Single-family home sales in Boone County started the year up 5% to 105 units for the month of January, a result of another month of new construction sales outperforming existing sales. This is a great start for the year and is typical for the number of sales we see in January prior to 2020. With the increase in sales, we also saw an increase in the median price, up 15% to $325,000 and the average price also up 15% to $366,738.
Sales in Columbia were up 6% from January 2023 to 65 sales, but after a sluggish end of the year for the City of Columbia with regards to prices due to mortgage rate increases, January prices set a record with the average price up 30% to $410,520 (this is 7% increase from our record last April of $380k). That’s a $95k increase from last January. The median sales price in Columbia was also a record high of $375,000, up 27% (previous record median price in the City was $333k last July).
Days on market was up to 58 days, a 41% increase from last year. 58 days on is market the average for the month of January the previous ten years. The market is seeing days on market increase in every price range, but the largest increases are for homes priced $300k and up.
Supply was up slightly in January to 2.82 months worth of inventory, a 5% increase. The supply number continues to be affected by the number of new listings hitting the market, which was 144 in January. Prior to the market inventory issues in recent years, Boone County would see around 200 new listings for this time of year. The increase in supply was due to the number of active listings on the market which increased 10% from last January, but prior to 2020, Boone County would typically have over 600 active listings for the month of January.
Single-family building permits were even from last year, with a decline in Columbia and an increase in Boone County and Ashland permits. With the current weather in February, we could see a surge in building permits and housing starts this month.
Pending listings (homes under contract) were down 8% in January compared to last year. Mortgage rates and possibly cold weather probably played a part in the decline in homes under contract as mortgage rates rose steadily during the month and there was a week and a half of extremely cold temperatures. There was a sharp drop for mortgage rates at the start of February, but rates quickly shot back up and are back over 7% for a 30 YR FRM. FHA mortgages are still below 7% around 6.6%. It was reported this morning that mortgage applications for purchases fell 10% from last week and were 13% lower for the same week a year ago.
For the first three weeks of February, pending listings were up 35% as buyers took advantage of lower mortgage rates, which were below 7% for a 30 Yr. FRM the first two weeks of the month. Pending listings for the first three weeks of February are already above the total pending sales for all of February of 2023, even with the steep rise in mortgage rates the last week. Even pending sales during the third week of February of this year are outpacing last year. The warmer weather, which is supposed to remain for the rest of the month might have helped increase pending sales.
The average and median prices for February so far are up, but not nearly to the degree the market posted in January.
SOURCE – COLUMBIA BOARD OF REALTORS CEO, BRIAN TOOHEY, MBA, RCE, EPRO
KEYWORDS —
- COLUMBIA MO REAL ESTATE
- HOMES FOR SALE IN COLUMBIA MISSOURI
- COLUMBIA MO HOMES
- COLUMBIA MISSOURI REALTORS
- REAL ESTATE AGENTS IN COLUMBIA MO
- PROPERTIES FOR SALE IN COLUMBIA MO
- COLUMBIA MO PROPERTIES
- HOUSES FOR SALE IN COLUMBIA MISSOURI
- COLUMBIA MISSOURI APARTMENTS
- COLUMBIA MO CONDOS
- COLUMBIA MO TOWNHOUSES
- COLUMBIA MO LAND
- COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES IN COLUMBIA MISSOURI
- COLUMBIA MO RENTAL PROPERTIES
- COLUMBIA MISSOURI REAL ESTATE MARKET
- COLUMBIA MO HOME VALUES
- COLUMBIA MO NEIGHBORHOODS
- COLUMBIA MO SCHOOL DISTRICTS
- BUYING A HOME IN COLUMBIA MISSOURI
- SELLING A HOME IN COLUMBIA MO.