Why Do Marietta Price Medians and Supply Figures Disagree? Reading the August Median, the Clocks and the Supply Pages

Why do four Marietta pages give four different medians?

The four medians are $474,716, $478,000, $484,250 and $540,000, and the highest is 13.7% above the lowest, a figure computed here. The August figure is the one most different, and the reason is in its own scope note: the report covers single-family homes only, across Marietta mailing addresses, which it says include the city and surrounding unincorporated Cobb County. Redfin's $474,716 is for all home types, and its page offers a toggle for single-family homes, townhouses and condos. A median that includes townhouses and condos will sit lower than one for single-family homes alone, but none of the pages gives the single-family and all-types figures for the same month, so the size of that effect cannot be measured here.

The periods differ too. Redfin's figure is for the three months to May. The agent's update runs on a trailing 30 days to September 1. The listing site's figure is for September, and its table lists a median sold price of $484,250 with changes of negative 3.15% and 1.10%, the first of which appears to be the month-over-month change and the second the year-over-year change, a reading of column order that the page does not spell out. Zillow's $471,117 is an average home value across all homes, not a median of sales, and it is down 1.2% on the year, while Redfin's median is up 4.3%. Two measures that point in opposite directions are not a contradiction, but they cannot both be a seller's guide.

The August report also pairs two readings that point different ways. The August median of $540,000 is up 6.51% on August 2025's $507,000, and the year-to-date median of $535,000 is down 0.93% on $540,000 a year earlier. Both can be true, since a single strong month can lift a month's median above its year-to-date figure, but the report does not break out what changed. The list price on sold homes shows a similar gap, $550,000 for August against $547,000 for the year, and the August median sold price was $10,000 below the August median list price on sold homes, 1.8% below, computed here.

The agent's update says the median of $478,000 is up 4.1% on a year earlier, and in a later paragraph it says a 4.3% gain outpaces the metro's 0.76%, attributing the 4.3% to a May figure. Redfin's page shows exactly 4.3% for the three months to May, so the second figure appears to be Redfin's, and the update mixes two periods. The update also says the median has grown approximately 35% since 2019, from roughly $351,000 to $478,000, and the arithmetic gives 36.2%. These are small slips, and they show why a commercial page's single headline number deserves a check.

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

How fast do Marietta homes sell, and how much supply is there?

The clocks run from 20 days to 51. The brokerage report gives a median of 25 days for August and 20 days for the year to date, up from 16, an average of 39 days for August and 38 for the year. Redfin gives a median of 48 days, and the listing site gives 51, up 9.47% on the year, which it calls a warm market. Zillow says around 36 days to pending, and the agent's update gives an average of 37. The slowest median, 51 days, is 2.04 times the fastest, 25, a ratio computed here. The clocks measure different things, listing to contract, listing to sale, or a model of when a home goes pending, and the pages do not always say which.

Supply is stated three ways. The brokerage report gives about 3.6 months in August, up from about 2.5 in spring, and says that still leans toward sellers. The agent's update gives 3.9 months and calls the market balanced, then says 3.8 months in the buyers' section of the same page. It also gives 1,690 active homes and 405 sold in 30 days. Divided, those two figures give 4.2 months, a computed inference that does not match either 3.9 or 3.8, so the page's supply figure is not derived from the counts printed beside it, or it uses a different sales window. The page also says there are over 1,600 active listings in another paragraph.

The counts of sales differ in scale. Redfin shows 237 homes sold in May. The brokerage report shows 232 single-family sales in August and 2,085 for the first eight months, about 261 a month. The agent's update shows 405 closed transactions in 30 days across five postal areas. The 405 is 1.7 times the August single-family count, a ratio computed here, and the update's scope is wider than the brokerage report's, but the pages do not reconcile the two. The listing site says buyers paid 1.03% below the asking price on average in September, and the brokerage report shows a 98% ratio in August, which suggests a typical concession of about 1% to 2%, a range read from two pages that cover different months.

The brokerage report adds a price band cut. At the end of August it counted about 330 active single-family homes between $300,000 and $499,999 and about 247 between $500,000 and $699,999. Together those two bands are 577 homes, and the second band holds 42.8% of that total, a figure computed here. The report does not say how many homes were above $700,000, so a seller of a more expensive home has no supply count to read.

What do the East Cobb figures show?

The agent's update breaks the five postal areas it covers into medians. It puts the East Cobb postal area served by two named high school zones at about $645,000, the highest in the city, and the area around the historic square at about $410,000. The East Cobb figure is 57.3% above the square's, a ratio computed here, and the spread is $235,000. The update also lists a median of about $560,000 for another East Cobb postal area, about $525,000 for West Cobb and about $425,000 for the north side. These are the update's figures and the page does not give a date or a count of sales for each.

The update says that for East Cobb sellers school ratings are the primary value driver and that buyers should verify school assignments with the school district. That is the update's advice, and this brief has not checked a single assignment. The update also says family homes of three to four bedrooms priced from $400,000 to $575,000 are the strongest performers. The brokerage report's price bands show more homes for sale in the $300,000 to $499,999 band than above it, so a home in that band has more competition for a buyer's attention, and a home in the $500,000 to $699,999 band has about 247 neighbors on the market.

At the postal area's Census median owner-occupied value of $599,400, a seller sits between the brokerage report's $540,000 single-family median and the update's $645,000 East Cobb median. The Census figure is 93.0% of the $645,000 and 111.0% of the $540,000, computed here. The Census value is owners' own estimate over five years, so it is not a sale price, and it is 126.3% of Redfin's $474,716 and 123.8% of the listing site's $484,250. The gap shows that the postal area is priced well above the citywide medians, which fits the update's ranking.

