Which Ocean City Area Does Your House Belong To? Reading a Falling Sold Median and a Rising Asking Median

What does an asking price up 12 percent against a sale price down 25 mean?

The Realtor.com table gives a median listing price of $1,524,000, up 12.01% on the year, and a median sold price of $957,500, down 24.61%. Working backward, the asking median a year ago was about $1,360,600 and the sold median about $1,270,100. A year ago the typical listing was priced about $90,500 above the typical sale. Today it is priced about $566,500 above it, which is 37.2% of the asking figure.

Those year-ago figures are this brief's arithmetic and assume the stated changes apply cleanly to the medians. The direction is plain without them. The asking median rose while the sold median fell by a quarter, and in a month the sold median fell 26.29%.

A fall of a quarter in a month is not a fall in value. It is a change in which homes closed. If a few large homes sold in the previous month and mostly smaller ones sold this month, the median drops without any home losing value. The listing median can rise for the opposite reason, because the larger homes are the ones still on the market.

The prices for sale in this city differ so much by area that the mix matters more than any trend. For an owner, the figure to use is the sale of a comparable home in the same area, and not either median. Redfin's median of $1,121,758 is $164,258 above Realtor.com's, which is 14.6% of the Redfin figure, and both are for a mix of homes.

Sources: Redfin and Realtor.com pages as cited. The $1,360,600, $1,270,100, $90,500, $566,500, 37.2%, $164,258 and 14.6% figures are this brief's arithmetic. The explanation of the pattern is this brief's reasoning and not a finding of either page. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Why do the areas differ by a factor of four?

The Realtor.com neighborhood table lists nine areas by median listing price. The Gardens is at $3,599,900, the South End at $1,524,500, the North End at $1,362,000, Corinthian at $1,267,000, the Ocean City Historic District at $1,085,000, Central Ocean City at $887,400, Historic Bay at $699,000, Kennedy Park at $539,900 and Greate Bay Country Club at $439,997. The Gardens is 4.1 times Central Ocean City.

The price per square foot tells a different story. The South End is the highest at $1,373, then the Gardens at $965, Corinthian at $826, the Historic District at $815, Central Ocean City at $724, North End at $619, Historic Bay at $531, Kennedy Park at $453 and Greate Bay Country Club at $272. The South End is 2.2 times the North End per foot and its median price is only 12% higher, so the South End's homes are smaller, or the page's figures rest on a few listings.

The table of homes for sale shows where the stock is. Central Ocean City has 129, up 4.39%, which is 36.5% of the city's 353. The North End has 67, down 28.13%, the Gardens 38, up 26.92%, the South End 37, up 3.45% and Corinthian 23, down 29.41%. The Historic District has 11, down 56.52%, and Kennedy Park has 10, up 200%, from a handful.

The page's areas include Kennedy Park, Greate Bay Country Club and a Somers Point historic district, which suggests that the page's Ocean City covers some of the neighboring area. An owner should therefore read the area figures for the owner's own part of town and not the city median, which averages a luxury district with an inland one.

Sources: Realtor.com page as cited. The 4.1, 2.2, 12% and 36.5% figures are this brief's arithmetic. The inferences about home size and the page's area are this brief's reasoning from the figures and names. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Do the two pages agree on how fast homes sell?

No. Redfin says homes sold in 82 days, against 75 a year earlier, which is seven days slower. Realtor.com says the median is 71 days, up 17.31% on the year, or about ten days slower. Both pages show a slowdown, and they differ by 11 days in level.

Redfin's panels give a very wide range. In one, the average home sells for about 3% below list and goes pending in around 82 days, with the hottest homes at list in around 53 days. In another, the average sells for about 4% below in around 129 days, with the hottest at list in around 34. In a third, the average sells for about 1% below in around 30 days, with the hottest at list in around 15. The page does not label the panels in the text I could read, so I do not attribute them.

What the three panels show is a market in which the wait for an average home ranges from one month to more than four. That is a wide range, and it goes with the spread of prices by area. A seller in a fast area sells in weeks, and a seller in a slow one may wait through a summer.

The shares support a slow reading. Only 13.4% of homes sold above the ask, down from about 17.1% a year ago, and 19.9% had a price cut, down from about 21.7%. Fewer homes were cut, and fewer sold above the ask. The market is quiet at both ends.

Sources: Redfin and Realtor.com pages as cited. The 17.1% and 21.7% figures are this brief's arithmetic from the stated changes. The reading of the panels is this brief's reasoning. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Is Ocean City somewhat competitive, warm or a buyer's market?

