What Is a Brentwood Home Worth? Reading a Falling Median Beside a Rising Price per Foot

Which Brentwood median is the right one?

The figures sort into five groups. Realtor.com's $2,135,000 is a median of homes sold in August. Redfin's $2.4 million covers three months to August and the luxury blog's $2.3 million covers three months to June. Houzeo's page gives $2,625,000 and labels it December 2026, a month that has not yet occurred, so it is not used. The firm's $3,625,000 is a single-family median for April to June. Value estimates are higher again: Zillow's $2,906,038 and Prop:Metrics' $3,005,000 are indexes and not prices.

The spread is wide. The highest sold median is 1.70 times the lowest, and the highest is for single-family homes in one quarter while the lowest is for all homes in one month. The firm says the following about its own number: the 18% fall in the median is not a house losing 18% of its value, and the median followed the traffic. If a median can drop by a fifth because of which homes happened to sell, then it is the mix that moves it.

The firm's two reports show how sensitive the numbers are to definition. The first counts 74 single-family sales in the second quarter, with a median of $3,625,000 and $1,385 per square foot, and total volume of $370 million. The second counts 64 homes, with $321 million of volume and $1,357 per square foot. The first has 15.6% more sales and 15.3% more volume. Both average $5.0 million a sale, which this brief computes from the volume and count. The first says list-to-sale rose from 92% to 94%, and the second says the median sale was 95.7% of list. The two pages do not explain the difference, and the likely cause is a different cut of the data, which is this brief's inference.

The direction of change is just as unsettled. Redfin shows the median down 9.58%. The blog shows it down 21.7%, and a separate Mandeville Canyon figure down 19.3% for the three months to March. Realtor.com shows the sold median up 9.84% on the year and 8.38% over three years. Prop:Metrics and Zillow show values up 5.3% and 4.5%. Those are several directions from eight pages, and the pages that show values rising are estimates and not sale prices.

The listing median adds a different view. Realtor.com's $3,746,750 is 1.75 times its own sold median of $2,135,000, a gap of $1,611,750. A neighborhood in which asking prices sit that far above sold prices is a neighborhood in which what is for sale is not what is selling. The blog says a handful of $6 million to $10 million compound sales can swing the median in one quarter and not in the next, and the firm's report says the $2 million to $4 million range is the largest segment, with 35 or 39 of its sales depending on the report.

Sources as cited. The measures differ and the figures are not directly comparable. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Is the median down 22 percent while the price per foot is up 8?

The blog's argument is that Brentwood is two markets, and the median is the number least equipped to say which one a seller is in. It computes the median down 21.7% to $2.3 million for the three months to June, with the price per square foot up 7.9% to $989, homes selling in 66 days against 50, and 119 closings in June against 102. Redfin's later page shows the same pattern: a median down 9.58%, a price per foot of $985 up 8.4%, and 104 sales in August against 104 a year earlier.

The price per foot is a steadier measure because it divides out the size of the house. Redfin's $985 and the blog's $989 are within half a percent of each other, which is the closest any two numbers in this brief come to agreeing. The firm's per-foot figures are higher, $1,385 and $1,357, and they are for single-family homes in the second quarter, while the Redfin and blog figures include all home types. The firm's own two figures are 2.1% apart. A seller can read from this that the quoted price per foot of a single-family home is about 40% above the all-type figure, which is 1,385 divided by 985, and that the firm's own two figures sit within a few percent of each other.

The firm puts the year-on-year change in per-foot terms. It says $1,447 a year ago and $1,385 now, a decline of about 4%. In its second report it says $1,357 is roughly flat on a year ago and up from $1,275 two years earlier, a rise of 6%. A decline of 4% and a flat result are different statements, and both are the same firm's. Redfin and the blog say per-foot prices rose 8%. The three disagree in sign, and the cause is the sample, since single-family homes in one quarter are a few dozen sales.

The reasons the pages give for the swing are consistent with each other. The blog says Brentwood is built out, with new builds under 3% of annual sales because nearly every project is a teardown on an existing lot, and that a few estate sales can move the median. The firm says the median followed the traffic. In the firm's first report, the $2 million to $4 million range had 39 sales, more than half of the quarter and up from 30 a year earlier, while under $2 million had 6 sales. A median pulled by 39 mid-tier sales and a few very large ones can fall even when no home has lost value. That is what the pages say, and this brief takes it as the most plausible reading.

The practical point for a seller is that a headline median says little about their own home. The same firm's second report says homes under $4 million sold in a median 14 days at 100% of list, while homes above $7 million took a median 39 days at 92% of list. A seller of a $3 million house and a seller of an $8 million house are therefore in different markets, with a wait that differs by 25 days and a price that differs by 8 points of list.

The blog gives one street as an example. Over the three months to March 2026, the median sale price on the canyon road it describes fell 19.3% on the year, while the price per square foot there rose 11.3%. The blog describes the road as the longest paved cul-de-sac in the city. A single road is a small sample for a median in a quarter, and the opposite signs of price and per-foot change are what a shift in the size of homes sold would produce. That is the blog's argument, and the sale counts behind the road figure are not given.

Zillow's page shows another limit. Its average home value of $2,906,038, up 4.5%, is dated April 30, 2026, and it is five months old on the date of this brief. A value index is slow by design, so it moves less than a median, and the Prop:Metrics value of $3,005,000 for May is within 3.4% of it. Neither tells a seller what a buyer will pay in a month in which the median of recent sales is anywhere from $2.1 million to $3.6 million.

What do the waits, ratios and counts say, and who lives in Brentwood?

