Published October 23, 2026 in Market Update

Cottonwood gave buyers more choice, but not every home moved fast

By Katie Luther

Real estate, Cottonwood

Here is the one thing worth knowing first. Cottonwood had more homes to choose from this summer, and buyers used that room. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 56 homes sold in ZIP 96022 in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is up 40% from the same stretch a year before.

More homes sold, and prices moved up too. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price in 96022 at $392,000, up 12% from the same period in 2025. Nationally, the Federal Housing Finance Agency reported U.S. house prices rose just 2.6% in the year ending July 2026. Cottonwood outran that.

More homes on the market, but buyers still showed up

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 84 homes for sale in Cottonwood during that period, up 25.4% from a year before. New listings climbed too, with 76 coming to market, up 11.8%. That gave buyers more to compare. Nationally, Realtor.com reported active listings topped 1.16 million in September 2026, and mortgage rates crossed 7% for the first time since January 2025. More supply and higher rates tend to slow things down.

Cottonwood did not stall. Pending sales were up 34.9% year over year, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. Months of supply came in at 4.6 months, down 0.5 months from a year before. Buyers had more options, and they kept moving.

Not every home moved at the same pace

The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows 24.1% of Cottonwood homes went under contract within two weeks of listing. That is down 3.8 points from a year before. So roughly 3 in 4 homes took longer than two weeks. The median sat at 46 days on market. Some listings moved fast. Others took patience.

Nationally, Realtor.com reported 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. That is the backdrop sellers in Cottonwood are working in. The homes that sold here averaged 98.3% of list price, up 0.6 points from a year before. That means most sellers did not give much away. But pricing still mattered.

About 21.4% of homes sold above list price, up 6.4 points year over year. So some sellers got more than they asked. Others did not. The difference usually comes down to condition, access and how the price lined up with what actually sold nearby.

A note on Cottonwood's rural reality

Cottonwood is ranch land and acreage country, not a city subdivision. Out here, water, usable land, outbuildings and fire risk shape value as much as square footage does. Pricing an acre like a city lot leads to the listings that sit. The homes that moved in this market were priced to what buyers here actually compare.

One more thing worth knowing. These are ZIP code numbers. What happens on one road in Cottonwood can read very differently from the 96022 average. Acreage, well output, shop buildings and road access all move the needle in ways a ZIP code number cannot show.