Redfin says somewhat competitive, with a Compete Score of 30 out of 100, which is low on a scale where 100 is the most competitive. It lists nearby places at 12 and 47. Realtor.com says warm, because homes sold in a median of 71 days, and a buyer's market for September 2026, because supply is greater than demand.

The words differ, and the numbers agree. Redfin's sale-to-list ratio is 96.8% and Realtor.com says homes sold for 3.11% below the asking price, a ratio of 97%. The typical Ocean City home sells about 3% under its ask, and the ratio is down 0.73 points on the year on Redfin.

Supply is steady. Realtor.com counts 353 active listings, down 0.98% on the year, and 154 sales in August on Redfin would make about 2.3 months of supply. The two counts come from different sources and may not describe the same homes, so this is an illustration and not a measurement.

A fair reading is a market that is not hot and not cold. A seller should expect a discount of a few percent, a wait of two to three months and few competing bids, and should price from sales in the owner's own area.

Sources: Redfin and Realtor.com pages as cited. The 2.3 months figure is this brief's arithmetic and illustration. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Why does the Census count 73 percent of homes as vacant?

The Census profile covers the postal area that includes Ocean City. It counts 11,261 people and 21,191 housing units, of which 5,689 are occupied and 15,502 vacant, a vacancy rate of 73.2%. Only about 27% of the homes have a household living in them at the time of the survey. There are about 2.7 vacant homes for each occupied one.

The table I used does not say why homes are vacant. The Census counts homes held for occasional or seasonal use as vacant, and in a shore town of summer houses that is a likely part of the answer. The table does not break it out, so I do not claim it. It does mean that most of the homes here are not a household's year-round address.

Of the occupied homes, owners hold 4,135 (72.7%) and renters 1,554 (27.3%). Median household income is $101,782 and median gross rent is $1,683. The Realtor.com median rent is $2,100, $417 higher, or about 25% above the Census figure, though the Census covers year-round tenants and the page covers current listings.

Owners estimate the median home at $840,500, with a margin of error of $49,163, or 5.8%. That is $281,258 below Redfin's sale median, 25.1% of the Redfin figure, and $117,000 below Realtor.com's sold median. The margin does not close either gap. The survey reaches residents, and many owners of shore homes live elsewhere, so the estimate says more about residents than about the market.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau as cited. The 2.7, $417, 25%, $281,258, 25.1% and $117,000 figures are this brief's arithmetic. The Census table used does not give the reasons for vacancy. Census figures cover the postal area, not the city.

What does a stock that is 16 percent pre-war mean for a seller?

The homes are old and new together. The median year built is 1984, and the oldest group is large: 3,449 homes (16.3%) were built before 1940. The largest group by decade is the 1980s at 4,098 (19.3%), followed by the 2000s at 3,453 (16.3%), the 1970s at 2,468 (11.6%) and the 1990s at 2,363 (11.2%). In all, 8,995 homes, 42.4%, were built before 1980.

The oldest homes carry the oldest inspection items. A house of the 1920s or earlier at the shore may have an old foundation, wiring, plumbing and heating that have been replaced in pieces. Salt air and wind work on roofs, siding and windows, and low ground can mean water below the floor. The sources here do not measure condition, and I do not estimate costs.

Redfin's page gives model figures for the city: 97% of properties at risk of severe flooding over 30 years, 100% at severe risk of a severe wind event and 99% at severe risk of heat. Those are projections for places, not statements about any one house, and a buyer or an insurer will ask about the individual home.

For a seller, the choice is whether to meet a buyer's inspector with a home that is old and has been repaired in pieces. The inspection is where an old home is most likely to lose price, and where a sale is most likely to stall. A buyer who takes the home as it is does not ask.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau and Redfin as cited. The flood, wind and heat shares are Redfin model figures for all properties in the city. The points about inspections are this brief's general reasoning and not findings about Ocean City homes.

What does the Atlantic City series add?

The Ocean City metropolitan series on FRED stops at the end of 2024 in the copies I could read, so this brief uses the neighboring Atlantic City-Hammonton area, which has data to August 2026 and is the nearest current series. It shows a region and not the city, and it is for a different market from Ocean City's.

