What is the Home Demand Index?
The Home Demand Index (HDI) is the nation’s only local housing market index that tracks pre-sale activity to measure housing market competitiveness. The HDI uses data on pre-sale activities, including in-person showings of homes and views of homes online, to measure housing market activity across different geographies and types of homes. The data used to construct the HDI are the most accurate and up-to-date information from the real estate agents and prospective buyers and sellers that are active in the market.
While most housing market indices are based on history, the HDI provides forward-looking insights to real estate professionals and consumers to help make better decisions in a rapidly changing real estate market
Greater Metropolitan Market Areas
The Bright MLS |T3 Home Demand Index currently covers the three greater metropolitan market areas served by Bright MLS, namely the Greater Philadelphia Area (in blue), the Greater Washington D.C. Area (in gray), and the Greater Baltimore Area (in orange).
Colors are provided for visual identification of each market area and do not correlate to index activity level. Make a selection on the map to go to the report for a market area or view an overview of each market area here..
Bright MLS | T3 Home Demand Index
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Washington DC Metro | July 2026
Home Demand Index
The Home Demand Index (HDI) for the Washington DC metro area stands at 85 for this report period, up one point from 84 last month and below the 99 recorded during the same period one year ago. The one-point month-over-month gain is operationally flat but directionally notable, July is historically one of the softer months in the DC metro’s seasonal demand cycle, and sustaining or improving on the June reading reflects the same late-closing dynamic visible in Baltimore, where buyers who acted during the rate-dip window in late spring are completing transactions into the July reporting period and extending the demand signal beyond the typical seasonal ceiling. Washington DC has held the regional leadership position for the fourth consecutive month, a pattern I attribute to the federal employment corridor that provides the core DC Metro buyer cohort with structural income stability that insulates demand from the financing cost sensitivity visible in more purely private-sector-driven markets. The fourteen-point year-over-year deficit, 85 now versus 99 in July 2025, is the widest annual gap among the three metros this period in absolute terms, but should be read in the context of what July 2025 represented for the DC market: an anomalously strong summer reading generated by an extended spring cycle during which federal employment stability and accumulated buyer urgency produced transactional activity well above the structural long-run pace. The current reading of 85 in a sustained 6.5-to-7-percent rate environment is not a sign of structural demand deterioration; it is a normalization from an above-trend baseline against a backdrop of genuine affordability pressure at the entry and mid single-family price points where the market’s highest buyer volume concentrates.
Demand by home type in Washington DC during this report period presents the most complex tier structure across the three metros, with meaningful divergence in both absolute level and direction across the six segments that collectively produce the 85-point metro average. The condo segments are running the strongest: entry condo at 104 and luxury condo at 109, the highest-indexed segment in the DC metro this period, have both extended gains from last month’s already-elevated readings, and both are in Steady territory, reflecting the sustained demand concentration in attached inventory that characterizes buyer behavior in a high-cost, high-density metro where the price efficiency of condo ownership is particularly compelling relative to detached single-family alternatives. Entry single-family at 77 and mid single-family at 77 are tracking at identical levels, a rare alignment that masks different directional signals: entry SF gained five points from last month while mid SF declined two points, suggesting divergent demand dynamics beneath the surface of a shared absolute index level. Luxury SF at 96, while still in Steady territory, registered the sharpest month-over-month decline of any segment in the DC metro at twelve points, signaling a meaningful deceleration in above-$1.4 million buyer engagement following an extended period of high-end transactional strength. Townhouse, rowhouse, and twin homes at 89 gained three points from last month, a constructive sequential improvement in the highest-volume attached format and a continuation of the counter-seasonal demand signal visible across the region’s attached segments.
Monthly Statistics for July 2026
Home Demand
Index
Index
85
(Slow)
Home Demand Index
from prior month
from prior month
84
Home Demand Index
from prior year
from prior year
99
Index change
from prior month
from prior month
1%
Index change from
same time last year
same time last year
-14%
Bright MLS | T3 Home Demand Index
www.homedemandindex.com
Philadelphia Metro | July 2026
Home Demand Index
The Home Demand Index (HDI) for the Philadelphia metro area stands at 80 for this report period, flat with last month’s 80 and below the 88 recorded during the same period one year ago. The absence of month-over-month movement is itself a notable outcome, as the market typically experiences a meaningful deceleration following the spring peak as the active selling window narrows and buyer urgency associated with the seasonal transition dissipates, making the flat reading a relative outperformance against the seasonal pattern that suggests underlying demand in this market is more resilient entering the summer than the prior period reading alone would have implied. The eight-point year-over-year deficit is the narrowest annual gap recorded among the three metros covered in this report for the current period, indicating that Philadelphia is tracking closer to its prior-year baseline than either Baltimore or Washington DC, a dynamic that likely reflects the more modest seasonal peak that Philadelphia experienced in the prior year relative to those markets, which makes the prior-year comparison more achievable in the current period. The most significant development within the tier structure is the simultaneous breach of the 100-point Steady threshold by both condo segments, entry condo at 100 and luxury condo at 101, which represents the first time both attached tiers have reached Steady conditions simultaneously since the spring period and signals that the affordability migration from detached to attached housing is intensifying in a market where single-family affordability constraints are among the most pronounced in the region.
