Tulsa Housing Market Update: August 2026

August in Tulsa: hot pavement, back-to-school traffic, and a housing market settling into its late-summer rhythm. Here's what the numbers say, what's happening around town, and where the opportunity sits this month.

Tulsa by the numbers

Blank cells: the MLS source publishes only year-over-year comparisons for some metrics.

What changed this month

• Rates climbed all July, from 6.43% at the start of the month to 6.66% by the end, the highest reading in nearly a year. That quarter-point move costs a buyer of a median-priced Tulsa home roughly $40 a month.
• Metro inventory keeps building. Active listings across the Tulsa metro climbed for the third straight month to 3,206 in July.⁶ Buyers heading into fall will have the deepest selection of the year.
• Rents cooled month to month, dipping about 2% even while sitting 4% higher than a year ago. That looks like normal late-summer seasonality, not a trend change.

Rates have hovered in the mid-6s all summer. If you've been waiting for 5% to come back, you may be waiting a while. The better question is whether the monthly payment works for you today.

Around Tulsa

A 55-acre development is coming to east Tulsa. Lucent Valley, planned for the corner of 41st and 129th East Avenue, will bring 270 new single-family homes plus a hotel, restaurants, and retail.¹ New construction at this scale is good news for buyers who've been squeezed by tight inventory on the east side.

North Tulsa's $200 million bet is past the halfway mark. Phase IV of the 36N project in the Phoenix District, the largest mixed-income housing investment in Tulsa's history, is now more than half complete.² It's one of seven phases. Watch this area.

Tulsa Remote crossed 4,000 members. The program that pays remote workers $10,000 to move here has now brought in over 4,000 people and an estimated $878 million in economic impact.³ Even better: about 70% of them stay. That's a steady stream of new homeowners, and a big reason demand in Tulsa's close-in neighborhoods holds up.

Rental watch

A quick read on the rental side of the market, whether you own a rental, are thinking about one, or are weighing renting versus buying.

For context, single-family rents nationally average $2,320 a month with vacancy around 6.1%.⁵ Tulsa single-family homes rent for well under that national average, which is a big part of why out-of-state investors keep showing up here.

The investor angle: with rents up 4% and home prices up 6.5%, Tulsa's rent-to-price math stays among the friendliest of any mid-size metro. Returns always depend on the specific property and how well it's managed, so treat those as market averages, not a promise. But if the coastal and Sun Belt markets have priced you out, Tulsa deserves a look.

Thinking about a first rental property, or already own one here? My free Rental Investing Guide covers the neighborhoods, the numbers, and the Oklahoma-specific rules.

One smart move for August

If you're a buyer who got outbid this spring, this is your window. Inventory is near its high point for the year, but competition drops off once school starts. August and September are when patient buyers tend to win: more choices, fewer bidding wars, and sellers who listed in June starting to get flexible.

Let's talk

Curious what your home is worth in this market? Wondering if now is your moment to buy? Email me at ben@bennemecek.com. I read every note. Or grab a time on my calendar.