Columbia Home Sales Much Better Than The National Trend

Abstract: While July housing numbers are down nationwide, the Columbia Board of Realtors reports that locally the housing market is definitely not following the national trend.

While July housing numbers are down nationwide, the Columbia Board of Realtors reports that locally the housing market is definitely not following the national trend.  In fact, local residential sales are only off 7% from 2006 home sales, according to statistics provided by the MLS system.

 

Staggering reports of a housing market slump are seen nightly on national newscasts.  Interestingly, the Columbia real estate market is not following in this trend, and the forecasts for 2007 remain strong.

 

“Just because home sales are plummeting in certain areas doesn’t mean our Midwest community will follow suit,” Carol Van Gorp, chief executive officer of the Columbia Board of Realtors, said.  “Just because it’s 90 degrees in Miami in February doesn’t mean you’d dress for the hot weather in Columbia,” she explained.  “Our home sales don’t necessarily follow other geographic regions of the United States.”

 

And local statistics support Van Gorp’s claim.  The number of existing home sales locally is up from the past two years, the median home price has risen almost $2,000 from one year ago on existing homes, and up a whopping $10,000 on new home sales.

 

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was $228,900 in July, down 0.6 percent from July 2006 when the median was $230,200, the highest monthly price on record. The median is a typical market price where half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less.  The July existing median home price in Columbia was $139,000 which demonstrates that housing is a good value locally.