Costa Rica Real Estate Market, July 2026: Median Price Falls 3.8%
The median asking price closed at $430,000 while rents held flat. Cartago added 44.1% more active inventory as its prices dropped 11.7%.
Key takeaways
- The median asking price fell 3.8% to $430,000, down from $447,000 in June.
- Median rent did not move at all, holding at $2,200.
- Active inventory closed at 21,963 properties, 17.6% above June.
- Median time on market dropped to 198 days from 277.
- Cartago posted the second-steepest price fall in the country and the largest inventory gain, both at once.
July corrected prices, not expectations
Costa Rica's median asking price closed July at $430,000, down 3.8% from June's $447,000. It is the clearest monthly correction so far this year, and it arrived alongside more choice for buyers: 21,963 active properties, 17.6% more than the month before.
Rents held firm. The national median stayed at $2,200 per month, exactly where June left it.
| Metric | July 2026 | June 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | $430,000 | $447,000 | −3.8% |
| Median rent | $2,200 | $2,200 | 0% |
| Active listings | 21,963 | 18,669 | +17.6% |
| Median days on market | 198 | 277 | −28.5% |
The 198-day figure deserves a caveat. A 28.5% drop does not mean properties are clearing in two-thirds of the time they were. When fresh inventory arrives on the platform, those listings enter the calculation with the clock at zero and pull the median down on their own. Some of this is genuine acceleration and some is arithmetic. August will be the honest read, once July's inventory has had time on the board.
Province by province: coastal gains, Central Valley softening
July's split was geographic and unusually clean. Both coastal provinces gained. The Central Valley and the Caribbean fell.
| Province | Median price | Change | Active | Active change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guanacaste | $690,000 | +6.2% | 3,358 | +16.4% |
| Puntarenas | $575,000 | +6.7% | 3,689 | +17.5% |
| San José | $375,000 | −4.8% | 8,312 | +17.6% |
| Heredia | $356,483 | +1.9% | 1,435 | +23.5% |
| Alajuela | $299,000 | −6.6% | 2,571 | +19.5% |
| Limón | $286,580 | −13.4% | 297 | +18.8% |
| Cartago | $264,061 | −11.7% | 905 | +44.1% |
Guanacaste remains the country's most expensive province at a $690,000 median, with Puntarenas behind it at $575,000. Both gained more than 6% on the month.
Cartago ran hard in both directions at once. It added 44.1% more active inventory, the steepest supply gain in the country, while its median price dropped 11.7%. More sellers competing for the same buyers is the straightforward reading.
Limón posted the sharpest declines, 13.4% on sale prices and 28.5% on rents, off a base of just 297 active properties. It is the smallest market in the country, and its medians swing on a handful of transactions.
Canton spotlight
These are the five cantons with the largest percentage price moves in July. Read them as the month's biggest swings, not as its most meaningful ones.
- Abangares rose 66.5% to $920,000, the highest median in the group, on a sample of 9 properties.
- Flores rose 57.9% to $615,000 across 41 properties, the sturdiest sample of the five.
- Acosta fell 66.1% to $271,500, also on 9 properties.
- Limón fell 45.1% to $198,020 across 34 properties.
- Dota fell 44.1% to $274,000 across 33 properties.
A canton with nine properties in its sample can double or halve its median because two expensive homes listed that month, or two cheap ones did. Abangares and Acosta both fall in that bracket. Flores, at 41 properties, is the only one of the five where the move can carry a trend reading.
By property type
Warehouses were July's strongest asset: a $1,125,000 median, up 12.5%, with rents up 8.5%. It was the only subtype to gain on both measures.
Offices went the other way, down 8.7% to $475,000, the month's steepest decline by type.
| Type | Median price | Change | Active |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warehouse | $1,125,000 | +12.5% | 291 |
| Building | $900,000 | +1.4% | 166 |
| Commercial | $650,000 | 0% | 846 |
| House | $499,000 | −0.2% | 11,510 |
| Office | $475,000 | −8.7% | 330 |
| Land | $308,071 | −6.6% | 4,921 |
| Apartment | $270,000 | −6.6% | 3,183 |
Houses dominate the market with 11,510 active listings, and their median barely moved at −0.2%. When the largest segment holds still, the national 3.8% decline is a mix effect rather than a price cut: cheaper inventory entered the pool, houses themselves did not get cheaper.
Apartments fell 6.6% to $270,000, matching the decline in land.
Where buyers are looking
The districts holding the most active listings today:
| District | Canton | Active |
|---|---|---|
| San Rafael | Escazú | 1,082 |
| Pozos | Santa Ana | 801 |
| Tamarindo | Santa Cruz | 707 |
| Bahía Ballena | Osa | 667 |
| Mata Redonda | San José | 652 |
| Jacó | Garabito | 633 |
| Escazú | Escazú | 587 |
| Santa Ana | Santa Ana | 573 |
Four of the eight sit in the Greater Metropolitan Area and four on the coast. San Rafael in Escazú leads with 1,082 active listings, more than double central Escazú itself.
Where listing activity concentrated in July draws a different map, and an almost entirely coastal one:
| District | Canton | July | June |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tamarindo | Santa Cruz | 146 | 31 |
| Bahía Ballena | Osa | 125 | 22 |
| Jacó | Garabito | 122 | 25 |
| Cóbano | Puntarenas | 107 | 9 |
| Santa Cruz | Santa Cruz | 146 | 68 |
All five are coastal, and four sit on the central and southern Pacific. Treat these counts as a map of where activity clustered rather than a measure of market size: listing volume on the platform also shifts when new commercial partners join with full portfolios.
Developments: who moved this month
Hacienda Pinilla in Tamarindo remains the country's largest development by active listings at 82, and it was also the month's most active, going from 3 new listings in June to 32 in July.
July's more interesting story sits below that top spot. Three developments that listed nothing at all in June turned up with real volume:
- Reserva Conchal in Cabo Velas, with 22 new listings.
- Colinas de Montealegre in Tres Ríos, with 20 — the only one of the three away from the coast.
- Místico Beach Town and Resort in Jacó, with 16.
Ciudad Hacienda Los Reyes in La Guácima rounded out the group with 25 new listings against 9 in June.
The rest of the standings by accumulated inventory held steady: Valle del Sol at 75 active listings, Condominio Parques del Sol at 72, Condominio Montezuma at 62 and Villa Real at 61.
Industry pulse
Of the 40,921 properties published on Propiedades.cr since April 2025, 20,985 remain active and 19,936 have left the market. That puts the turnover rate at 48.7%: nearly half of everything ever listed has since sold, rented, been withdrawn or expired.
This is a market-health signal rather than a pricing one. Inventory cycling at close to 50% describes a market that moves, not a shop window that sits.
Methodology
Figures come from properties published on Propiedades.cr, calculated on the closed month of July 2026 against June 2026.
- All price figures are medians, not averages. Medians hold up better against the luxury outliers that distort an average.
- The national sale median is calculated across 18,141 properties; the rent median across 3,623.
- Cantons in the spotlight meet a minimum sample threshold, but as noted above, several move on fewer than 10 properties. We flag those individually.
- District and development figures are listing counts, not prices. We do not yet track median price at those levels, and counts reflect platform activity, which can move for reasons unrelated to the market.
- Prices reflect asking prices on listings, not recorded closing prices.
Want to see what is on the market today? Browse properties for sale in Costa Rica and filter for the area you have in mind.
