46% of Columbus Sellers Are Dropping Their Price

The Sell for 1 Percent team unpacks a complicated market where nearly half of local sellers—46% to be exact—are dropping their prices. Despite tame inflation numbers, mortgage rates are creeping closer to seven percent after a new Fed governor’s comments spooked the bond market—highlighting how national sentiment and even global conflict can influence local affordability. For Columbus homebuyers, this creates a tale of two markets: plenty of options if you’re looking for sweat equity, but fierce competition for turnkey suburban homes as families rush to buy before school starts in mid-August.

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Full Transcript

Hey there, everyone. Jaime with Sell for 1 Percent Realtors, joined, as usual, by the gang head broker, Dave Barlow, Jaysen Barlow, the numbers man, as we’ve come to know him, and Rich Cercone at Highlands Mortgage, here on July 16th, 2026, to get into the real estate market here, specifically in Columbus, Ohio. I believe that’s where most of Jaysen’s numbers will be focused, instead of the national level.

But I always like to pass it off to Rich at the beginning of these to kind of go through mortgage interest rates and what’s going on in the mortgage world. Rich, what are you seeing out there? Morning, Jaime. Well, in spite of tame inflation numbers, CPI and PPI both were weaker than expected, CPI coming in at 3.5 percent, as opposed to a 3.8 estimate, as opposed to 4.2 percent last month.

Our new Fed governor testified before the Senate yesterday and uttered seven words that completely freaked the stock market and bond market out. He said, we have seen prices are too high. And with those seven words, the bond market is not doing well, and interest rates are high sixes, mid six, seven range, maybe more or less, depending on your circumstances.

I did notice nationally, you mentioned that locally we’re doing better, but nationally, pending home sales were down 5.4 percent last month. So I know Columbus is a healthy market and Jaysen has those numbers, but that is where we are with the mortgage world right now. We’re seeing the high sixes.

We are not close to five. We’re much closer to seven. So I think it’s affecting some buyers out there.

So is that what you’re quoting right now, high sixes? Yeah, it’s like 6.6, 6.7, 6.8. It depends on, again, what your loan amount is and all that. Yes.

Correct. I think that the problem with the national pending data is that it’s like a month and a half behind. It’s not real time.

None of this stuff that comes out in the headlines is real time. I think in July, pendings have been off the chart even nationally. So we’ll see what it looks like in a month when pending home sales rise, and then in the real world we’re living in, it boots on the ground every day, and we’ll see what it looks like in August, which is typically a slower time.

And Columbus is always a hotter market than nationally, I think. Yeah. Some of the markets that really took off during COVID, and I know that we feel like Columbus really did too, but not compared to Austin, Texas, or Florida.

Those markets are getting crushed right now, it seems like. But we’re chugging along here. And that’s not unusual.

I mean, we see that in California, Texas, Florida. They tend to lead the way, is what I have seen in the past, that if housing prices are dipping in California, Texas, Florida, then three, four, five, six months later, we see it dipping here. And so if they’re seeing it across the country, we’re, as Rich said, somewhat, you know, Columbus is insulated to a certain extent, but I think overall here in Columbus, the market’s pretty good.

Yep, I would agree with that. I think that the headlines are always pretty negative. If it bleeds, it leads.

Trying to generate clicks and traffic, I think that the market really is not terrible. Do you have any numbers or graphs to prove that, Jay? No, I don’t know why you keep doing the numbers thing. There is 57, 54 active listings, so a little lower than where we were last week.

I think we were around 58 and change last week, maybe I’m wrong, and it’s about the same. Anecdotally, I mean, I’ve sold a listing a day for the last week, so it’s like, you know, all of a sudden, I’m on a hot streak where it’s like, you know, don’t cut the hair, don’t wash your underwear, keep doing everything that you’ve been doing, and you never mess with a hitting streak, as I try and teach my son that in coach pitch. So, I see the numbers down a little bit this week.

It’s like, well, maybe everyone all of a sudden is selling houses right now. So, you know, we’re about 100 or so lower than we were the week before. We’ll see what that looks like as rates go up.

You know, because what’s crazy is the inflation stuff, and I was texting dad this morning, and maybe everybody in the group chat yesterday, where it’s like, the Federal Reserve has been talking about gas prices and oil prices being up, and that’s what’s going to make us raise rates. Well, then oil prices came down, and they shifted gears into, well, if core inflation comes in hot, we’re going to have to hike rates, and then inflation came in lower than expected, and then they still put words out into the media to freak out the markets. And it’s like, you know, I think that the Fed wants to pull back the three cuts they did last year and try and bring things back a little bit, but it’s like they just keep moving the goalposts.

