Between December 2025 and July 2026, the median asking price in the Houma-Thibodaux metro went from $223,975 to $247,000. That's a gain of $23,025, a little over 10% in seven months. Over the same months, the median asking price per square foot went from $135 to $141, a rise of about 4%.
Most of that 10% came from a change in which homes were for sale. Houses got bigger, and the value of each square foot stayed fairly steady. If you're comparing Houma with other places, or wondering what your own house would list for this winter, the two numbers lead to different answers. All the figures below come from the public Realtor.com housing inventory series published by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on FRED. They measure asking prices, not closed sales.
Ten Percent on the Sticker, Four Percent per Foot
Lay the two series side by side month by month and you can see them drift apart:
| Month | Median asking price | Median asking price per sq. ft. |
|---|---|---|
| December 2025 | $223,975 | $135 |
| February 2026 | $229,675 | $137 |
| April 2026 | $245,000 | $138 |
| July 2026 | $247,000 | $141 |
| September 2026 | $235,000 | $139 |
From February to April 2026, the median asking price jumped by more than $15,000, while price per square foot moved by a single dollar. That gap means the typical home listed in April was larger than the typical home listed in February. A median price follows whatever happens to be on the market, so a spring with more four-bedroom houses produces a higher median even if no single home gained a dime.
The September 2026 numbers point the same way. The median asking price was $235,000, up about 4% from $225,000 in September 2025. Price per square foot was $139, up from $136, which is closer to 2%. Even over a full year, the headline number overstates how much more a given square foot of Houma house costs.
In 2025, the Mix Pulled the Other Way
The same effect can drag the median down. In 2025, the median asking price slid from $229,225 in January to $220,040 in June. Price per square foot was $136 in January, climbed to $139 in April and May, and then fell back to $134 in June. Anyone reading the summer 2025 headline might have decided Houma prices were softening. By September 2025, price per square foot was back at $136, the same as in January.
So two years in a row, the median asking price swung by thousands of dollars while price per square foot stayed between $134 and $141. The median reflects which homes are listed. Price per square foot reflects what they're worth. Our earlier look at Houma's subdivision-level medians made a similar point at street level: a citywide number blends very different parts of town, and a monthly number blends very different houses.
Inventory Shrank From Both Ends
The other 2026 headline is that there are fewer homes for sale. In September 2026, the Houma-Thibodaux metro had 768 active listings, down from 900 in September 2025. That's a drop of about 15%. Two forces worked at the same time to get there:
- Fewer sellers listed. From January through September 2026, 1,496 new listings came on the market, compared with 1,630 in the same months of 2025. That's about 8% fewer.
- More buyers went under contract. Pending listings for January through September 2026 added up to 1,805, compared with 1,586 a year earlier. That's about 14% more. Pending listings peaked at 243 in May 2026.
The second force carried more weight. Pending listings rose by more than new listings fell. So the 2026 drop in inventory was driven more by buyers absorbing homes than by sellers holding back. Spring is where you can see it most clearly. From February through May 2026, monthly pending counts ran between 207 and 243. A year earlier, the same months ran between 137 and 204.
This ties back to the price story. The busy spring that pushed contracts up is the same spring when the median asking price jumped and price per square foot barely moved. More buyers were active, and more of the homes listed that spring were larger. The market got busier without each square foot getting much more expensive.
Fewer Listings, Yet Still About 97 Days on the Market
Median days on market in September 2026 was 97, only four days shorter than the 101 recorded in September 2025.
How the number is measured explains part of this. The series counts the days from a listing's start until it closes, goes pending, or comes off the market. The homes that went under contract quickly in spring left the active pool. The ones still on the market in late summer are mostly homes that didn't attract a contract, and their days on market keep climbing every month they stay listed. A tighter market and a slow typical sale can both be true when the fast sales clear out and the slow ones remain.
For a seller, the 97-day figure is a planning number. Three months is a normal stretch in the Houma-Thibodaux metro, even in a year when buyers were more active. A seller who prices off the spring median of $245,000 instead of the price per square foot for their own home's size is the kind of listing that stays in the slow pool.
November Starts the Slow Season, but Buyers Keep Signing
Days on market rises every winter in this metro. Recent winters look like this:
- 2024 to 2025: 108 days in November, 114 in December, 109 in January, 110 in February
- 2025 to 2026: 103 days in November, 110 in December, 108 in January, 111 in February
- Spring 2026: down to 93 days by April
Contracts don't stop in the slow season, though. In November 2025, pending listings jumped to 207, up from 163 in both September and October. That was higher than any month that spring until April. New listings that November reached 180, the most of any fall month in the series shown here. Winter in the Houma-Thibodaux metro means a longer wait per home, not an empty market.
A seller listing this November also faces less competition. Active inventory in September 2026 was 132 homes lower than a year earlier. A buyer shopping now will usually see more homes that have been listed for a while, and those are the listings where a conversation about price is most likely.
Using Price per Square Foot on Real Listings
The working number for this market is the metro's median asking price per square foot, $139 as of September 2026. It's a reference point, not a valuation. A home in a sought-after subdivision, a newer build, or a house with a large lot will sit above it, and plenty of homes will sit below it. Comparing a listing's price per foot with that benchmark and with nearby recent sales tells you more than comparing its asking price with the metro median.
For buyers, a spring listing that looks expensive next to the winter median may be priced normally for its size. For sellers, the spring 2026 jump in the median shouldn't be read as proof that every Houma home gained 10%. Price per square foot moved closer to 4% between December and July, and it has eased since.
Quick Answers
Do these numbers cover only Houma?
No. The FRED series covers the Houma-Thibodaux metro area as a whole, so it includes Thibodaux along with Houma. Individual subdivisions can differ a lot from the metro figure.
Are these sale prices?
No. Every price in this post is an asking price from active listings. Final sale prices can land above or below what sellers ask.
Does lower inventory mean homes sell faster?
Not so far in 2026. Active listings fell about 15% from September 2025 to September 2026, and median days on market only dropped from 101 to 97.
If you're thinking about listing this winter or making an offer on a home that's been on the market a while, start with the price per square foot for your street and size of home, not the metro headline. Our local team can pull the recent sales near you and help you set a price that gets your home under contract. Let's find your next home together.
