Market reports
What the Lowcountry market actually did last month
July 2026 figures for Hilton Head Island and Bluffton, read from the Hilton Head Area REALTORS® Local Market Update — the association's own report, from the MLS. Every number here carries the month it describes and the date I read it, because a market figure without a period is worthless six weeks later.
Where these come from
The association’s report, not my summary of it
These figures are published monthly by the Hilton Head Area REALTORS® from REsides, Inc. (the MLS)data — the multiple listing service itself. I read them out of the association’s own PDFs rather than any aggregator or portal summary, because those round, re-cut and re-date figures in ways that are impossible to check afterwards.
The reporting month is July 2026, current as of 10 August 2026, and compared against the same month a year earlier. I last opened the source on 2 September 2026.
Hilton Head Island
What I have closed in Hilton Head Island→Reported by the association as Hilton Head Totals. The island is published as two separate reports by property type, which is why there are two sets of figures below and no combined one.
Detached homes
- Median sale price
- $1,250,000
- +6.6% on July last year
- Average days on market
- 109
- +29.2% on July last year
- Homes for sale
- 223
- -18% on July last year
Condos and villas
- Median sale price
- $504,000
- -12.3% on July last year
- Average days on market
- 114
- +23.1% on July last year
- Homes for sale
- 411
- -1% on July last year
There is no single island-wide median here, and I am not going to invent one by averaging these two. The association publishes detached homes and condos as separate reports because they are separate markets — this month they moved in opposite directions, and a blended figure would describe neither.
Bluffton
What I have closed in Bluffton→Reported by the association as Bluffton 29910 and 29909. That is a ZIP-code aggregation rather than the municipality: 29909 reaches past the town limits into Sun City and Okatie, so this covers a slightly wider area than the Town of Bluffton.
All property types
- Median sale price
- $506,950
- +3.7% on July last year
- Average days on market
- 127
- +35.1% on July last year
- Homes for sale
- 736
- -16.4% on July last year
Read this before you quote any of it
What this report does not say
Most of the arguments people have about this market come from statistics that were never published in the first place. These are the specific things the July 2026 report does not contain, so that neither of us ends up leaning on one:
- A COMBINED Hilton Head Island median. The island is published only as 'Detached Homes Only' and 'Condos / Villas Only', in two separate reports. There is no all-property island figure and one must never be derived by averaging or blending the two.
- Months supply of inventory at town level. It exists only for the whole Hilton Head Area REALTORS® region, so it cannot be attributed to either town.
- Median days on market, and cumulative days on market (CDOM). Only average DOM is published.
- Any buyer's-market or seller's-market characterisation. The association makes no such statement anywhere in these reports and one must not be attributed to it.
- Town-of-Bluffton-limits figures. Only the ZIP aggregation exists.
The last one matters more than it looks. “It’s a buyer’s market” is the most repeated sentence in this business and the association does not say it anywhere in these reports. If you hear it attributed to the MLS, it has been added by whoever is telling you.
“Days on market” above is the averagenumber of days between listing and an accepted offer, which is how the association defines it — not a median, and not cumulative days on market. Percent changes are calculated on rounded figures and can look extreme on small samples: Hilton Head detached had 70 closings this month, so treat a double-digit swing there as one month’s noise rather than a trend.
Source: Hilton Head Area REALTORS® market reports, July 2026 Local Market Update. Read 2 September 2026. Current as of August 10, 2026. Data © 2026 REsides, INC. All Rights Reserved. | Sponsored by South Carolina REALTORS®. | Report © 2026 ShowingTime Plus, LLC.
Updated monthly, roughly ten to fourteen days after month end. The next report is expected around 10 September 2026.
A median describes a market. It does not tell you what a particular house is worth, and it will not tell you whether the one you are standing in is priced well — two villas in the same building can be a hundred thousand apart for reasons no monthly report captures. If you want the number that applies to your address rather than to your ZIP code, ask me, and I will give it to you with the date attached.
Want this month's read on your street?
The report covers a whole island and a pair of ZIP codes. Tell me the community you're actually looking at and I'll tell you what it is doing, with the source and the date.