Maplewood, NJ, and its sister town of South Orange, NJ, are heading into the fall with prices and demand still running well ahead of last year, according to the weekly market data tracked by Mark Slade Homes. Mark Slade, who holds a degree in Economics, has developed his own method for reading these markets, which he calls the hyper market index. The latest weekly snapshot, for the week ending August 23, shows exactly where each town stands as the year moves past its midpoint.
Slade's hyper market index compares the number of homes currently under contract to the number of active listings. When more homes are under contract than are actively listed, the ratio passes 1.0, and the market qualifies as a hyper market, meaning demand is outrunning supply at that point in time. Slade tracks this every week across seven towns and other markets on a monthly or semi-annual basis, calculating average sale price, percentage over asking, and days on market. He believes this reflects real-time buyer activity better than the absorption rate, which averages the last six months of closed sales versus inventory and can be skewed by seasonality.
Among the towns tracked, Montclair holds the strongest position, with 191 homes sold so far, an average sale price of $1,512,172, and 22.5 percent over asking. Homes there are moving fast, averaging 17.4 days on market, and its hyper market index is currently 1.9, the highest in the group. Maplewood has 137 solds (only listings taken in the same calendar year), an average sale price of $1,304,556, and 16.4 percent over asking, with homes averaging just 13.6 days on market, the fastest pace of any town tracked. Its ratio sits at 1.2. South Orange is close behind with 86 solds, an average price of $1,230,401, and 15.8 percent over asking, averaging 14.9 days on market with a ratio of 1.6, actually ahead of Maplewood on that measure.
West Orange has posted 239 solds with an average price of $768,749 and 10.6 percent over asking, running about 20.6 days on market with a ratio of 1.2. Union has 198 solds at an average price of $602,239, trending 4.2 percent over asking with a ratio right at 1.0. Livingston remains the softest of the core markets, with 156 solds, an average price of $1,399,451, and only 3.2 percent over asking. Its ratio of 0.7 means there are more active listings than homes under contract, and days on market run about 20.2. Rahway, the newest town added to the tracking, is softer still at 1.2 percent over asking, 30.2 days on market, and a ratio of 0.3.
Year to date, Maplewood has closed 156 sales, with 137 of those from listings taken this year alone, meaning little carryover inventory is dragging on the numbers. Livingston shows the opposite pattern, with a much larger share of its 204 year-to-date closings tied to older listings, which helps explain why its pricing power lags the rest of the group. Another analytic Slade tracks is the number of exclusive listings in each market, meaning homes sold without full open market exposure. In Livingston, exclusives made up 10.8 percent of closings this year, well above the roughly 2 to 6 percent seen in the other towns, another factor that can soften pricing results.
Across the board, 2026 is outperforming 2025. Maplewood's closed sales this year represent 87.8 percent of its year-to-date total compared to 2025, and the town's percentage over asking and average price have both climbed meaningfully. South Orange is running at 84.9 percent of last year's pace with similar gains in price and percentage over asking. West Orange and Montclair are both trending strong as well, at 80.5 percent and 88.4 percent respectively, while Livingston, at 76.5 percent, continues to be the one market moving more slowly than the rest.
August is typically the weakest month of the year for both buyers and sellers, since many families and agents are away. Slade's advice to sellers on the fence about listing before Labor Day or waiting is to wait until the week after. Listing during Labor Day week competes with back-to-school nights and the general adjustment families are making to a new school year, which pulls attention away from house hunting. Waiting a week allows buyers to settle into their routines before turning their attention to a home search, which historically produces stronger results for sellers. Readers who want to follow these numbers as they update can check the blog for ongoing market coverage.
