Published October 18, 2026 in Market Update

Laguna Beach moved against the national slowdown

By Jason & Susan Zwolak

Real estate, Laguna Beach

I was looking at the national numbers this week and something stood out. Redfin reported that home sellers outnumber buyers by 62.6% across the U.S. in September. That is a real imbalance. It usually means buyers hold the leverage. But when I pulled the Real Estate Data Aggregator numbers for Laguna Beach, the story here looks very different.

More homes sold, not fewer

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 94 homes sold in ZIP 92651 in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 10.6% from the same three months in 2025. Pending sales came in at 103, up 9.6%. Both numbers moved in the opposite direction from the national trend.

That matters for anyone thinking about negotiating here. Nationally, buyers have room to push. In Laguna Beach, the demand side is still showing up.

Prices climbed, and homes moved faster

The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price in ZIP 92651 at $3,375,000 for the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 14% from the same period in 2025. For context, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose just 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Laguna Beach ran well ahead of that.

Homes sat on the market for a median of 69 days. That sounds like a while. But the Real Estate Data Aggregator shows it is 30 days shorter than the same stretch in 2025. That is a big shift in pace. Sellers here got to the closing table faster.

Supply tightened while new listings rose

Here is an interesting tension. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 124 new listings in ZIP 92651 during those three months, up 19.2% from a year before. More sellers came to market. Yet homes for sale actually fell. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 163 homes for sale, down 22% from a year before. That tells you buyers absorbed the new supply quickly.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator put months of supply at 5.3, down 2.2 months from 2025. Less supply usually means less room to negotiate on price. That is a different reality than what Redfin is describing nationally.

Quick contracts are up sharply

The Real Estate Data Aggregator found that 22.3% of Laguna Beach homes went under contract within two weeks of listing in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That share is up 12.7 points from a year before. Nearly 1 in 4 homes found a buyer fast. Not every home sold quickly, but the ones priced well did not wait long.

A national headwind Laguna Beach has not felt the same way

Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates topped 7% for the first time since January 2025 in September 2026. That is a real cost for buyers anywhere. And Redfin counted an estimated 928,892 homebuyers nationally in September, the lowest level since 2013. Those are genuine pressures.

The Laguna Beach numbers from the Real Estate Data Aggregator tell a calmer story locally. More sales, tighter supply, faster contracts and a higher median price. The national slowdown is real. It just has not landed here the same way, at least not through August 31, 2026.

That said, one street can read very differently from the whole ZIP code. A block closer to the water, or one neighborhood over, can have its own pace and its own price trend. The ZIP code number is the starting point, not the whole answer.