Why Do Pages Disagree on the Time to Sell in Orange Beach? Reading the Medians and the Gap to List Price

What do the pages say homes sell for?

The medians cluster and the averages do not. Redfin's median is $707,000 for the three months to July, the data site's is $710,000 for six months, and the brokerage's comparison page gives $725,000. The spread from lowest to highest is $18,000, which is 2.5% of the lowest, a figure this brief computes. These are the same kind of statistic over different windows and different property filters, and they land within a few percent of each other.

The averages run higher. The brokerage's two pages give $943,923 for all property types in its fall report and $951,641 in its comparison, a gap of $7,718 between pages published a few weeks apart, and $1,130,882 for single-family homes alone. The average is 1.30 times the $725,000 median and 1.34 times Redfin's $707,000, ratios this brief computes. A gap that wide means a group of expensive sales pulls the average up, and the data site's middle half, from $500,000 to $1,000,000, shows a spread wide enough to hold both a condominium and a beachfront house.

Zillow's figure is lower still. Its average home value of $682,786 is a modeled value across all homes, not a sale price, and it is up 0.5% on the year, against Redfin's 8.7% for the median sale price. A rise of 8.7% and a rise of 0.5% describe different things. One is the middle of what sold in a quarter and the other is an estimate of what every home would fetch. The price per square foot supports the cautious reading, since Redfin's own page shows $480 up 0.0%, and the data site gives $491 for six months. A median price that rises 8.7% while the rate per square foot is flat suggests that the mix of homes sold shifted toward larger or higher-priced homes, an inference from the page's two figures that Redfin does not state.

The spread inside the sales matters as much as the middle. The data site says the middle half of sales closed between $500,000 and $1,000,000, so the upper quartile starts at twice the lower. It also says that Orange Beach shows a wider quartile spread than most markets it tracks, and that the stretch above the median runs longer than the stretch below. A median of $710,000 sits in a range where one quarter of buyers paid less than $500,000 and another quarter paid more than $1,000,000, so a seller who hears the median learns little about a home at either end. The site says plainly that a median drawn from a range that broad is a poor anchor for pricing a single property.

The brokerage's comparison page adds the neighbor. Gulf Shores had a median sold price of $475,966, so the Orange Beach median is 52% higher, and the average is 62% higher, ratios the page states and this brief rechecked. The same page says the two towns move at almost the same speed, with 71 and 74 median days. A seller in Orange Beach is therefore not paying for speed. The extra price reflects the product, which the brokerage describes as inventory closer to the water and more condominium-heavy, and buyers who think an Orange Beach home is priced ambitiously can look at 665 other listings in the town or 845 in Gulf Shores.

The Redfin page has a count problem. It says 299 homes sold in July, up from 259 a year earlier, which is a rise of 15.4% and matches the page's year-over-year figure. But the brokerage's comparison shows 615 sales in six months, about 102 a month, and the data site tracked 636 in six months, about 106 a month. A figure of 299 is 2.9 times the monthly pace of the other pages. The most likely reading is that the page's count covers the three-month window and not the single month, an inference this brief draws from the arithmetic, and the page does not say so.

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

How long does a sale take in Orange Beach?

The clocks run from 71 to 117 days, and the difference is mostly the statistic. The comparison page gives a median of 71 days on market for sold homes. The fall report gives a typical 117 days, and the page elsewhere says it is an average over a rolling six months, which is how an average of 117 and a median of 71 can describe the same market. Redfin's 94 days is an average, up from 88 a year earlier. The data site separates the stages, with a median of 72 days from listing to a contract and 25 days from contract to closing, which sum to 97 days. That sum is an addition of two medians over different sets of closings, so it is an approximation and not a measurement.

The averages are 1.65 times the median in one pair of pages (117 against 71), a ratio this brief computes. Long-listed homes pull the average up and a few quick sales do not push the median down by as much, which is the usual shape of a market with a long tail of slow sales. Zillow's figure, about 87 days to pending, sits between them. A seller who reads only one page will take away a number between 71 and 117 days without knowing it is a different statistic.

Time on the market is also a matter of the season, and the pages touch it lightly. The fall report calls the buyer pool small, discretionary and in no hurry, and says the sellers largely are not either. The comparison page says both beach towns are built on second homes and rental units whose owners are not in a hurry to sell, and that neither is a market where a seller is under real pressure to concede. Neither page gives a month-by-month clock for Orange Beach, so a seller cannot tell from them whether a listing in the fall waits longer than one in the spring. Redfin's average of 94 days, against 88 a year earlier, is 6.8% longer, a figure this brief computes, and the page treats it as a market that is not very competitive, where multiple offers are rare.

The supply figures agree better. The fall report shows 658 homes on the market and 48 under contract, which is 6.5 months of supply at 101 sales a month, and the comparison shows 665 active listings and 50 pending, also 6.5 months. Divided out, 658 over 101 is 6.5 and 665 over 102.5 is 6.5, both computed here. The fall report says a pending ratio of 7% is the lowest of any city it covers, and the comparison says 8% for both Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. A pending ratio of 7% means about one listing in fourteen is under contract.

The gap to list price is the figure sellers feel. Redfin says the average home sells about 4% below list price. The brokerage says both towns get 93% to 94% of the original list price. The two statements measure different baselines, and neither is a promise about any one home. The comparison also gives a median active list price of $749,900, which is 3.4% above the $725,000 median sold price, a figure this brief computes. The fall report calls the market normal for a luxury beach market, with a small buyer pool, no hurry among buyers and sellers who are largely not in a hurry either.