The waits run from 14 days to 66. Realtor.com shows 59 days in August, flat on the year and up 22.92% over three years. Redfin shows 56 days, down from 77. The blog shows 66, up from 50. Prop:Metrics shows 54, up 20.0%. Zillow shows about 40 days to pending as of April 30. The firm shows a median of 20 days for the second quarter, down from 32 in the first, and 14 days for the mid-tier. The ratio between the longest and the shortest is 4.7.

The sale-to-list ratios agree better. Redfin shows 97.7%, up 0.6 points, with 19.7% of homes above list and 23.5% with a price drop. Houzeo shows 97.68. The firm's second report shows 95.7%, down from 99% a year earlier, and 17% of sales over asking. Its first report says the average sale closed 11% below its original asking price, a year after the average sale closed above it. The range of 95.7% to 97.7% is for list price, and 89% is the figure against the original ask. That distinction is the firm's, and a seller should ask which one a buyer will use.

The Realtor.com page contradicts itself on supply. Its table shows 230 active listings, down 15.92% on the year and up 87.23% over three years. Its text says the same 230 are up 5.18% year over year. A change cannot be both a 15.9% fall and a 5.2% rise, so one of the two lines is wrong, and the page does not say which. This brief reports the table.

The Census shows who lives there. The postal area has 37,122 residents and 18,727 homes, of which 16,649 are occupied and 2,078 vacant, a vacancy of 11.1%. Of the occupied homes, 8,883 (53.4%) are owner-occupied and 7,766 (46.6%) are rented. The median household income is $170,607 and the median gross rent is $2,957, which is 20.8% of the monthly income at the median. The median owner-occupied value is reported as $2,000,001, the Census ceiling, so the true median is at least $2 million and the Census gives no margin of error.

The homes were built in the middle of the last century. Of the 18,727, 3,608 were built in the 1950s and 3,913 in the 1960s, together 40.2%. Another 69.1% of all homes were built before 1980, and the median year built is 1968. Only 181 have been built since 2020. This is a neighborhood of older houses and apartments on built-out lots, as the blog says, in which a seller of a house is competing with few new ones. Readers comparing markets can also read the La Quinta brief and the Studio City brief.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25034, B25077, B25003, B25002, B19013 and B25064. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

What should an owner ask, and what does a private sale change?

Ask which quarter and which home type a number covers, and how many sales are behind it. Ask whether the price is a median, an average or a per-foot figure, and whether the ratio is against the last list price or the original one. Ask whether the page is current and whether it agrees with itself. A seller who has these answers can read a page, and a seller who does not will find that eight pages give eight prices.

A private sale changes how a home reaches a buyer. With Maison Off-Market there are no showings and no neighbors talking about a sale, the closing date can be flexible so that an owner has time to find a new home, there are no commission costs, there are no closing costs and there are no inspections or repairs. For a home above $7 million, where the firm's report shows a wait of 39 days at 92% of list, avoiding a public run may matter most. This brief does not claim that a private sale always brings a higher price than a public listing.

Fee arithmetic shows what the commission point means in dollars, without assuming any rate. Each 1% of a sale price is $21,350 at $2,135,000, $24,000 at $2,400,000 and $36,250 at $3,625,000. At 3% those amounts are $64,050, $72,000 and $108,750. At 5% they are $106,750, $120,000 and $181,250. These are illustrations of what a percentage means on the figures in this brief, and they are not a statement of what any agent charges or what any sale would cost.

Privacy is often the first thing owners of larger homes raise. A public listing puts photographs, a price history and every price cut in front of anyone with a phone, and Redfin shows that 23.5% of listings have a price drop. A private sale keeps those details out of view. That is a matter of preference and not a claim about price.

Timing is the other thing an owner controls. A public listing starts a clock that buyers can see, and the pages above show a range of 14 to 66 days. A private sale lets the owner choose the closing date, which matters most to people who need to find the next home first.

If you are weighing a sale of a Brentwood home, one conversation costs nothing and obliges you to nothing. We ask about the home, the timing you would like and what you would need from a buyer, and we say plainly whether a private sale fits.

If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Brentwood home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Prices, days on market, counts and ratios come from Redfin's neighborhood page for the three months to August 2026, Realtor.com's neighborhood page with indicators as of August 2026, two reports from one firm dated August 1 and August 29, 2026, a luxury brokerage's blog for the three months to June 2026, Prop:Metrics data as of May 2026 and Zillow's page updated April 30, 2026. A Houzeo page that dates its figures to a future month was read and not relied on. The pages cover different periods and measures, and most are commercial pages, so they are not independent of each other.

Census figures come from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates for the postal area that includes Brentwood, through Census Reporter. The median home value is top-coded at $2,000,001. Percentages, gaps, ratios and fee amounts are this brief's own arithmetic and are labeled as such. Where a reading goes beyond what a page says, it is called an inference. No agent names, contact details or street addresses from the pages are reproduced.

Conclusion

The Brentwood record shows sold medians from $2,135,000 to $3,625,000, changes from down 21.7% to up 9.84%, waits from 14 to 66 days, sale-to-list ratios from 95.7% to 97.7%, and two reports from one firm that count 74 and 64 sales in a quarter. The numbers differ because the pages measure different things, cover different quarters and home types, and in a market of a few dozen sales a quarter a handful of large sales can move any of them.

It does not fix a price for any one home. The choice between a public listing and a private sale comes down to whether an owner would rather meet showings, inspections and a public clock, or sell quietly on a date that suits them. Maison Off-Market speaks only to sellers, and a conversation costs nothing.