Most Triangle market reports stop at the Wake County line. A lot of the buyers I talk to don't. Sanford, the New Hill area and the Moncure side of Chatham County keep coming up with people who want more space, a lower price per square foot, or a quieter setting within driving distance of Raleigh, Cary and Apex. Here is what the latest data shows for those markets.
Steele Street, downtown Sanford. Photo: Indy beetle, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Lee County and Sanford
Realtor.com's October 2026 data for Lee County (which is also the Sanford metro area in its data):
Median listing price: $347,745, down 3.8% from a year earlier
Active listings: 331, up 45.5% from 228 in October 2025
New listings: 116, up 26.1%
Pending listings: 125, up 1.2%
Median days on market: 79, compared with 61 a year earlier
Median listing price per square foot: $172
Share of listings with a price reduction: 19.4%
For homes that actually sold in the city of Sanford, Redfin's data for the three months ending September 2026 shows:
Median sale price $299,757, essentially unchanged from a year earlier (down 0.08%)
Median 66 days on market, 7 more than a year earlier
Average sale-to-list ratio of 98.5%
Inventory up 58.7% from a year earlier, with about 5.4 months of supply
What stands out: buyer activity in Lee County is holding up (pending listings were slightly higher than a year ago, unlike Wake County, where they were down 15.8%), but supply has grown much faster. Prices have held close to flat, and homes are taking longer. For Sanford sellers, that means more competition and more patience required. For buyers, it means real choice.
One more comparison for Wake buyers weighing a move southwest: Lee County's October median listing price per square foot was $172, versus $225 in Wake County. That is a listing-price measure, not an appraisal, but it shows why the question comes up.
Chatham County
Chatham is a very different market from Lee. Realtor.com's October 2026 county data:
Median listing price: $799,800, down 1.0% from a year earlier
Active listings: 446, up 26.5% from 353
Median days on market: 58, down from 65 a year earlier
Pending listings: 146, down 9.9%
Share of listings with a price reduction: 21.0%
Median listing size about 3,100 square feet, at $273 per square foot
Chatham's median listing is large and expensive compared with the rest of this area, so countywide numbers say little about a smaller home in Moncure or Siler City.
New Hill and Moncure: small numbers, read carefully
These are small markets, and a handful of listings can swing the averages.
New Hill (27562), October 2026, Realtor.com: 30 active listings, a median listing price of $727,495, a median of 75 days on market, and 18 pending listings.
Moncure (27559), October 2026, Realtor.com: 11 active listings and 1 pending listing. That is too small a sample for a reliable median, and Redfin recorded only one Moncure sale in the three months ending September, so I am not quoting a Moncure "market price."
In both areas, value depends heavily on the specific property: acreage, road frontage, septic and well, and which county and school assignment apply. That is where a property-by-property review beats any monthly statistic.
If you are selling in Sanford or Chatham County
Price against current active listings, not just last spring's sales. In Lee County, there are far more of them than a year ago.
Plan for a longer timeline. A median of 66 to 79 days is normal here right now.
Make the property easy to evaluate. For rural parcels, have the septic, well, survey and any easement information ready.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Sanford, NC housing market slowing down?
Homes are taking longer to sell and inventory has grown, but prices have held. Redfin's median sale price in Sanford was $299,757 over the three months ending September 2026, nearly identical to a year earlier, while Lee County's active listings in October were up 45.5% year over year.
Is Lee County cheaper than Wake County?
On listing prices, yes. In October 2026, Realtor.com's median listing price was $347,745 in Lee County and $475,000 in Wake County, and $172 versus $225 per square foot.
What are homes selling for in Moncure, NC?
There were too few sales recently to give a reliable number. Each Moncure property needs its own comparable sales review.
If you own a home in Sanford, Lee County, New Hill or Moncure, I can pull the comparable sales and active competition specific to your property and talk through timing. Call or text (919) 527-5727 or email Blair.whelan@exprealty.com.
Blair Whelan | eXp Realty
Related pages
Sources
https://www.realtor.com/research/data/