What Has Your Montgomery County Townhouse Really Done Since 2016?
Everyone quotes the “average sale price,” but that number rises and falls with which homes happen to sell. In our last report we looked at detached homes. This time it is townhouses. To find out what an individual townhouse has actually gained, we went back through every closed townhouse sale in Montgomery County from January 2016 through September 11, 2026 (34,099 sales in all) and tracked the townhouses that sold more than once. Here is what we found.
2016 to 2026
sale price
2016 vs. 2026
Part 1: Same-Home Appreciation vs. the Average Sale Price
We identified 3,871 cases where the same townhouse sold twice between 2016 and 2026 (at least a year apart, with no major changes in size between sales) and used those pairs to build a “same-home” price index, the same method behind the Case-Shiller index. It measures what a typical townhouse gained, not what a different mix of townhouses sold for.
Same-Home Price Index (2016 = 100)
Average Sale Price, All Townhouses
Year by Year
| Year | Same-Home Index | Same-Home YoY | Since 2016 | Avg. Sale Price | Avg. Price YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 100.0 | — | +0.0% | $353,409 | — |
| 2017 | 104.9 | +4.9% | +4.9% | $369,638 | +4.6% |
| 2018 | 108.3 | +3.3% | +8.3% | $392,639 | +6.2% |
| 2019 | 110.5 | +2.0% | +10.5% | $401,497 | +2.3% |
| 2020 | 116.1 | +5.0% | +16.1% | $420,933 | +4.8% |
| 2021 | 127.5 | +9.9% | +27.5% | $471,691 | +12.1% |
| 2022 | 136.9 | +7.3% | +36.9% | $506,227 | +7.3% |
| 2023 | 143.0 | +4.5% | +43.0% | $529,667 | +4.6% |
| 2024 | 151.5 | +6.0% | +51.5% | $566,127 | +6.9% |
| 2025 | 152.7 | +0.8% | +52.7% | $568,831 | +0.5% |
| 2026* | 153.0 | +0.2% | +53.0% | $566,435 | -0.4% |
*2026 covers closings from January 1 through September 11, 2026. Same-Home Index: repeat-sales index, 2016 = 100. Avg. Sale Price: Bright MLS statistics for all closed townhouse sales (interior and end-of-row), Montgomery County, MD.
What it means: A typical Montgomery County townhouse is worth about 53% more today than in 2016, while the county-wide average sale price rose about 60%. The gap is the “mix effect”: in recent years, more of the townhouses changing hands have been newer construction (townhouses built since 2010 have gone from under one-tenth of sales to more than one-fifth) or in higher-priced areas such as Rockville and Bethesda, which lifts the average faster than any one townhouse has actually appreciated. The two measures agree on the big picture (steady gains through 2019, a surge in 2020–2022, a solid 2023–2024, and a plateau since), but the same-home figure is the one to use when you ask, “What is my townhouse worth now?”
Part 2: Sales Volume and Days on Market
Townhouses Sold per Year
Average Days on Market
Year by Year
| Year | Homes Sold | Avg. Sale Price | Median Price | Avg. DOM | Median DOM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3,588 | $353,409 | $310,000 | 41 | 22 |
| 2017 | 3,469 | $369,638 | $325,000 | 32 | 15 |
| 2018 | 3,421 | $392,639 | $345,000 | 30 | 14 |
| 2019 | 3,243 | $401,497 | $355,000 | 30 | 14 |
| 2020 | 3,618 | $420,933 | $375,000 | 23 | 8 |
| 2021 | 4,384 | $471,691 | $415,000 | 15 | 7 |
| 2022 | 3,279 | $506,227 | $443,000 | 16 | 7 |
| 2023 | 2,342 | $529,667 | $461,000 | 16 | 7 |
| 2024 | 2,502 | $566,127 | $500,092 | 17 | 7 |
| 2025 | 2,477 | $568,831 | $506,000 | 23 | 10 |
| 2026* | 1,776 | $566,435 | $505,000 | 26 | 11 |
Source: Bright MLS, closed townhouse sales in Montgomery County, MD. DOM = days on market. 2026 is January 1 through September 11.
What it means: Sales volume peaked at 4,384 townhouses in 2021 and then fell by nearly half by 2023 as higher mortgage rates kept would-be sellers in place, a sharper drop than detached homes saw, because many townhouse owners locked in 3% mortgages on their first home and have nowhere cheaper to move. Volume has been flat at roughly 2,500 a year since. Townhouses sold fastest in 2021–2024, when the average was about 16 days and half of all townhouses went under contract within a week. Today the average is about 26 days, slower than the frenzy years, but still well under the 41-day average of 2016. Well-priced townhouses still move quickly; the market simply has more patience than it did.
