CHESTER COUNTY, PA — While national housing markets showed signs of cooling late in 2025, Chester County continued to chart a markedly different course, maintaining strong seller leverage and solid price growth even as seasonality returned, according to a comparison of local data and Zillow’s latest national housing report.
In November 2025, Chester County remained firmly in seller’s-market territory. The median sold price climbed to roughly $557,000 to $561,000, representing a year-over-year increase of about 7.3% to 7.5%. Homes continued to move quickly, with median days on market commonly near 10 days, though some tracking placed the figure closer to the low 30s. Inventory expanded modestly, with active listings rising nearly 14% from a year earlier to about 989 homes, offering buyers slightly more choice but not enough to meaningfully shift negotiating power. Closed sales slipped between 4.7% and 6.3% year over year, reflecting seasonal moderation rather than a demand shock.
Those dynamics stand in sharp contrast to Zillow’s national assessment, which points to a broader rebalancing underway. Zillow reported that buyers nationally gained ground on affordability in 2025, aided by easing mortgage rates, flattened home values and rising incomes. By November, mortgage payments consumed 32.6% of median household income nationwide, the lowest level since 2022. Typical home values across the country were up just 0.2% from a year earlier, and more than half of homes saw values decline over that span.
Seasonality played a decisive role nationally. New listings fell nearly 30% from October to November, the steepest November drop since at least 2018, as sellers retreated after an unusually active fall. Price cuts also retreated to seasonal norms, declining from being offered on 26.9% of listings in October to 21.2% in November. Pending sales dropped sharply month over month, though they remained modestly above last year’s pace.
Chester County’s full-year performance highlights how local fundamentals can outweigh national trends. Throughout 2025, median sale prices generally ranged between $550,000 and $625,000, peaking near $620,000 in midyear. Strong household incomes, employment growth and limited new construction helped sustain demand even as mortgage rates hovered around 6.25% in the fall. Properties routinely sold close to asking price, with sale-to-list ratios near 100%, reinforcing seller confidence.
Zillow’s economists describe 2025 as a year of gradual normalization after pandemic-era volatility, with inventory rebuilding and affordability improving incrementally. Chester County, however, emerged as an outlier, posting price gains that far exceeded the national average and remaining resilient despite higher borrowing costs.
The divergence illustrates a key takeaway for 2026: national housing headlines may point to balance returning, but high-income, supply-constrained markets like Chester County continue to operate by a different set of rules, where demand remains strong and price pressures have yet to meaningfully ease.
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