March was the month the volume came back. Closings rose to 605 (the highest monthly total of 2026 to that point, though only fractionally above March 2025’s 600) while the median slipped to $355,000, down 3.9% year over year. More houses changing hands at slightly lower numbers is not a contradiction; it is what the bottom of a price cycle looks like.
The market in March 2026
| Metric | Mar 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Median sale price (single-family) | $355,000 | −3.9% YoY |
| Closed sales | 605 | +0.8% YoY (vs 600) |
| New listings | 787 | −19.8% YoY |
| Active inventory | 2,977 | −27.5% YoY |
| Months of supply | 6.0 | |
| Median days on market | 54 | |
| Sold-to-list price ratio | 97.4% | |
| Showings per listing | 4.6 | highest in SWFL |
“Median days on market” is the median number of days a sold home was listed before it went under contract, not the time to closing. It is the same field in every month of this series, and the same field RPCRA reports. Its own definition is “the median number of days between when a property is listed and the purchase contract date.” Where our figure and RPCRA’s differ, the cause is the different set of sales each series covers, not a different measure. May reports Lee County median days to contract instead, and is labelled as such, because our usual city-level source did not publish one that month. Corrected August 15, 2026: the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association did publish a Cape Coral table for May, and it now appears on the May report.
Closed sales and their year-over-year change are from the Florida Gulf Coast MLS Historic Sales by Year report for Cape Coral, pulled August 5, 2026. Remaining rows are as previously published and are being re-verified against the same report.
Cape Coral city, closed-sale data from the Florida Gulf Coast MLS.
| RPCRA Cape Coral Region: single family | Mar 2026 | Mar 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $365,000 | $380,000 | −3.9% |
| Closed sales | 516 | 539 | −4.3% |
| New listings | 764 | 853 | −10.4% |
| Pending sales | 671 | 543 | +23.6% |
| Median days on market | 43 | 52 | −17.3% |
| Sold price per sq ft | $211 | $224 | −6.0% |
| Percent of original price received | 93.2% | 91.6% | +1.8% |
| Active inventory | 2,541 | 3,553 | −28.5% |
| Months supply of inventory | 4.9 | 6.6 | −25.3% |
Source: RPCRA Market Insights Report, March 2026 (Domus Analytics, data provided by SWFL MLS), covering Lee and Hendry counties by region. “Percent of original price received” is measured against the first asking price, so it is not the same measure as the sold-to-list ratio above. RPCRA restates the previous month in each new report (in its own words, data “may differ from previous reports due to timing of MLS entries”) and closed sales have revised upward by six to twelve in every month of this series so far. The figures here are as first published, and we do not reissue a correction for a routine restatement.
Correction, August 5, 2026. This page has carried two wrong figures for March. It first reported closings as 14.5% below March 2025; on August 4 that was flipped to 14.5% above. Both were wrong, and for the same underlying reason: a 2026 count measured against a 2025 base drawn from a differently-filtered series. Re-pulled from one consistent source on August 5: 605 closings in March 2026 against 600 in March 2025, a rise of 0.8%. March was flat, neither the boom nor the collapse this page has previously described.
Both sides of the ledger tightened at once, and the squeeze was sharpest in the Gulf-access tiers. New listings fell 19.8% to 787 and active inventory dropped 27.5% to 2,977 homes, so March held its volume level out of a pool a quarter smaller than a year earlier, a firmer result than a flat headline suggests. Months of supply hit a round 6.0 (the tightest reading of this series at the time of writing, though April, June and July have all since come in tighter) and pending sales were up 15.1%.
The most telling statistic of the month wasn't a price. Cape Coral recorded 4.6 showings per listing, the highest rate in Southwest Florida. Foot traffic was there. What buyers wanted was the right house at the right number, and they were happy to walk if they didn't get it, hence 54 days on market alongside a 97.4% sold-to-list ratio.
Sales flat year over year (605 against 600), the lowest inventory in two years, and prices still soft. That combination doesn't last indefinitely.
Fresh from the Cape: March 2026
Sun Splash opened its 2026 season
The city waterpark on W. Lake Kennedy Drive opened for the season on March 17, 10am–7pm through spring break, the first full season with the new wave pool. Season passes ran $64.99 silver and $119.99 gold.
Aqua opened on the Parkway
Aqua Seafood, Steaks & Raw Bar opened March 17 at 4720 SE Ninth Pl, a roughly $3M buildout with 554 seats and 26-foot ceilings, its rooftop bar following on March 28. It anchors "The Cove at 47th" in the entertainment district.
Catch the Vision packed the house
The Chamber's 14th annual development forecast on March 23 handed attendees five maps of every recorded project in the city's pipeline, and, per the Breeze, filled First Cape Church. For anyone tracking where Cape Coral builds next, it remains the single best afternoon of the year.
A new park for the northeast Cape
Council unanimously approved a $434,800 design contract on March 27 for a new park at 2224 NE 15th St, with total cost estimated at $3.5–4M from park impact fees. The city also hosted a construction roundtable with builders on March 20 and presented a 3D rendering of the Yacht Club Community Park design, with council asking staff to phase the work so revenue-generating pieces (the boathouse and docks) come first.
Dry season, very dry
Florida logged its third-driest September-to-March since 1895, with extreme drought expanding statewide. For waterfront owners that mostly meant dust and irrigation restrictions; the rains went on to arrive on schedule in June (updated).
What it means if you’re buying or selling
March was the month to stop calling this a crashing market. Sales held level year over year while supply fell 27.5%, showings led the region, and the price softness was a lagging indicator. Updated: the median was back to $375,000 by June.
Want this read against a specific street, canal or price band? That’s a phone call, not a blog post, get in touch or start with the Coastal Home Finder.
Market figures are compiled from the Florida Gulf Coast MLS, Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association and Florida Realtors monthly reports, Realtor.com metro data via FRED, Zillow, Houzeo, and Freddie Mac’s weekly mortgage survey. Sources disagree on inventory counts and geography, city versus county versus metro, so we label which is which rather than blending them. Local items are summarised from the Cape Coral Breeze, WINK News, Fox 4, Gulfshore Business, NOAA and the City of Cape Coral. Details can change after publication.