What does the Census say about the housing stock?

The Census postal area that includes Orange Beach has 15,926 housing units and only 4,467 occupied homes, 28.0% of the total. The vacant units number 11,459, which is 72.0%, and the great majority are held for seasonal, recreational or occasional use: 7,838 units, 49.2% of all units, or 68.4% of the vacant ones, both computed here. Another 334 are in the other category, 89 are rented and not yet occupied, 83 are sold and not yet occupied and 47 are for sale. The 47 for-sale units can be set beside the 658 active listings in the brokerage's fall report, and the two do not agree, because the survey counts units vacant and for sale on the day it asks and the listing count includes homes that are occupied or held as second homes.

The homes are newer than in most of the places in this series. The median year built is 2000. Of 15,926 units, 5,758 were built in the 2000s, 36.2%, 3,925 in the 1990s, 24.6%, and 3,133 in the 1980s, 19.7%. Homes built before 1980 number 868, only 5.5%, and 259 were built in 2020 or later. A seller in this area owns a home that is, in the typical case, about twenty-six years old. The brokerage's comparison says Orange Beach inventory is typically closer to the water and more condominium-heavy, which is the brokerage's description and is not a Census measure.

The tenure and vacancy figures say who the sellers are. With 49.2% of units seasonal and only 28.0% occupied by a household that lives there year-round, a large share of the owners in the postal area hold the home as a second property or a rental. The Census does not say how many seasonal units are rented to visitors, and it does not separate condominiums from houses in the figures used here, so the share of owners who live elsewhere is something this brief cannot measure. What the survey does show is that the stock is young, with 94.5% of units built in 1980 or later, and that most of it was built in the three decades from 1990 to 2019, which is 73.3% of all units, both computed here.

The households that live here are mostly owners, and mostly recent. Of the 4,467 occupied homes, 3,133 are owner-occupied, 70.1%, and 1,334 are rented, 29.9%. Among owners, 727 moved in during 2020 to 2022 and 87 moved in from 2023 on, which together are 26.0% of owners. Another 1,592 moved in during the 2010s, 50.8%. Owners who arrived in 1989 or earlier number only 66, 2.1%. Among renters, 702 of 1,334 moved in from 2020 on, 52.6%, all computed here.

The Census median owner-occupied value is $574,500, with a margin of error of $65,313, and the median rent is $1,591 a month. The value is owners' own estimate of what their homes would sell for, over five years. It is 81.3% of Redfin's $707,000 median, 80.9% of the data site's $710,000 and 79.2% of the brokerage's $725,000, all computed here. The Census median household income is $98,295. The occupied households are a minority of the units, so the value and income describe residents and not the second-home owners who hold the bulk of the housing. Readers comparing markets can also read the Hingham brief and the Wellesley Farms 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 price tier the home is in. The data site's middle half runs from $500,000 to $1,000,000, and the brokerage's single-family average is $1,130,882. A condominium and a house near the water are different products with different clocks, and none of these pages gives days on market by tier for Orange Beach. A seller should ask for the closed sales in the home's own type and price band, and for the share that sold below the opening ask.

The second question is carrying cost. A home that sits for 71 to 117 days, in a market with 6.5 months of supply, is a home whose owner keeps paying taxes, insurance and upkeep through the wait. The pages give no figure for those costs, and this brief invents none. For an owner who lives elsewhere and holds the home as a second property, the cost of a wait is a monthly bill that does not stop for the season.

The third question is the commission, and the arithmetic is simple. Each 1% of a $725,000 price is $7,250. At 3% the figure is $21,750 and at 5% it is $36,250. 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 an Orange Beach commission rate, and $725,000 is a brokerage's median and not the price of any one home. For a home at the brokerage's single-family average of $1,130,882, each 1% is $11,309, also computed here.

The fourth question is exposure. The pages describe a market with 658 to 665 listings competing for about 102 sales a month. A public listing here means signs, showings, open houses and a listing history that every neighbor and every buyer can see, including any price cuts. A private sale has none of these. In a place where the Census counts most homes as seasonal, many owners value discretion, since the sale of a second home is nobody's business but the owner's.

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 and no neighbors talking about a sale. 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 pages put the time to sell between 71 and 117 days, an owner is right to ask what each route yields. If you would like a private, no-obligation offer for an Orange Beach home, call 401-219-4207 or use the contact form on this site.

Methodology and limitations

Redfin's figures run to July 2026 and the page's count of 299 homes sold in July does not match the six-month counts on the other pages, which suggests the count covers more than one month. The brokerage's fall report uses an average over a rolling six months for all property types in the county data it cites, and its comparison page uses six-month medians and averages pulled in early September; the two pages differ on days on market because one is an average and the other a median. The data site's median and quartiles are from closings it tracked and were updated October 3, 2026. Zillow's figure is an average of modeled values as of August 31, 2026. The pages cover different property types, filters and periods and are commercial, so they are not independent of each other. The Census figures are five-year estimates for a postal area, and half of its housing units are seasonal.

Conclusion

The Orange Beach record shows medians from $707,000 to $725,000, averages from $943,923 to $1,130,882, clocks from 71 to 117 days, 6.5 months of supply, a sale price that lands 4% below list or 93% to 94% of original list, and a Census place where 49.2% of units are seasonal. The pages differ because they use averages, medians and different windows, and the useful figure for an owner is the one for the home's own type and tier.