Seventy-five single family homes closed in Big Bear in August 2026 — $49.88 million in total volume, a median sales price of $480,000, and an average of about $663,000. The average August seller took 96% of asking price, but that number hides an enormous spread: some sellers got 100%, some got 85%, and the difference had almost nothing to do with the houses themselves. It came down to pricing.
By Rachael Smith | September 17, 2026
The most expensive home on the mountain last month was a seven-bedroom on Cove Drive that traded for $5.5 million.
That's the headline number. It's also the least useful one.
Every month I pull the closed sales for the entire mountain — Big Bear Lake, Big Bear City, Moonridge, Sugarloaf, Fawnskin, Erwin Lake, Fox Farm, Baldwin Lake — and go through them one at a time. Not California averages. Actual homes on actual streets that actually changed hands. Here's what August told us.
Start with the gap between the median and the average. The median was $480,000. The average was $663,000. That spread is the Big Bear market — a deep, busy entry-level market and a small, loud luxury market, with the average dragged upward by a handful of very big trades.
The median home that sold was 1,362 square feet and closed at $357 a foot. Watch Rachael break the numbers down at 1:11.
Here's how the 75 sales distributed:
Add the first three together. Three out of every four homes that sold in Big Bear in August closed under $750,000.
By neighborhood, Moonridge ran the table with 21 closings — more than one in four homes sold on this mountain. Big Bear City had 14, Sugarloaf 7, the East End of the Lake 7, Big Bear Lake 6, and Fawnskin and Fox Farm 5 each.
At the top, three homes closed over $2 million, and the biggest one wasn't close. 659 Cove Drive on the west end of the lake — seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, 7,762 square feet, listed just under $6 million — closed August 13 at $5,520,000. That's $711 a foot and the highest single family sale on the mountain by a factor of two and a half.
Behind it: 4470 Stonebridge Road in Eagle Point, 3,659 square feet, listed at $2,495,000 and closed at $2,225,000. Then 16H Wamni Road in Moonridge — 4,068 square feet, listed just under $2.2 million, closed at full price. And 438 Starlight Circle in Fox Farm just under $2 million, with 447 Sienna Road at $1,819,000.
Now the part that surprises people about the luxury tier. As a group, everything over $1 million closed at 93% of list — the weakest sold-to-list ratio of any price band all month. Big money is patient money. Above a million, buyers negotiate, and in August they won. If you're shopping that tier, it's worth reading what to look for when buying a luxury home in Big Bear Lake before you write an offer.
Flip to the other end, because that's where most of Big Bear actually lives. Fourteen homes closed under $300,000, and as a group they were the softest on the mountain — about 94.5 cents on the dollar. The lowest sale of the month was 1247 Piney Ridge Place in Fawnskin: 776 square feet, one bedroom, listed at $180,000, closed at $153,000. That's 85% of asking and the deepest discount anywhere in Big Bear in August. That listing also carried an MLS number from the previous year, which tells you exactly how long it sat. If you're evaluating that price range, here's what $300,000 actually buys in Big Bear City.
But small does not automatically mean cheap. 793 Los Angeles in Sugarloaf is 400 square feet, and it closed at $215,000 — $538 a foot, more per square foot than the $1.98 million sale on Starlight Circle.
Flip it around again. 213 East Mountain View Boulevard in Big Bear City — four beds, two baths, 1,377 square feet — closed at full asking of $249,000. That works out to $181 a foot, the lowest anyone paid in Big Bear last month, and the seller still got every dollar they asked for.
Same month, same mountain: $181 a foot and $538 a foot. Square footage is not the market. Location, condition, and price are.
Want the address-by-address breakdown every month instead of a statewide average? I pull the closed sales for the entire mountain and walk through them one at a time on my YouTube channel. Subscribe here and you'll get the September numbers the week they land.
Here's the part sellers need to hear.
The strongest price band in Big Bear in August was $750,000 to $1 million, with an average sold-to-list price of 98.8%.
