Published October 11, 2026 in Market Update

One part of Montclair moved much faster than the other

By Lena Pesso

Real estate, Montclair

If you follow Montclair as a whole, the headline numbers look calm. But the Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 141 homes sold across both ZIP codes in the three months ending August 31, 2026, and the two ZIPs tell very different stories. Where your home sits inside Montclair shapes your price, your timeline and how much preparation is worth doing.

The split, in plain numbers

Days on market is one of the steadiest signals in a thin market. It counts how long a home sat before going under contract. In 07042, the Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median at 17 days. In 07043, it was 14 days. Three days sounds small. The gap in what buyers paid above list is where the real difference shows up.

In 07043, the Real Estate Data Aggregator found that 94.2% of homes sold above list price. The average sale came in at 126.3% of list. That is not a sign of overpaying. In Montclair, homes are often priced below expected value on purpose, to draw competing offers. The number just means buyers competed hard, and sellers won.

In 07042, 84.3% of homes still sold above list, and the average came in at 120.1% of list. That is strong by any measure. It is simply a different level of competition than 07043 saw.

Speed tells the same story

The share of homes that went under contract within two weeks of listing is a useful check on the town-wide average. In 07043, the Real Estate Data Aggregator put that share at 51.5%, up 4 points from the same period in 2025. In 07042, it was 30.7%, down 21 points from a year before. Both ZIPs moved faster overall. The two-week pace just held much more firmly in 07043.

Supply is tight in both, tighter in 07043

Months of supply measures how long it would take to sell every home currently listed, at the current pace of sales. Below three months generally favors sellers. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put 07042 at 1.3 months and 07043 at 0.5 months. Both are well below that threshold. In 07043, new listings fell 25% from the same period in 2025, leaving only 9 homes for sale at any one time.

A word on the median price in 07042

The Real Estate Data Aggregator shows the median sale price in 07042 down 5% from a year before, at $1,140,000. That dip is worth understanding before you read it as falling values. A median counts the middle sale. When the mix of homes that close in a given period skews toward smaller or lower-priced properties, the median falls even if individual home values held steady. The sale-to-list ratio in 07042 actually rose 0.7 points year over year, which points the other direction. Both facts are true. They just measure different things.

What rates are doing to the backdrop

Rates matter for buyers deciding how much house they can carry. Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. HousingWire forecasts rates staying in a range of 5.75% to 6.75% for 2026, though the National Association of Home Builders described rates in the 7.5% range as a possible new normal if geopolitical uncertainty holds. Those are genuinely different outlooks. The honest answer is that nobody knows exactly where rates land, and Montclair buyers are competing hard right now regardless.