Windsor-Essex in August 2026: prices held, and the average sale slipped below asking
August's WECAR numbers put the median sold price at $515,000 and the MLS® HPI benchmark at $584,300 — both higher than July. What actually moved was the sale-to-list ratio, down to 99.8%, and what that changes for pricing a home this fall.
August's headline prices went up. The median residential sold price in Windsor-Essex was $515,000, against $509,500 in July — about 1.1% higher. The MLS® Home Price Index composite benchmark was $584,300, against $579,100, and the index reports itself 1.8% above where it stood a year ago. (Source: WECAR, July 2026 and August 2026.)
The number that actually changed is not either of those. It is the sale-to-list ratio, which fell to 99.8% — meaning the typical home sold slightly below its asking price. (Source: WECAR, August 2026.)
The premium is gone, and now so is the rounding
The vertical axis spans 99.7–104.6, not zero to 104.6 — it shows the movement in the series, not the size of the numbers.
View as a table
| Aug ’24 | 103.9% of asking |
|---|---|
| Sep ’24 | 103.4% of asking |
| Oct ’24 | 102.9% of asking |
| Nov ’24 | 102.1% of asking |
| Dec ’24 | 102.8% of asking |
| Jan ’25 | 102.8% of asking |
| Feb ’25 | 103.8% of asking |
| Mar ’25 | 103.8% of asking |
| Apr ’25 | 104.6% of asking |
| May ’25 | 104.2% of asking |
| Jun ’25 | 104.5% of asking |
| Jul ’25 | 102.6% of asking |
| Aug ’25 | 103.2% of asking |
| Sep ’25 | 102.1% of asking |
| Oct ’25 | 102.2% of asking |
| Nov ’25 | 100.8% of asking |
| Dec ’25 | 100.7% of asking |
| Jan ’26 | 99.7% of asking |
| Feb ’26 | 99.9% of asking |
| Mar ’26 | 100.6% of asking |
| Apr ’26 | 100.7% of asking |
| May ’26 | 101.5% of asking |
| Jun ’26 | 100.3% of asking |
| Jul ’26 | 100.1% of asking |
| Aug ’26 | 99.8% of asking |
Source: WECAR, August 2024 through August 2026. Figures are a snapshot taken when this post was written, not live — the numbers on the community pages are current.
Two years ago the average Windsor-Essex home sold for 103.9% of asking. Through the spring of 2025 that ran as high as 104.6%. It has fallen more or less steadily since, crossed 100% at the start of this year, and printed 99.8% in August. (Source: WECAR, August 2024 through August 2026.)
Of the twenty-five months charted above, only three have finished below 100% — January, February and August, all of them in 2026.
This is a smaller change than it looks, and a more important one. A move from 100.1% to 99.8% is about $1,500 on a $500,000 home; nobody's equity turned on it. What it marks is the end of a structure. For three years the asking price was a floor that buyers bid up from. It is now a number they negotiate against, and the direction of the last two years of this line is the part worth planning around, not the last decimal.
Median days on market was 20 in August, essentially unchanged from July's 20.5. (Source: WECAR, July 2026 and August 2026.) Homes are not sitting longer. They are simply not attracting a premium for speed.
Prices themselves held
The vertical axis spans $474,250–$550,000, not zero to $550,000 — it shows the movement in the series, not the size of the numbers.
View as a table
| Aug ’24 | $525,000 |
|---|---|
| Sep ’24 | $540,500 |
| Oct ’24 | $535,000 |
| Nov ’24 | $541,000 |
| Dec ’24 | $520,000 |
| Jan ’25 | $530,000 |
| Feb ’25 | $525,000 |
| Mar ’25 | $516,121 |
| Apr ’25 | $550,000 |
| May ’25 | $524,900 |
| Jun ’25 | $545,000 |
| Jul ’25 | $535,000 |
| Aug ’25 | $525,000 |
| Sep ’25 | $540,000 |
| Oct ’25 | $515,000 |
| Nov ’25 | $500,000 |
| Dec ’25 | $474,250 |
| Jan ’26 | $500,000 |
| Feb ’26 | $515,000 |
| Mar ’26 | $485,000 |
| Apr ’26 | $550,000 |
| May ’26 | $510,000 |
| Jun ’26 | $520,250 |
| Jul ’26 | $509,500 |
| Aug ’26 | $515,000 |
Source: WECAR, August 2024 through August 2026. Figures are a snapshot taken when this post was written, not live — the numbers on the community pages are current.
The median is a jumpy series, and August's $515,000 is worth reading against its own noise rather than as a trend. It sat at $485,000 in March, $550,000 in April, and $509,500 in July. Against August last year — $525,000 — it is about 1.9% lower. (Source: WECAR, August 2025 and August 2026.)
