North San Diego Market Report

Carlsbad has fewer houses for sale than any September since at least 2021.

103 single-family homes were for sale in Carlsbad in September. A year ago it was 237. That is 56% fewer, and it took months of supply from 4.1 down to 1.7, the tightest of the four North San Diego areas I track. The median sale was $1.875M. Here is the twist: with the shelf this bare, sellers are still closing a little under asking. I pull these numbers straight from the MLS rather than a national estimate site, and this is the current read on Carlsbad.

Latest available reading: Carlsbad, September 2026 single-family, pulled October 29, 2026.

By the Numbers

The current read on Carlsbad.

Single-family homes only. September 2026 is the newest month; the comparisons are to September 2025 and the two months before.

Carlsbad · Pace and Supply

1.7

Months of Supply

Single-family, September. Was 4.1 a year ago. July was 1.7 and August 1.5.
103

Homes on the Market

Active single-family listings in September. Was 237 a year ago, down 56%.
12

Median Days in MLS

September closings. Was 15 a year ago. July ran 9, August 16.

Carlsbad Closings · September 2026

$1.875M

Median Sales Price

52 closings. July was $1.975M and August $1.905M. Was $1.805M a year ago.
98.4%

Of List Price Received

Median for September closings. Was 99.1% a year ago. The only one of the four areas under 99.5%.
52

Closed Sales

Was 57 a year ago. Provisional: September counts get revised upward on later pulls.

Source: California Regional MLS via InfoSparks (ShowingTime Plus), residential single-family, September 2026, pulled October 29, 2026.

The Read

More than half the inventory is gone. Here is where it went.

A 56% drop in homes for sale is the kind of number that deserves a second look before anyone builds a story on it. So I checked it against Carlsbad's monthly history back to January 2021. It holds up, with one important footnote.

The footnote first. September 2025 was not a normal baseline. Carlsbad had 237 single-family homes for sale that month, the most of any September in the data. Supply was 4.1 months, balanced-market territory, after peaking at 4.8 in July 2025. So part of this year's drop is last year's pile-up clearing out.

Now the part that holds up anyway. 103 homes is not just below last year. It is below every September in the series, including 2021's 147, when supply across San Diego County was 1.5 months. And 1.7 months is Carlsbad's lowest September supply reading since that same 2021, when it was 1.5.

The step down happened last fall and never reversed. Inventory fell from 237 in September 2025 to 158 in October and 102 by December. This spring, the busiest listing season of the year, it topped out at 161 in April. Last year it peaked at 279 in July.

Two things are driving it. Fewer homes are coming to market: 196 new listings across July, August and September, against 250 over the same months in 2025. And slightly more of them are selling: 195 closings over those three months, against 171 a year earlier. Fewer coming in, more going out. The shelf empties.

Here is the twist. With supply this tight, you would expect bidding wars. On the median, you would be wrong. Carlsbad's September closings came in at 98.4% of last list price, against 99.1% a year ago and 98.7% in August. It is the only one of the four areas in this report below 99.5%. At a $1.875M median, buyers are still negotiating. Tight supply means a well-priced home sells. It does not mean any price sells.

Price itself is up, modestly. The monthly median ran $1.875M to $1.975M across July through September, against $1.775M to $1.840M over the same months a year earlier. At 52 to 76 closings a month, any single month moves with the mix, so read the range, not the September number.

One honest caveat on the counts. September is the newest month in this pull, and its pending, new-listing and closed-sale counts get revised upward on later pulls as late entries land, so treat those three as floors. Supply, price and pace are firm.

In Context

Carlsbad is the tightest market of the four, and the most expensive.

Single-family homes, September 2026, measured the same way across all four areas. Under three months of supply is generally read as a seller's market, three to six as balanced, and over six as a buyer's market.

Area	Median Price	Months of Supply	Supply a Year Ago	Active Listings	Median Days in MLS	% of List Received
San Diego County	$1.075M	2.6	3.5	3,387	16	100.0%
Oceanside	$890K	2.2	3.0	212	13	100.0%
Carlsbad	$1.875M	1.7	4.1	103	12	98.4%
San Diego (city)	$1.19M	2.2	2.9	902	14	99.5%

Carlsbad has the least supply of the four areas at 1.7 months, against 2.2 in Oceanside and the City of San Diego and 2.6 across the county. It also had the biggest swing. A year ago it was the loosest of the four at 4.1 months. Now it is the tightest. It is the most expensive, with a $1.875M median against $1.19M in the city and $1.075M countywide, and the only one of the four closing meaningfully under list, at 98.4%.

