Asking Prices Are Easing Nationally. Here’s the South Jersey Reality

By Mike Lentz | The Mike Lentz Team - Keller Williams Realty

If affordability has been the biggest thing standing between you and a home, the national headlines this month read like good news. Asking price trends have started to ease. The South Jersey numbers tell a more useful story, and it is worth knowing the difference before you read too much into one chart.

What the National Headlines Say

The typical seller listed their house for a median of $429,500 in May. That is 2.4% lower than a year ago, according to Realtor.com. It is the first May in years where national asking prices have moved in buyers’ favor.

Each May from 2022 through 2025 held fairly steady. This year, the dip from $440,000 to $429,500 shows up clearly.

One thing to keep straight: that 2.4% is an asking price, what sellers hope to get. It is not what homes actually sold for. Sellers are also pulling back on price cuts. As the New York Post reported, “the share of listings featuring price cuts actually fell to 17.5% in May.” Owners are pricing more carefully up front instead of chasing a high number and trimming it later. Nationally, that points to a market that is rebalancing as the number of homes for sale has grown.

The South Jersey Reality

Here is where local and national split. Nationally, asking prices slipped 2.4%. In South Jersey, they went the other direction. We track the average asking price across all five counties every week. In May 2026 it was $436,298, up 3.1% from $423,178 in May 2025. South Jersey sellers are asking for more, not less.

Sale prices followed. The median sale price rose year over year in four of our five counties in May. Burlington held flat. None of them fell.

Sales volume is lighter than last year. Through May, the five counties closed about 5,640 homes, down roughly 6% from 5,998 over the same stretch in 2025. Part of that gap traces back to February, when heavy snow storms shut down showings across the region for weeks. We use year-to-date totals here for that reason. A single month can swing on weather or a holiday, and February did.

What Actually Changed for Buyers Here

The local break is real. It just shows up in choice and competition, not in the price tag. Active inventory is up double digits in Camden, Burlington, and Cumberland counties, with Cumberland up 40.2% from last year. More homes on the market means less pressure to overpay and more room to negotiate.

Bidding wars have also cooled in most of the area. In May, 48.8% of Burlington County sales closed over asking, down from 57.3% a year ago. Camden fell to 53.3% from 59.2%, and Salem dropped to 43.1% from 61.3%. Fewer buyers are getting pushed past list price. Homes still move quickly, though. The median home sold in 14 to 15 days in Gloucester, Camden, and Burlington counties.

So the national story and the local one both favor buyers, for different reasons. Nationally, sellers are asking for a little less. In Camden, Burlington, Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland counties, sellers are still getting solid prices, but you have more homes to choose from and less competition than you faced last spring. Price your offer to the local market, not the national headline.

Bottom Line

National asking price trends are easing, and that is good news for the broader market. In South Jersey, asking and sale prices are both higher than a year ago, but rising inventory and fewer bidding wars give buyers a stronger negotiating position than the national chart would suggest. The data cuts both ways, and both ways help you.

If you want to talk through what this means for your situation, schedule a quick call and we will walk through it together.

For the full picture in your county, see our latest market recaps for Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, Salem, and Cumberland counties.