That volatility is not the market changing its mind every four weeks. The median answers a narrow question: of the homes that happened to sell this month, what was the middle price? It moves with what sold. In August the single largest style category was the bungalow — 101 of the month's sales, at an average of $476,507, well under the county median. (Source: WECAR, August 2026.) A month weighted toward entry-level homes prints a lower median without any individual home losing value.
The vertical axis spans $565,500–$586,600, not zero to $586,600 — it shows the movement in the series, not the size of the numbers.
View as a table
| Mar ’25 | $578,500 |
|---|---|
| Apr ’25 | $580,900 |
| May ’25 | $573,100 |
| Jun ’25 | $568,700 |
| Jul ’25 | $566,400 |
| Aug ’25 | $565,500 |
| Sep ’25 | $568,100 |
| Oct ’25 | $571,900 |
| Nov ’25 | $580,200 |
| Dec ’25 | $573,000 |
| Jan ’26 | $574,700 |
| Feb ’26 | $575,700 |
| Mar ’26 | $574,900 |
| Apr ’26 | $579,200 |
| May ’26 | $583,500 |
| Jun ’26 | $586,600 |
| Jul ’26 | $579,100 |
| Aug ’26 | $584,300 |
Source: WECAR, March 2025 through August 2026. Figures are a snapshot taken when this post was written, not live — the numbers on the community pages are current.
The MLS® HPI benchmark is built to strip that out. It asks what the same typical home would fetch now versus before, and it has been grinding upward for a year: $565,500 last August, $584,300 this August. (Source: WECAR, August 2025 and August 2026.) On the index's own year-over-year measure, August is +1.8%. (Source: WECAR, August 2026.)
So the two series still point different directions, and both are honest. If you want the longer version of why, it is the whole of last month's report.
Supply, and the pace it is clearing at
View as a table
| Sep ’25 | 381sales |
|---|---|
| Oct ’25 | 461sales |
| Nov ’25 | 370sales |
| Dec ’25 | 261sales |
| Jan ’26 | 267sales |
| Feb ’26 | 237sales |
| Mar ’26 | 352sales |
| Apr ’26 | 437sales |
| May ’26 | 424sales |
| Jun ’26 | 476sales |
| Jul ’26 | 470sales |
| Aug ’26 | 428sales |
Source: WECAR, September 2025 through August 2026. Figures are a snapshot taken when this post was written, not live — the numbers on the community pages are current.
- 428 residential sales, against 470 in July — an ordinary late-summer step down, and the shape of that seasonal curve is the clearest thing in the chart above.
- 1,127 new listings and 1,973 active at month end.
- 4.6 months of inventory — active listings divided by August's sales pace, up from 4.3 in July. Under roughly four months favours sellers; over roughly six favours buyers. This is the middle, drifting.
(Source: WECAR, July 2026 and August 2026.)
One caveat on the sales count, because it will come up. Monthly sales are revised upward in later reports as late filings land, so a year-ago figure quoted out of this month's release will be higher than the number first published for that month. This site stores every month as first reported, which is why the figures here match what WECAR published at the time and why year-over-year sales comparisons in the first week of a month are worth treating gently. Prices are barely affected by this; counts are.
If you're selling
Nothing in August says values fell — the benchmark is up on the month and up on the year. What it says is that the price you put on the listing is now the ceiling of the conversation rather than its floor, and there are 1,973 other homes available to a buyer who thinks yours is optimistic. (Source: WECAR, August 2026.)
That makes pricing against recent comparable sold evidence the entire exercise. Asking prices — including every price shown on this site's listing pages — tell you what other sellers hope for, not what buyers paid. A written valuation is the version of this that uses the sold side. If you're weighing whether the move works financially before you get that far, the home equity calculator is the faster first pass.
If you're buying
You have negotiating room that did not exist eighteen months ago, and it is modest and real rather than dramatic: the average buyer in August paid slightly under asking, with about four and a half months of inventory to choose from. (Source: WECAR, August 2026.)
The practical consequence is that the constraint has moved back to financing. Work out what the payment actually is at today's rates with the mortgage calculator, and budget the closing costs separately — Ontario land transfer tax alone is a four-figure line on a home at this median, and the land transfer tax calculator will tell you exactly what it is, including the first-time buyer refund if it applies.
Every figure above is a sold-side number from the Windsor-Essex County Association of REALTORS® monthly report. That is a different dataset, under different rules, from the asking prices shown on this site's listing pages — the MLS® feed behind those pages carries no sold data at all. Figures are as first published in each month's report. The full monthly report, with the three-year trend, lives here.
