Prices continue to increase, with the median price up 23% to $295,000 and the average price up 21% to $348,047. The jump in prices is the result of sales declining from last year in the price ranges under $349k, while the home sales over $350k remained relatively steady from last year. We also had three homes sell above $1 million last month. In 2021, we had 12 homes sell above $1 million in Boone County. We’ve already seen 11 properties sell above $1 million this year, with three occurring last month, and we still have a quarter of the year remaining. Year to date, the average sale price is up 13%, and the median price is up 16%.
Days on market increased by 25% to 20 days, which is still low compared to the last ten years were the average days on market have been 47 for September. Days on market are growing at a higher rate for homes sold above $350K.
The number of months of inventory continues to improve at 1.90 months, up 23% over last year. The inventory average for the previous ten years has been four months, and if you subtract the last four years since we began to see our inventory levels shrink, the average months of supply for September of 2013 to 2018 was 5.2 months.
Building permits for Boone County, Columbia, and Ashland are down 9% in the third quarter and are down 23% for the year. Compared to 2019, building permits are up 15% year to date.
Mortgage rates for a 30 Yr FRM are up around 4% from a year ago. With the first few rate increases in the Federal Funds Rate by the Federal Reserve this year, mortgage rates had declined. The opposite was true with last month’s rate increase, where we’ve seen rates for 30 Yr FRM increase steadily near or above 7%. Rates could continue to increase after the CPI data released this morning showed inflation continues to increase.
Overall, the housing market is still normalizing from the previous two years. At first glance, the numbers look bleak, but when you compare September 2022 statistics to the last ten years, the 2022 numbers are in line or better overall.
Source – Columbia Board of Realtors CEO, Brian Toohey, MBA, RCE, ePro