Source: California Regional MLS via InfoSparks (ShowingTime Plus), residential single-family, September 2026, pulled October 29, 2026. San Diego (city) is the City of San Diego, not the county.

The City

What a citywide median does not tell you.

Carlsbad covers a lot of ground, from the Coastal Zone inland to La Costa, and one citywide median blends very different homes into a single number. With 52 to 76 closings a month, a couple of large sales in one corner of town can move it on their own. If you want the read on a specific pocket, that is a far more useful conversation than anything on this page.

The line between the Coastal Zone and everywhere else also decides something concrete: where a short-term rental is allowed at all.

Thinking about buying here for rental income? Read the rules first, because in Oceanside, Carlsbad and the City of San Diego alike, the short-term rental permit belongs to the operator, not the house, and it does not survive the sale. The buyer applies from scratch. Oceanside caps non-hosted rentals at 480 and confines them to the Coastal Zone, and has banned them in R-1 zoning outside it since December 2023. Carlsbad allows them only in the Coastal Zone and the La Costa Resort area, with no published cap and 248 permitted properties citywide. San Diego had 807 Tier 3 whole-home licenses left as of October 23, 2026, while Mission Beach's Tier 4 pool is full at 1,099. The full city-by-city breakdown, with the phone numbers to call before your contingencies expire, is on my San Diego County short-term rental rules page.

Keep reading:

Questions people ask

Carlsbad, answered.

How much is a house in Carlsbad?

The median single-family home in Carlsbad sold for $1,875,438 in September 2026, on 52 closings, per CRMLS via InfoSparks. That is about $800,000 above the San Diego County single-family median of $1.075M for the same month.

What is the median home price in Carlsbad?

The single-family median was $1.875M in September 2026, against $1.805M in September 2025, per CRMLS via InfoSparks. At 52 to 76 sales a month the figure moves with which homes happen to close: July was $1.975M and August $1.905M. Read any single month as a snapshot of that month's mix, not a new price level.

Is Carlsbad a buyer's or seller's market?

A seller's market on supply, by the usual yardstick. Carlsbad had 1.7 months of single-family supply in September 2026, per CRMLS via InfoSparks, down from 4.1 months a year ago, and under three months is generally read as a seller's market. Buyers still have some room on price: the median September closing came in at 98.4% of list, against 100% across San Diego County.

Are home prices dropping in Carlsbad?

Not on the numbers through September 2026. The single-family median was $1.875M in September against $1.805M a year earlier, per CRMLS via InfoSparks, and July and August, at $1.975M and $1.905M, were also above the same months in 2025. The softer signal is the sale-to-list ratio: 98.4% in September, so buyers are negotiating a little off asking even with supply this tight.

How long do homes take to sell in Carlsbad?

Single-family homes that closed in September 2026 spent a median of 12 days active in the MLS, per CRMLS via InfoSparks, down from 15 days a year earlier. With 103 homes for sale, Carlsbad had 1.7 months of supply, the time it would take to sell through the current inventory at the current pace.

What is the property tax rate in Carlsbad?

Proposition 13 limits the base rate to 1% of a property's full cash value, a home is generally reassessed when it sells, and between sales its assessed value can rise no more than 2% a year, per the San Diego County Auditor and Controller. Voter-approved debt for schools and local districts is added on top. In the Auditor's Fiscal Year 2025-26 tax rate book, the newest it has published, Carlsbad's 141 tax rate areas total between 1.06834% and 1.14247%, and the most common rate, used by 55 of them, is 1.0783%. Special taxes such as Mello-Roos and other special assessments are billed on the same tax bill and are not based on property value.

Is it expensive to live in Carlsbad?

For housing, yes. Carlsbad's September 2026 single-family median of $1.875M is the highest of the four North San Diego areas compared here, against $1.075M across San Diego County, per CRMLS via InfoSparks. At the city's most common 1.0783% tax rate, property tax on a home bought at that median runs about $20,200 a year before any special assessments.

Sources: California Regional MLS via InfoSparks (ShowingTime Plus), residential single-family, September 2026, pulled October 29, 2026. Tax rates: San Diego County Auditor and Controller, Property Valuations, Tax Rates, Fiscal Year 2025-26 (Table 27, tax rate by tax rate area), the newest edition on the Auditor's tax rate book page as of October 29, 2026.

What is your Carlsbad home worth with this little on the market?

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