Its median days on market was 55 in April, 54 in May, 57 in June, 59 in July and 61 in August, a rise of 6 days, or 11%. Active listings in the area (Realtor.com, active listings) rose from 1,905 in March to 2,149 in July, an increase of 13%. New listings (Realtor.com, new listings) fell from 848 in April to 762 in July, a drop of 10%. Listings with a price reduction (Realtor.com, price reduced listings) rose from 410 in March to 506 in July, an increase of 23%.

The area median listing price (Realtor.com, median listing price) was $543,625 in April and $545,000 in August, about level. The Ocean City median of $1,524,000 is 2.8 times the area figure, which puts Ocean City well above its neighbors.

The neighboring region is slowing a little, as the other shore markets in this series are. None of this fixes the price of one home, and the series makes no forecast.

Sources: Realtor.com series on FRED as cited, for the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitan area, a neighboring area. The 11%, 13%, 10%, 23% and 2.8 figures are this brief's arithmetic. Series are not seasonally adjusted. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What should an owner ask before accepting any offer?

Whether an offer is public or private, an owner can compare it with a short list of questions. What is the price, and is any part of it contingent on an inspection, a loan or the sale of another home? What will I receive at closing after every charge? On what date will the sale close, and can the date move? Who pays for any repair a buyer asks for? What is the buyer's evidence that the money is there?

For a shore home, a few more are worth asking. Are the furnishings included, and is that written down? Who handles the utilities, the dues and the insurance until closing? If the home is rented in summer, what happens to bookings that are already made? A sale that ignores a summer's bookings can cost the owner money or a dispute, and a written plan removes the question.

The comparison should include the cost of waiting. A home that sits for 71 to 82 days carries taxes, insurance, upkeep and the cost of the next home that is not yet bought. In a town with a short season, a home that misses the spring may wait for the next one. A fixed date and a known price remove the uncertainty, and some owners value that as much as the price. Readers comparing markets can also read the Tenafly brief and the Long Beach Township brief.

Source: this brief's general reasoning. The 71 to 82 days range is from Realtor.com and Redfin as cited. Commercial content; not independently verified.

What does a private sale change?

On a home that sells near $1.12 million, each 1% of the price is $11,218. On a home near $957,500 it is $9,575. That is arithmetic and not a claim about any commission or cost. It shows how quickly a percentage turns into dollars at this level, and why the amount an owner keeps, and not the headline price, is the figure to compare.

A private sale offers five things that a public listing cannot. There is privacy, because there are no showings and no neighbors talking about you selling. The closing date can be flexible, which gives you time to find a new home. There are no commission costs. There are no closing costs. And there are no inspections or repairs for the buyer to ask for.

The last point matters for an older shore home. An inspection of a house that has stood through decades of salt and storms may find a great deal, and in a market where homes take 71 to 82 days to sell, a request after the inspection comes after weeks of showings. A buyer who takes the home as it is makes no such request.

Privacy matters in a town where a summer house is part of a family's story. A listing shows photographs, a price and a count of days, and in a slow market the days grow. A private sale leaves no record.

None of this means that a private offer will always beat the market. In the fast areas, a good home can sell in weeks, and Redfin's panels show homes selling at list in 15 days. The question for an owner is whether the chance of a better price is worth the wait, the showings, the inspection and the public listing.

Source: this brief's arithmetic and reasoning. The wait figures are from Realtor.com and Redfin as cited. The benefits are those offered by Maison Off-Market. Commercial content; not independently verified.

Methodology and limitations

Prices, price per square foot, days on market, sale-to-list ratio, price drops, listing counts, rentals and the neighborhood tables for Ocean City come from two commercial pages: a national brokerage and a national listing site. They measure different things and were not independently verified. The Realtor.com page lists areas such as Kennedy Park and Somers Point that suggest a wider area than the city.

Age, tenure, vacancy, income, rent and owner-estimated value come from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates for the postal-code area that includes Ocean City. Shares are calculated from published counts, and owner-estimated value carries a margin of error.

Days on market, active and new listings, median listing price and price reduced counts are Realtor.com series published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for the Atlantic City-Hammonton metropolitan area, a neighbor of Ocean City, because the Ocean City series read only to December 2024. They describe a region and not the city. The brief makes no forecast and values no home.

Conclusion

The Ocean City record shows an asking median up 12% beside a sold median down 25% on one page and a sale median down 4.5% on another, areas that differ by a factor of four, a Census vacancy rate of 73% and a market that the labels call slow.

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 compete in that market or take privacy, a flexible closing date, no commission, no closing costs and no inspections or repairs. To see what a direct offer would look like for your home, use the contact form below or call 401-219-4207.