What Drove the Market
2016–2019: The Long Recovery
Montgomery County entered 2016 still working through the aftermath of the 2008 housing crash. Prices had bottomed around 2011–2012, and the years that followed were a slow, steady climb with 30-year mortgage rates between roughly 3.7% and 4.5%. Townhouse values grew a moderate 2–5% per year, homes took about a month to sell on average, and the typical sale closed right at asking price. It was a balanced, predictable market, and townhouses were the affordable way into it: the median sale was around $310,000–$355,000, roughly 60% of the price of a detached home.
2020–2021: COVID and Record-Low Rates
The pandemic briefly froze activity in spring 2020, then set off the strongest seller’s market in a generation. Mortgage rates fell to an annual average of about 3.1% in 2020 and under 3% in 2021, the lowest on record, while buyers working from home wanted more space than an apartment or condo could offer. Townhouses were the natural next step. Sales volume jumped to nearly 4,400 in 2021, the highest of the period, the average time on market collapsed to about two weeks, and same-home values rose about 10% in a single year. Bidding wars pushed the typical sale above asking price for the first time in this data.
2022–2023: The Rate Shock
To fight inflation, the Federal Reserve raised rates faster than at any time since the early 1980s. The 30-year mortgage rate more than doubled, averaging about 5.3% in 2022 and 6.8% in 2023, and briefly topping 8% in October 2023. The effect on prices was surprisingly small (same-home values still gained about 7% in 2022 and another 4–5% in 2023), but the effect on activity was dramatic. Owners with 3% mortgages had little reason to move, listings dried up, and sales fell to under 2,400 in 2023, the lowest of the period. Scarce inventory kept prices rising even as affordability worsened; in fact, as detached homes moved out of reach for many buyers, townhouses picked up demand from households that would otherwise have bought a single-family home.
2024–2026: A Slower, Steadier Market
Rates have settled in the mid-6% range, and the market has adjusted to them. Townhouses had one more strong year in 2024, with same-home values up about 6%, and then leveled off: appreciation has been essentially flat since, the average sale price has held near $570,000, and days on market has drifted up into the mid-20s. Sales volume has stayed around 2,500 a year. This is a market that has stopped rising but has not given anything back. For townhouse owners, the headline is that the 2020–2024 gains have held: a typical townhouse bought in 2016 is worth about 53% more today, and one bought at the 2019 pre-pandemic level has gained roughly 38%.
How Do Townhouses Compare With Detached Homes?
Using the same method, a typical Montgomery County detached home gained about 59% from 2016 through September 2026, while a typical townhouse gained about 53%. The two tracked each other closely through 2024, and both have slowed to a crawl since, with townhouses essentially flat over the past two years. If you missed our earlier report on detached-home appreciation, just ask and we will send it to you.
Coming next: condominiums. We are running the same same-home analysis on Montgomery County condo sales now, and that report will follow.
What Has Your Home Done?
County-wide numbers are a starting point. Values vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, and sometimes from street to street. If you would like a same-home analysis for your own townhouse, or a no-obligation look at what it would bring in today’s market, we would be glad to put one together for you.
Questions About Buying a Home?
Ten years of numbers tell one clear story: waiting for prices to fall has not been a winning strategy in Montgomery County. Whether you are a first-time buyer, moving up, or downsizing, we can walk you through what today’s rates and inventory mean for you and how our Homefinder programs can help you find the right home, including homes that never hit the open market.
Charlie Chapman, Associate Broker
The Encore Team • RE/MAX Realty Services
Cell: 240-351-8214 | Office: 240-403-0400 x319
Charlie@TheEncoreTeam.net
About the numbers. Sales data: Bright MLS, all closed townhouse sales (Interior Row/Townhouse and End of Row/Townhouse) in Montgomery County, MD, with close dates from January 1, 2016 through September 11, 2026 (34,099 sales). The same-home index is a repeat-sales index estimated from 3,871 pairs of sales of the same address at least 12 months apart, excluding pairs where the above-grade square footage changed more than 15% or the price ratio was outside 0.5–3.0. Mortgage rates: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey annual averages. 2026 figures are year-to-date and will change as the year closes out. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