The pages disagree on how much the high-end homes matter. The brokerage report shows an average sold price of $612,087 in August against a median of $540,000, so the average sits 13.3% above the median, a figure computed here. A gap that large means a tail of expensive sales is pulling the average up. The report gives no counts above $700,000. It also shows an average list price on sold homes of $626,915, so the average home sold for $14,828 under its average ask, 2.4% under, a figure computed here from the two averages. That is a wider gap than the 98% ratio of medians suggests, and the report does not say why. A seller should read the ratio and the dollar gap together, since a 2% concession on a $600,000 home is $12,000.

What does the Census say about the Marietta housing stock?

The Census postal area that includes East Cobb in Marietta has 13,165 housing units, and the stock is concentrated in two decades. Of those, 4,497 were built in the 1970s, 34.2%, and 4,504 in the 1980s, 34.2%. Another 1,566 date from the 1990s, 11.9%. Homes built before 1980 number 5,942, or 45.1%. Only 525 were built in the 2000s, 498 in the 2010s and 130 from 2020 on, together 8.8% of the stock, computed here. The median year built is 1981.

That age profile separates this postal area from the town's new-construction markets. A buyer here is looking at homes that are, in the typical case, more than forty years old, and about 68.4% of them were built in the 1970s and 1980s. The pages in this brief do not report how many Marietta sales involved repairs or credits, so the effect of age on inspection requests cannot be measured. The question for an owner is what a buyer's inspector will find in a house of that age, and that is the owner's to learn.

Ownership is deep. Of 12,849 occupied homes, 11,087 are owner-occupied, 86.3%, and 1,762 are rented, 13.7%. Among owners, 1,677 moved in in 1989 or earlier, 15.1%, and 1,642 in the 1990s, so 29.9% have owned for at least twenty-five years. Another 4,126 moved in during the 2010s, 37.2%, and 1,464 since 2020, 13.2%, all computed here. Among renters, 791 of 1,762 moved in from 2020 on, 44.9%.

Vacancy is low. Of 13,165 units, 316 are vacant, 2.4%. Of those, 139 are in the other category, 61 are sold and not yet occupied, 54 are for rent, 44 are for sale, 9 are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use and 9 are rented and not yet occupied. The 44 for-sale units are 0.3% of the stock, computed here, and the survey is a five-year average, so it cannot be set against the agent's 1,690 active homes, which cover five postal areas. The Census median household income is $150,101, the median rent is $1,819 a month, and the postal area has 33,882 residents. Readers comparing markets can also read the Milton brief and the St Simons Island brief.

Source: Census Reporter, American Community Survey 2020-2024 five-year estimates, tables B25034, B25038, B25004, B25077, B25003, B25002, B25064 and B19013. Percentages and ratios are this brief's arithmetic.

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

The first question is which number a pricing opinion uses. A median of $475,000 for all home types and $540,000 for single-family homes describe different sets of sales, and a house in an older East Cobb neighborhood is compared to neither. A seller should ask for closed single-family sales in the same school zone and the same decade of construction over the last six months, and for each one the days to contract and the gap between the original ask and the final price.

The second question is what age means for the sale. In a postal area where 45.1% of homes predate 1980, a buyer's inspection of a forty-year-old roof, set of systems and finishes is the ordinary case, and the repair request that follows is a negotiation. The pages do not give figures for repair credits in Marietta, and this brief invents none.

The third question is the commission, and the arithmetic is simple. Each 1% of a $540,000 price is $5,400. At 3% the figure is $16,200 and at 5% it is $27,000. At the Census median value of $599,400, each 1% is $5,994, 3% is $17,982 and 5% is $29,970. These illustrate the size of each percentage point and are not quotes of any rate a seller would be charged. No page in this brief names a Marietta commission rate, and the medians are not the price of any one home.

The fourth question is exposure. The pages show homes taking from 25 to 51 days to sell on a median basis, with the average at 37 to 39 days. A public listing in that time means showings, open houses and a price history visible to every buyer, and a clock that reads 20 days for the year to date means some sellers waited much longer than the median. A private sale has no showings, and no neighbors talking about a sale.

The benefits are plain. Maison Off-Market buys luxury homes and estates directly from their owners and speaks only to sellers. A private sale has no showings. It allows closing dates that give a seller time to find a new home. It has no commission costs and no closing costs, and it avoids inspection repairs. The company does not say that a private sale always beats a public listing, and in a market where the median swings from $475,000 to $540,000 depending on the page, an owner is right to ask what each route yields. If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for a Marietta home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Redfin's figures run to May 2026, so its page is older than the others, and its median covers all home types. The brokerage report is for August single-family homes across mailing addresses that include unincorporated areas, and it is a commercial page that pairs an August increase with a year-to-date decrease. The agent's update mixes a trailing 30-day window with a May-dated year-over-year figure and gives its months of supply as both 3.9 and 3.8. The listing site's figures are for September, and the direction of its change columns is read from their order. Zillow's figure is an average home value. The pages are commercial and are not independent of each other. The Census figures are five-year estimates for a postal area that is not the same as the city.

Conclusion

The Marietta record shows medians from $475,000 to $540,000 for the same summer, clocks from 20 to 51 days, a supply figure that appears as 3.9 and 3.8 months on one page and 4.2 months when its own counts are divided, and an East Cobb postal area where 45.1% of homes predate 1980. The pages differ because they measure different homes, periods and areas, and the useful figure for an owner is the one for the home's own neighborhood and age.