Demand by home type in Philadelphia this period presents a more constructive picture than the overall flat reading might suggest, with the tier structure showing meaningful divergence between strengthening attached segments and softening or stable detached categories that collectively produce the 80-point metro average. The most significant development is the simultaneous crossing of the Steady threshold by both condo tiers, entry condo at 100, up five points from last month, and luxury condo at 101, up six points from last month, representing the first simultaneous dual-condo Steady reading since April and confirming that the affordability-driven substitution dynamic that has characterized the Philadelphia market throughout the current cycle is continuing to intensify as single-family detached price points remain challenging for a broad swath of buyer cohorts. The single-family segments present a contrasting picture: entry SF at 70 is essentially flat with last month and continues to sit at the Limited-to-Slow boundary; mid SF at 77 ticked down one point in a minor sequential retreat; and luxury SF at 72 registered a nine-point month-over-month decline, dropping to its softest reading in several months and suggesting that high-end detached buyer activity in Philadelphia pulled back meaningfully following the spring peak. Townhouse, rowhouse, and twin home demand at 86 gained three points from last month, a modest but directionally constructive sequential improvement in the largest-volume segment of the market. The tier spread between the strongest reading (luxury condo at 101) and the weakest (luxury SF at 72) is the widest observed in recent reporting cycles for this metro and reflects a market where affordability dynamics are actively reshaping buyer composition.
Monthly Statistics for July 2026
Home Demand
Index
Index
80
(Slow)
Home Demand Index
from prior month
from prior month
80
Home Demand Index
from prior year
from prior year
88
Index change
from prior month
from prior month
0%
Index change from
same time last year
same time last year
-8%
Bright MLS | T3 Home Demand Index
www.homedemandindex.com
Baltimore Metro | July 2026
Home Demand Index
The Home Demand Index (HDI) for the Baltimore metro area stands at 84 for this report period, up four points from 80 last month and below the 96 recorded during the same period one year ago. The four-point month-over-month gain is a counter-seasonal result, July typically marks a deceleration from the June peak as the active selling window narrows, and suggests that a cohort of buyers motivated by the brief rate-dip window that opened during May and June closed transactions into early July, extending the demand signal one period beyond the seasonal ceiling that most years arrives in June. The twelve-point year-over-year deficit, while meaningful, should be read against the unusually strong July 2025 baseline, when the Baltimore metro was completing an extended spring cycle that had been supported by regional employment stability and a temporary easing in rate-lock psychology; the absolute level of 84 reflects a functioning Slow-territory summer market rather than a structural deterioration in demand fundamentals. The widening spread between the condo tiers, which are running at Steady and Moderate levels, and the entry single-family tier, which remains in Limited territory at 62, continues to define the most important cross-segment dynamic in this market, as buyers facing persistent affordability friction at the lowest detached price points migrate into the attached inventory that offers more accessible entry thresholds in a market where financing sensitivity remains the primary demand governor.
Demand by home type in Baltimore shows a divergent pattern this period that stands in contrast to the broad-based softening observed in the previous period, with the metro-wide counter-seasonal recovery to 84 driven primarily by strength in the attached and upper-tier segments while the entry single-family floor remains constrained. The most notable development across the tier structure is the surge in entry condo demand to 110, a twenty-point month-over-month gain from the previous reading of 90 that represents the largest single-tier sequential move in the current reporting cycle and has pushed this segment into Steady territory for the first time in recent periods. Luxury condos at 124, a ten-point gain from 114 last month, reinforced this signal with a Moderate-range reading that is the highest absolute index across any tier in the metro. Luxury single-family homes at 108 declined three points from 111 last month but remain in Steady territory, while mid single-family held flat at 81 and entry single-family ticked up one point to 62, the latter remaining in Limited territory and continuing to reflect the most acute affordability compression in the metro at the sub-$375,000 detached price point. The townhouse, rowhouse, and twin home segment gained seven points to 87, a Slow-territory reading consistent with the metro average and suggesting that the attached single-family category is contributing meaningfully to the counter-seasonal demand signal alongside the condo tiers. The emerging divergence between a strong attached market and a constrained entry SF market is the defining structural dynamic in Baltimore’s current demand picture.
Monthly Statistics for July 2026
Home Demand
Index
Index
84
(Slow)
Home Demand Index
from prior month
from prior month
80
Home Demand Index
from prior year
from prior year
96
Index change
from prior month
from prior month
4%
Index change from
same time last year
same time last year
-12%
Bright MLS | T3 Home Demand Index
www.homedemandindex.com