If you've been watching Sioux Falls listings pop up on your saved search this summer, you might assume the market is finally giving buyers some room. New listings were up nearly 10 percent in July compared to a year ago. More homes for sale should mean more leverage, more time to think, more chances to negotiate. That's the story the headline number tells.
It's not the story the rest of the data tells.
The Number That Looks Like Relief
In July 2026, 523 new listings hit the Sioux Falls market, up 9.6 percent from the 477 listed the same month a year earlier, according to the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire. On paper, that's real growth. But closed sales for the month rose less than 1 percent over the same stretch. Homes weren't sitting around waiting for buyers to catch up. They were selling at almost exactly the same pace as before, just with more new candidates cycling through.
The median sales price came in at $340,450, up 1.6 percent year over year. The average sales price was $403,622, up 2.2 percent. Sellers received 97.7 percent of their original asking price on average, essentially flat compared to a year earlier. Nationally, the median existing-home price hit a record $440,600 that same month, up 1.8 percent annually and marking 36 consecutive months of year-over-year gains, according to the National Association of Realtors. Sioux Falls is still selling well below the national median, but it's tracking the same slow, steady climb, not a sudden buyer's advantage.
One Month Earlier, A Different Signal
Go back to June and the picture gets tighter, not looser. Total inventory, meaning every home actually sitting on the market at one time, was down 30 percent from a year earlier: 892 homes compared to 1,275. New listings that month barely moved, up just 2.1 percent. Months of supply, the measure of how long it would take to sell off everything currently listed at the current sales pace, fell to 3.3, a 39 percent drop from the year before.
Closed sales actually fell in June, down to 275 from 322 a year earlier. The RASE report itself noted that this ran somewhat counter to the national narrative, where sales were advancing across all four U.S. regions that month. Sioux Falls wasn't following the national script. It was working through a supply squeeze that had nothing to do with buyer demand cooling off.
Put June and July side by side and the pattern becomes clear. Inventory collapsed in June because homes were selling faster than new ones could replace them. New listings then jumped in July, but closings barely budged, which means the fresh listings mostly refilled a pipeline that had already been drained rather than creating a surplus. A 9.6 percent increase in new listings sounds like breathing room until you notice that closed sales grew by less than a tenth of that rate.
Averages Lie a Little. Medians Don't Move as Much.
Here's the detail that's easy to miss if you only glance at one number: the median price grew at almost the exact same rate in both months, 1.6 percent in June and 1.6 percent again in July. The typical home in Sioux Falls appreciated at a steady, boring pace both times.
The average price didn't behave the same way. It jumped 8 percent in June, then slowed to 2.2 percent growth in July. That swing has nothing to do with the value of a typical house changing. It has to do with which houses happened to close in a given month. A handful of expensive sales can drag the average up sharply one month and let it settle back down the next, even while the median, which isn't as sensitive to a few outliers, tells a much calmer story.
This matters if you're reading market updates and trying to decide whether Sioux Falls is heating up or cooling down. The average is the number that makes headlines. The median is usually the more honest read on what's actually happening to a house like yours.
What Your Price Band Actually Tells You
Citywide numbers flatten a market that behaves very differently depending on price. In June, the fastest-selling homes in Sioux Falls were in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, moving in about 82 days on average. Homes priced at $2 million and above took roughly 156 days, nearly double the time.
| Price Band | Average Days on Market (June 2026) |
|---|---|
| $200,000–$250,000 | ~82 days |
| $2,000,000 and above | ~156 days |
That gap is the real story behind "is this a buyer's or seller's market." At the entry-level end, tight inventory and quick sales still favor sellers. At the top end, a smaller pool of buyers means more patience is required and more negotiating room exists, even in a metro where overall supply is historically low.
What This Looks Like on the Ground
The upper end of the market is still moving, just more selectively. Two new-construction homes near 10th Street and Six Mile Road in the Mystic Creek neighborhood sold within a two-week stretch this July. One, a 4,400-square-foot house built by Kelly Construction, closed for almost $1.4 million and included a vaulted ceiling, a butler's pantry with a second oven and sink, and a heated four-stall garage. The other, a 4,300-square-foot home built in 2024, closed for almost $1.3 million with a cathedral ceiling, a stone fireplace, and a screened-in deck with its own fireplace.
Neither sale took anywhere near the 156 days that the $2 million-and-above segment averaged that same month, even though both priced close enough to that tier to make the comparison fair. That tells you the slowdown at the top isn't uniform. A well-built, well-located new-construction home in the right neighborhood can still move in weeks. It's the properties without that combination of newness, location, and finish level that stretch toward five months on market.
So Which Market Are You Actually In?
The honest answer depends on where you're shopping, not on the citywide median. If you're looking in the $200,000 to $250,000 range, you're competing in the tightest, fastest-moving segment of the Sioux Falls market, and you should expect to move quickly once you find something that fits. If you're selling a home priced above $2 million, patience and the right presentation matter more than urgency, because the buyer pool is thinner and the timeline is longer almost by definition.
What you shouldn't do is read "new listings up 9.6 percent" and assume the whole market just got easier. The July numbers show more homes coming to market. They don't show more homes sitting unsold. Those are two different signals, and confusing them is how buyers end up frustrated that a "looser" market still feels just as competitive as the one they read about last year.
A Few Questions Worth Asking Before You Act
If new listings are up, why doesn't it feel like there's more to choose from? Because closed sales grew at a much slower rate than new listings did in July. The extra homes are being absorbed close to as fast as they arrive, so the visible pool of active listings isn't building up the way the headline number implies.
Does a rising average price mean my home is worth more? Not necessarily. The average is sensitive to a small number of high-dollar sales in any given month. The median, which moved a steady 1.6 percent in both June and July, is usually the more reliable signal for what's happening to a typically priced home.
Is the $2 million-plus segment actually slow right now? On average, yes, with June sales in that range taking around 156 days. But individual results vary widely based on location, finish level, and how recently the home was built, as the two Mystic Creek sales this July show.
If you're trying to figure out where your specific price point and neighborhood actually sit in this market, that's a conversation worth having before you list or make an offer. CORE Real Estate tracks these numbers by segment, not just by headline, and can walk you through what they mean for your situation specifically. Contact us when you're ready to talk it through.
