There is a number in the county report for the owner of a house, and a different number for the owner of a condo. Imagine each owner finding it over breakfast, each with a move planned before winter. These owners are hypothetical. The numbers are not: on September 27, 2026, PBP Real Estate's analysis of BeachesMLS listings recorded 3,844 houses and 6,292 condos and townhouses for sale in Palm Beach County. Measured against August's completed sales, that worked out to 3.8 months of inventory for houses and 7.0 for the condo and townhouse group.
The house owner circles 3.8 on a calendar. The condo owner counts forward seven months. Both have asked the numbers a question they cannot answer.
Months of inventory is a ratio of a stock to a sales pace. It describes how much is listed relative to how many sales recently closed. It is not the median time to an offer. It is not the chance that a specific unit sells before winter. A house can remain listed longer than 3.8 months; a condo can sell in a week. The split still matters. It says the two property groups entered late September with different amounts of visible supply relative to recent closings. That is worth understanding before anyone converts a county headline into a personal plan.
Above and below the line
The top of the fraction is a September 27 snapshot. The bottom is August closed sales. PBP's source reports 1,009 house closings and 902 condo or townhouse closings for that month. More attached homes were on the market, while the latest complete month's sale counts were closer together. The ratio exposes that imbalance. It does not tell us whether it came from new listings, older unsold listings, seasonal activity or a mixture of all three.
The dates are not interchangeable. An August closing often follows a decision made weeks before it. The September shelf can contain homes that arrived after those buyers chose. If mortgage costs or buyer preferences change between the two dates, the denominator may be a poor guide to the next month's pace. And as homes are newly listed or withdrawn, the shelf itself changes. No owner waits in a fixed queue that must empty in the order it formed.
The sample has edges too. PBP says its analysis uses BeachesMLS listings permitted for internet display, not every property that might be offered. Its property types follow the tax legal description, and its condo group includes townhouses and villas. A high-rise unit and a villa with its own front door can therefore share a column while facing different dues, insurance questions and buyer pools. The method note is not small print to skip. It tells us what the numbers are allowed to represent.
There is another pair of clocks on the same page. The median age of homes still for sale was 61 days for houses and 80 days for condos and townhouses. Those are active listings, not completed sales. Quick sales have already left that group, while the remaining homes keep growing older. Among the homes that did sell in August, the median time to go under contract was 32 days for houses and 51 for condos and townhouses. Neither measure is a forecast for the next owner. One describes survivors still waiting; the other describes successful sales that already happened.