Published October 4, 2026 in Market Update

Prices are not moving the same way across the Lake Region

By Wendy Schurgot

Real estate, Lake Wallenpaupack / Lake Region

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. home prices up 2.6% year over year in July 2026. That sounds simple. But in the Lake Region, the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted very different stories depending on which ZIP code you live in.

In ZIP 18428, the median sale price rose 16.9% to $345,000 in the three months ending July 31, 2026. In ZIP 18426, it fell 8.3% to $330,000 over that same period. Both ZIPs are in the same lake region. Both show up in the same broad headlines. Neither one is the whole story.

Median sale price by ZIP, three months ending July 31, 2026

The price change picture is just as uneven

Where the Real Estate Data Aggregator has year-over-year comparisons, the swings are wide. ZIP 18428 was up 16.9%. ZIP 18436 was up 12.5%. ZIP 18426 was down 8.3%. ZIP 18464 was down 3%. ZIP 18435 was down 3.7%. That is a 25-point spread across one lake region in one three-month window.

Speed and competition also vary by ZIP

Price is only part of the picture. How fast homes move, and how often buyers bid above list, also shifts a lot from one ZIP to the next.

ZIP 18464 had the fewest median days on market at 13, and 56.3% of homes went under contract within two weeks of listing. That is the highest quick-contract rate in the region. Yet its median price was down 3% year over year. Buyers moved fast, but they did not pay more.

ZIP 18438 is a small market with only 6 homes sold, but its sale-to-list ratio came in at 101.1% and 77.8% of pending sales went under contract within two weeks. The Real Estate Data Aggregator does not have a year-over-year price comparison for 18438, so treat those figures as a snapshot, not a trend.

Supply is rising in some areas

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 427 homes for sale across the full Lake Region in the three months ending July 31, 2026. Supply is not moving the same way everywhere, either.

ZIP 18464 saw inventory jump 81.8% year over year. That is a big shift for a small market. More supply usually gives buyers more choices and puts some pressure on prices, which lines up with the 3% price dip there. ZIP 18435 is the one ZIP where inventory actually fell, down 3.4%, and months of supply dropped 3.8 months year over year.

What the national numbers miss

The Federal Housing Finance Agency put U.S. price growth at 2.6% year over year in July 2026. CNBC reported the average 30-year fixed rate at 7.30% as of September 30, 2026. Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates topped 7% in September 2026, and that 20.8% of listings nationally had a price cut that month, the highest share since October 2022.

Those are real signals. But none of them tell you what is happening on your street in the Lake Region. A ZIP where prices rose nearly 17% and a ZIP where they fell more than 8% are both inside the same broad market. The national average lands somewhere in between, and it does not describe either one.