Published November 1, 2026 in Market Update

Santa Monica has two very different markets right now

By Shane Marechal

Real estate, Santa Monica / Venice / Pacific Palisades

Realtor.com counted 20.8% of listings nationally taking price cuts in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. That number is real. It is also almost useless if you own or want to buy in Santa Monica. The three months ending August 31, 2026 looked completely different depending on which part of the city you were in.

One ZIP code had 52 months of supply. Another had under 4.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 17 homes for sale and only 1 sold in ZIP 90401, the northernmost Santa Monica ZIP, during the three months ending August 31, 2026. That works out to 52.1 months of supply. Not one home went under contract within two weeks of listing. Not one sold above list price. The average sale came in at 89.1% of list.

Meanwhile, ZIP 90405, the southern end of Santa Monica near the border with Venice, had 3.8 months of supply in the same period, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. The average sale price there was 102% of list. More than a third of homes sold above asking.

90402: the highest prices, but the market softened

ZIP 90402, the north-of-Montana corridor, had the highest median sale price of any Santa Monica ZIP. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put it at $4,580,000 for the three months ending August 31, 2026. But that number slid 11.9% from the same months of 2025. Homes sold fell 14% year over year. Days on market stretched to 65, up 4 days from a year before. The share of homes going under contract within two weeks dropped 22.9 points.

Inventory there actually tightened. Homes for sale fell 20.3% year over year, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. So fewer homes are available and fewer are selling. That is a slow market, not a collapsing one, but it is a different conversation than the one happening four blocks south.

90403 and 90405: buyers competed, prices moved up

ZIP 90403, the mid-city ZIP, had a median sale price of $1,580,000, up 9% from a year earlier, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Nearly 36% of homes went under contract within two weeks. Pending sales jumped 26.2% year over year. Homes sold rose 27%.

ZIP 90405 was the most competitive of the Santa Monica ZIPs. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted a sale-to-list ratio of 102% and 35.5% of homes selling above asking. The median sale price was $2,024,500, up 12.9% from the same period in 2025. Days on market fell 9 days year over year to 46.

Pacific Palisades and Venice: both moving, different price points

Pacific Palisades, ZIP 90272, had a median sale price of $3,108,578, up 14.1% year over year, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Sales volume jumped 50% from the same three months of 2025. Supply fell 1.6 months. More than a quarter of homes sold above list. The Palisades is moving.

Venice, ZIP 90291, was steadier. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price at $2,100,000, up just 0.7% from a year ago. But 91 homes sold, up 11% year over year, and the sale-to-list ratio held at 98%. Nearly 28% of Venice homes sold above asking.

What the national picture adds

Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates surged above 7% for the first time since January 2025. That puts pressure on buyers across the country. It matters here too, though the price points in Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades mean many buyers are less rate-sensitive than the national average buyer.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. house prices rose 2.4% from August 2025 to August 2026. Some Santa Monica ZIPs beat that by a wide margin. Others did not reach it.

The number that tells the story

That gap is not a rounding error. It is two different markets inside one city. A citywide average hides both of them.

One street can read differently from the whole ZIP code. These are area-level counts, and your block may tell a different story. If you want to know what your specific address looks like against what actually sold nearby, that is a short conversation.