Read that again. If your home was priced in the sevens, eights, or nines — and it was priced correctly — buyers essentially paid the full number.
The proof is in the closings:
Across the whole month, 23 of the 75 sales — roughly one in three — closed at or above asking price. Eleven went over.
The biggest overbid on the mountain was 137 East Star Drive in Big Bear City: 2,128 square feet, three bedrooms, three bathrooms, listed at $569,000 and closed at $591,000. That's $22,000 over asking. 43734 Yosemite Drive in Moonridge — only 992 square feet — listed at $519,990 and closed at $530,000. 1332 Midway Boulevard in Big Bear City went $10,000 over. And up in Fawnskin, 39155 Cedarhill Road, a 528-square-foot cabin listed at $169,000, closed at $177,000 — $8,000 over asking and the second cheapest house that sold all month. Watch Rachael walk through the full-price band at 5:48.
Competition is alive at both ends of this market. It's just selective.
Price. Almost every single time.
Fifty-two of the 75 sellers closed below their asking price. Seven of the homes that closed in August had been sitting on the market since 2025 or earlier — and every one of them either took a real cut or barely scraped its number.
1500 Wolf Road in Moonridge listed at $499,000 and closed at $430,000, nearly $70,000 off. 43602 Bow Canyon Road, 2,160 square feet in Moonridge, came down from $529,900 to $480,000.
And then the one that says it best. 701 Cove Drive — same street as that $5.5 million sale, same west end of the lake — listed at $1,295,000 and closed at $1,150,000. A $145,000 reduction.
Here's the twist. At 1,408 square feet, that buyer still paid $817 a foot, the highest price per square foot anyone paid in Big Bear last month.
Location carried the deal. Location did not protect the asking price. Watch Rachael break down the Cove Drive story at 8:29.
That's the pattern, and it isn't complicated. Correctly priced homes in Big Bear sold near ask and sold fast. Aspirationally priced homes aged and sold for less than they would have gotten with a sharper number from day one.
The market didn't punish sellers for their houses. It punished them for their pricing. If you're weighing the decision right now, that's the same math behind whether this is a good time to sell a home in Big Bear Lake.
Right now there are roughly 600 active single family homes on the mountain with a median asking price of $506,000. The median that actually sold was $480,000.
That's a narrow gap, and a narrow gap is a healthy sign. As a group, Big Bear sellers are not out over their skis.
Behind those actives, about 107 properties are in some stage of escrow, contingent, pending, or taking backup offers. Twenty-six listings expired in August and seven were withdrawn.
Those expireds and withdrawns are your motivated sellers heading into September and October. If you're a buyer, that's the list I'd be working right now.
At the very top of the market, keep an eye on 39224 Waterview Drive. Whatever that one eventually closes at will reset the ceiling for this entire market.
And if you're a seller, the honest takeaway from August is this: your list price is the single biggest lever you control, and this month proved it. Homes priced right got full asking. Homes priced on hope got 85 cents on the dollar.
Big Bear isn't one market. It's a $153,000 Fawnskin cabin market and a $5.5 million Cove Drive market and everything in between — and they do not behave the same way in the same month. Know which one your house lives in. That's the whole game.
If you want to know what your specific house could actually do in this market — not an estimate, not a range, but a real number built on comps — call or text me directly at 909-744-2190 and I'll pull them and tell you straight.
And if you'd rather watch the numbers than read them, I break down every closed sale on the mountain, address by address, every month on YouTube. Subscribe to the channel so the September update lands in your feed the day it publishes.
About Rachael Smith
Rachael Smith is a top-producing real estate agent with RE/MAX Big Bear, specializing in mountain homes, short-term rental investments, and luxury properties in Big Bear Lake and surrounding areas. With over a decade of experience and hundreds of homes sold, she helps buyers, sellers, and investors make smart, strategic real estate decisions. Through her strong online presence and data-driven approach, Rachael connects clients with opportunities both on and off the market.
