Single-family home sales declined from this time last year by 33% to 149 units. Home sales are down almost 15% year-to-date and down 2.7% compared to 2019. Home sales in the City of Columbia have declined 13% year over year.
Prices have continued to increase from this time last year, with the average price increasing 14% to $333,724 and the median price up 18% to $295,000. Larger price increases were in the City of Columbia last month, with the average price up to $362,936, a 25% increase, and the median jumped 23% to $309,000.
Days on market continue to increase to 28 days, up 47%. Homes priced from $300K to $749k had an average of 42 days on market, while homes under $300k averaged 17 days on market.
As days on market increase, so has the number of months of inventory, which leaped 100% from last year to 2.40 months of home inventory supply. The average months supply for the month of October for the last ten years has been 4.05 months, so we are still quite a bit below the average for October, which is the reason for prices still increasing while sales have declined most of the year. The months supply of homes for the City of Columbia was 2.02 in October, an 83% increase.
Pending listings (homes under contract) were down 30% last month, signaling that, more than likely, the number of sales per month will continue to decline through the end of the year.
The steady jump in mortgage interest rates combined with affordability issues from the prior few years have more than likely led to the decline in sales thus far for 2022. Affordability will probably remain an issue, while Mortgage rates could remain volatile based on the level of inflation in the economy. Last Thursday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), one metric used to measure inflation, showed inflation may be slowing a bit. Since the CPI release, there has been a sharp drop in mortgage rates, but mortgage demand has yet to increase.
Source – Columbia Board of Realtors CEO, Brian Toohey, MBA, RCE, ePro