In July, the typical Lamorinda house sold in 10 days. Not the hot listings, not the outliers: the median across all 52 house sales in Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda. Moraga’s median was under a week. That makes Lamorinda the fastest-moving housing market in the Bay Area right now, quicker than San Francisco’s famed 12-day pace, and it happened without the bidding-war theatrics of the inner East Bay. Here’s what July’s closings actually looked like, and what they mean if you’re thinking about a move.
First, the Numbers
| Community | Typical House Sale | Time to Sell |
|---|---|---|
| Lafayette | $1,840,000 | 9 days |
| Orinda | $1,833,718 | 12 days |
| Moraga | $1,652,500 | 7 days |
Across the three towns, the median house sold for $1,815,000, and the market has real depth above that: a quarter of July’s sales closed over $2.64M, and the top tenth cleared $3.75M. Volume tells its own story too. Another 52 homes went into contract during the month, essentially a full month’s worth of sales already queued up behind the ones that closed.
Lafayette did the heavy lifting with 28 of the 52 house sales, led by Burton Valley (5 sales) and Reliez Valley (3). Orinda contributed 18, with Sleepy Hollow (4 sales) its busiest pocket. Moraga’s 6 sales were fewer, but they moved fastest of all.
The Part That Surprises People: No Bidding-War Circus
Ten-day sales usually mean one thing in the Bay Area: teaser list prices and offers hundreds of thousands over. Lamorinda is running a different playbook. The typical July sale closed at exactly 100 percent of its asking price. Twenty-two of the 52 sales went over asking, but modestly, with a typical overage of 5 percent ($73,500). Nineteen sales closed under asking. Compare Berkeley, where the typical house sold 33 percent ($405,000) over list, or San Francisco at 23 percent over.
Moraga is the one town with a competitive tilt: four of its six sales went over, typically by 8 percent ($132,000). Orinda leaned the other way, with most sales at or below list.
Put those two facts together (10-day sales, honest prices) and you get the real headline: Lamorinda buyers move immediately when a house is priced right, and they don’t show up at all when it isn’t. Half of the 87 houses currently on the market have been sitting more than 30 days, and the active inventory’s median asking price is $2,095,000, a full $280K above what the typical July house actually sold for. The homes that sold and the homes that sit are, to a large degree, priced in different markets.
If You’re Selling in Lamorinda
The 10-day market is only available at the right number. July’s data draws the line clearly: homes priced to recent neighborhood sales went into contract before their second weekend, while aspirationally priced listings joined the 30-plus-day pool. With the active inventory asking $280K above what July buyers actually paid, there’s a real temptation to anchor high and “leave room to negotiate.” The sold data says that approach costs you the fast lane without buying you a higher price.
One genuine advantage worth knowing: with 52 homes pending against 87 active, demand is absorbing supply at a healthy clip. A well-priced, well-presented Lamorinda house enters a market where the buyers are already circling.
If You’re Buying in Lamorinda
Come ready for the fresh listings. At a 10-day pace, the house you love on Saturday can be in contract by the following weekend. Financing and criteria need to be settled before the right one appears, not after.
Trust the sticker, mostly. Unlike Berkeley or Oakland’s hills, the list price here is a real number. Budget a modest cushion (5 percent covers the typical overage) rather than the 25 to 35 percent the inner East Bay demands. Moraga is the one town where a stronger cushion helps.
The sitting inventory is your opening. Half of the active houses have been on the market past 30 days, largely because they’re priced above what July’s buyers proved willing to pay. A listing at day 40 with an ambitious price is a negotiation waiting to happen, and 19 of July’s sales did close below asking.
Condos and townhomes are quietly oversupplied. Only 3 sold in July while 40 sit on the market, 21 of them for 45 days or longer, at a median ask of $843,500. For downsizers who want to stay in the school district, or buyers priced out of the house market, that’s leverage you won’t find in the house segment.
The Bigger Picture
Lamorinda’s July numbers describe a market that knows exactly what it wants: turnkey family homes, priced honestly, in the neighborhoods people already know. When those appear, they’re gone in a week. Everything else waits. For sellers, that’s a mandate to price with discipline. For buyers, it means the market is simultaneously the region’s fastest and, on its sitting inventory, one of its most negotiable. Which market you experience depends entirely on which listings you’re looking at.
Based on 55 residential sales that closed July 1 to 31, 2026, plus current available inventory, across Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda. Sourced from MLS data as of August 1, 2026. All data deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
Follow on Instagram