers talk themselves out of a good decision because of a headline.
This month the headline is inventory. "Six-plus months of supply in Southwest Florida." "The buyer's market is back." And if you own a home in Cape Coral and you've been circling the idea of selling, that kind of line does something quiet and corrosive — it makes you wonder if you already missed your window.
So let's look at what September actually did.
- Median sale price: $380,000 — up 4.1% from a year ago, down 2.6% from August.
- Median days on market: 42 — nearly a third faster than last September.
- Homes sold at 97.1% of list price.
- Active inventory: 2,575 homes — essentially flat year over year.
- Months of supply: 6.8 — up about 20% from August.
(Cape Coral single-family homes. Source: SWFL MLS / Domus Analytics, September 2026.)
Here's the honest read. Supply did climb. But not because the market flooded with new listings — new listings actually fell almost 10% from August. Supply climbed because fewer homes closed. Buyers slowed down. That's a real shift, and I'm not going to soften it: the cushion that covered an ambitious asking price last spring is gone.
And more is coming. This is the season our market starts to wake up. Heading into the stretch that begins around mid-October, more homes come on — that's normal, it happens every year. So the inventory you're competing with isn't about to thin out. It's about to grow.
And yet — homes that were priced right still sold in about six weeks, and sellers still kept 97 cents on every dollar of their asking price. Values are still higher than they were a year ago.
So the fear worth naming isn't "prices are crashing." It's quieter, and it's the one I watch catch people: being the listing that sits. Watching the showings thin out. Dropping the price in slow, reactive steps while newer homes come on around you and buyers quietly decide yours is the one with something wrong. That's what a shifting market punishes. Not selling. Overpricing into it.
The sellers who do well from here won't be the ones who timed the top. They'll be the ones who priced for the market that's actually in front of them — and positioned the home so it's the obvious choice in its price band, not the cautionary tale three doors down.
That's the whole job right now. Price with precision. Prepare the home so it shows better than the comps. Go to market with a plan, not a hope.
If you're weighing a move — this winter, this year, or just turning the question over — I'll pull your home's current numbers against the September data and tell you honestly what it would take to sell it well. Not a listing pitch. The real picture, so you're deciding from facts instead of from a headline.
Reply NUMBERS and I'll put it together for you.
Carleen Murone, Realtor®, GRI | eXp Realty, LLC — Cape Coral
Data: Cape Coral single-family residences, SWFL MLS / Domus Analytics, September 2026.