Home sales see another double-digit drop in Boone County as mortgage rates stay high

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Columbia and Boone County saw another double-digit year-over-year drop in home sales in September, a stat that local realtors attribute to a market transitioning to mortgage rates topping 7%.

Single-family home sales in Boone County fell 12% when compared to last September. Sales in Columbia dropped 18%, according to a release from the Mid-Missouri Board of Realtors, which tracks local home sales.

"Even after next week’s midterm elections, economic and geopolitical uncertainty could push rates either way," board CEO Brian Toohey wrote in the release. "We’re also entering the season when sellers often take their homes off the market for the holidays and relist in the new year. If rates stay high into 2027, many of those sellers, whose current mortgage rates are less than half of today’s, may not relist unless they have to."

If that happens, Toohey wrote, inventory will shrink again, pushing prices higher and sales numbers lower.

While total sales fell, median prices rose by 12% to $370,000 and the average price rose 14% to $447,614. However, pending listings rose by 9% after year-over-year drops in July and August.

New listings and active listings were down in September.

Condo sales took a big hit in the third quarter -- down 34%, according to the board.

The drop in single-family home sales marks the third consecutive month of declines.

Toohey wrote that inventory in the entry-level price ranges is beginning to increase after lagging in recent years.

The area's most affordable homes by median sale price were in Moniteau County last month, where the median price was $139,000.