Columbus Home Prices Didn't Jump 7% in September. Here's What Actually Changed.

If Columbus home prices dropped 7.9% in August and rose 7.3% in September, did anything happen to the value of your house? Very little. Those are the actual year-over-year changes in the single-family median sale price for the city of Columbus in the Georgia Association of REALTORS® local market reports. Over the same stretch, the year-to-date median went from $210,000 to $212,000.

The September headline is $220,000, up 7.3% from September 2025. A buyer comparing Columbus with other markets, or a seller deciding whether to list before the holidays, could read that as a market heating up. The rest of the same report says the opposite. Supply is what has changed in Columbus this year. More homes are for sale than a year ago, sellers are getting about the same share of their asking price, and the monthly median moves around because each month has a fairly small number of sales.

A Price Chart That Changes Direction Almost Every Month

Here is the Columbus single-family median for each month of 2026, taken from the Georgia REALTORS® monthly local market updates, with the change from the same month in 2025 and the number of closed sales behind each figure.

From the March low to the June high, the median moved $48,500 in three months. Then it gave back most of that by August. In four of the nine months, the year-over-year change switched sign from the month before.

Each monthly median comes from whichever homes happened to close that month, usually between 120 and 210 of them. When more larger homes close in a given month, the median goes up. When a month has more starter homes and estate sales, it goes down. The houses themselves are worth the same either way. The report also flags this, noting that its percent changes "can sometimes look extreme due to small sample size."

The Figures That Barely Moved

Through September 2026, the year-to-date single-family median in Columbus was $212,000, up 1.0% from $210,000 at the same point in 2025. That figure includes 1,561 closings, more than seven times the busiest single month of 2026. Across 2026, the year-to-date median started at $199,000 in January and has stayed between roughly $200,000 and $212,000 since.

The share of list price sellers received was just as steady. In September 2026, Columbus single-family sellers got 97.2% of their list price, exactly the same as in September 2025. The year-to-date figure was also 97.2%. On a home listed at $220,000, that works out to about $6,000 below asking.

Even that figure leaves something out. A footnote in the GAR report says its sale prices do not account for seller concessions or down payment assistance. When a seller pays toward a buyer's closing costs, the full contract price still appears in the median. So the 97.2% shows what the contract said. It does not show what the seller kept after closing. For a seller setting expectations, this is where the practical friction is. A buyer's request for closing-cost help comes on top of the typical gap below list price, and the public statistics don't show it.

Where Columbus Actually Changed: More Homes for Sale

While prices went up and down, supply moved steadily in one direction. Columbus single-family inventory was higher than a year earlier in every month of 2026. The gap was widest in spring, at 26.4% more homes in April than in April 2025. By late summer it had narrowed to 3.0% in August. In September 2026 there were 531 homes for sale, 6.0% more than a year earlier, or 3.1 months of supply.

The September numbers show this from both directions:

• New listings rose to 250, up 12.6% from September 2025.
• Pending sales were 170, down 1.2%.
• Closed sales were 161, down 10.1%.

More sellers came to market while the number of buyers going under contract stayed about flat. The year-to-date figures show the same pattern. Through September 2026, new listings were up 11.0% while closed sales were up only 2.2%. Buyers are absorbing the extra listings slowly, and the leftover homes are adding to inventory.

For a buyer, this means more choice and more time than the price headline suggests. Homes that did sell in September 2026 averaged 40 days on market, down from 46 a year earlier. Well-priced homes still sell at a normal pace. The difference is that when you walk away from one house, there are more alternatives waiting than there were a year ago. For a seller, price competition is the main issue, because your listing sits next to more choices than it would have in 2025.

The countywide numbers match. Muscogee County had 578 single-family homes for sale in September 2026, 3.0 months of supply, and a median of $230,000. New listings were up 9.8% and closed sales were down 6.8%.

What Last November and December Looked Like

This post goes up in early November, and the next few months follow a pattern Columbus went through a year ago. Here are the single-family figures from the Georgia REALTORS® reports for October, November, and December 2025:

1. New listings fell from 277 in October to 188 in November and 158 in December.
2. Pending sales dropped from 177 to 129, then to 120.
3. Closed sales went from 170 to 146, then to 136.
4. Inventory stayed at 541 and 540 before easing to 499 in December.
5. Percent of list price received was 96.5% in each of the three months.

New listings dropped by more than 40% between October and December, but inventory barely changed. Homes already for sale stayed on the market as fewer new ones arrived. The median moved around then too. In November 2025 it reached $233,700, then fell to $211,250 in December.

Going into this winter, Columbus has more inventory than it had a year ago. A holiday-season buyer can expect fewer competing offers and a sizable list of homes that have been on the market for a while. A seller who lists in November will reach a smaller group of active buyers. Last winter, sellers received about 96.5% of list price, below this fall's 97.2%. That makes pricing right from the first day more important than usual.

Just Over the County Line, a Slower Market

North of Columbus, the market moves at a different pace. In Harris County in September 2026, the single-family median was $394,900, inventory was up 37.4% from a year earlier to 239 homes, months of supply reached 4.7, and homes averaged 57 days on market. Pending sales fell 19.1%. Even so, Harris County sellers who closed received 98.4% of list price. That fits a market where homes take longer to sell, and the ones that do sell were priced close to what buyers would pay. Harris County's monthly median moves around too. September's figure was down 7.1%, while the year-to-date median of $397,500 was down 1.7%.

Quick Answers

Are Columbus home prices rising? Barely. Through September 2026, the citywide single-family median was $212,000, up 1.0% from a year earlier. Monthly figures in 2026 have ranged from 8.9% below to 15.3% above the prior year.

Which number should a buyer watch? Watch inventory and months of supply. Columbus had 531 single-family homes for sale in September 2026, 3.1 months of supply, and inventory has been above last year's level all year.

How close to asking do Columbus homes sell? In September 2026, sellers got 97.2% of list price, before any concessions, which the published figure doesn't count.

If you're deciding whether to list this winter or trying to tell a fair price from a lucky month's median, I'm glad to go through the numbers for your street and price range with you. Reach out to Lisa Raines. Let's Connect.