You know, every single time it doesn’t work out in their favor. The one thing that needs to stop that would really, I think, help things would be if the Iran conflict could come to an end. I think that’s freaking the bond market out.

Other than that, I mean, things really are much better than what people are being told they are. And if rates can stay below, I think I said, I was reading somewhere, anytime they go above 6.69% and they get into that 6.75%, the real estate market starts to slow. So, as long as they can stay 6.5% or lower, I think, you know, we’ll chug along.

We’ll see what happens if they get up to 7. That was the fear that inflation was going to come in hot. All of a sudden, there’s going to be a July rate hike and that, you know, the market would, you know, go up all of a sudden because no one saw a rate hike coming until like a week ago.

Well, I think the only thing that makes sense is how much the Iran war does impact the market. You know, I was seeing gas prices, going back to my gas price barometer, you know, down in the low threes. And when I say low threes, 3.19%, 3.20%, 3.30%, and then, you know, the bombs start flying again in Iran.

And all of a sudden, we’re back up to 3.69%, 3.79%, 3.89%. Yeah, it was like one day. Yeah.

And it’s just, I agree with you. If they can resolve that and just be done with it one way or the other. I did see a report that said, you know, when things started flying again, that we’re not seeing the crazy high oil prices that we saw a month ago.

You know, things jumped to 1.10, 1.20 a barrel. You know, they went up 6% basically overnight. Like 75 bucks a barrel still.

Yeah. And so it’s like, well, we’ve kind of figured out, I mean, there was a little bit, I heard late last week, there was an oil glut in the world. You know, and it’s kind of like, well, how does that work when you shut down, you know, 20% of the oil production? Well, these guys are figuring out other ways to get the oil out of there and to where it needs to go.

Other countries picked up production like the United States. Yeah. So, you know, they’re not seeing quite the craziness, but again, in the last, you know, four or five days, you know, I’ve seen, like I say, gas go from, you know, 3.25 to 3.75, 3.85.

And that’s what hurts people’s pocketbooks. I just, you know, I think that, you know, you can’t afford to go buy the same hamburger at McDonald’s and I know prices are up there overall, but if you’re taking, you know, an extra, let’s say gas went up 50 cents and you got a 20 gallon tank, it’s an extra 10 bucks out of my pocket every time I have to fill up. And if you do that two, three times, four times a month, most people are living check to check.

And when you take just a small percentage out of their pocketbook, then it does impact everything else. And so, as you saw prices come down, now you’re seeing CPI and PPI. You know, CPI has the energy, the gas prices in it.

The PPI strips out the energy and it came in lower than expected as well. So, if they can keep gas prices down, keep oil prices down, because people don’t realize that your iPhone, it’s made from oil, you know, the cup that you get your drink in, it’s made from oil. The wrapper that your food comes in at the grocery, it’s made from oil.

The transportation costs, they get, you know, the oranges from Florida or from California to Columbus, Ohio has to come by truck. And, you know, a lot of that truck is made with oil, not alone the diesel. So, it’s the number one driver.

And if they can get it under control, they’re going to be okay. And I still point at, I think it’s November 3rd is the first Tuesday in November when they’re going to have the midterms. And, you know, if they want chaos, they’re going to have to get this under control.

My humble opinion. Well, I agree. Jay, would you like to wrap this video up for us? Well, what about the buyers there, Jay Marinski? You got a bunch of buyers.

The busiest realtor in Columbus is sitting right here, Jaime Edward Barlow. Buyers are in competition for the best houses out there. If your house needs a little bit of work, if it needs some updating, you may be sitting for a bit because my buyers are very, very picky.

I mean, I would say that’s update for the buyers. Buyers can be picky. There’s enough inventory out there that they don’t have to, you know, necessarily rush around.

But then it seems like when the nice ones hit the market, they go pretty quickly. And all of a sudden you find yourself rushing around to get the house that has quartz countertops, shaker cabinets and new roof HVAC and, you know, updated good shape. So, you know, if buyers if they’re if you’re looking for a little bit of sweat equity, there’s a ton of options out there right now.

If you’re looking to put a little bit of work into a house and be there long term, I think that there are a lot of different options for you to buy right now. But if you want something that’s turnkey and ready to go and at a good price point, it seems to be a lot of competition for those homes in the suburbs at the moment. So that is what I’m seeing with the buyers.

So, Rich, one quick question for you before we kind of wrap this thing up. What are you seeing personally here in the Columbus market for you and your mortgage group? Are you guys seeing more buyers asking for rate quotes? Yeah, we are seeing a little bit slower activity. No question about it.

It’s slower. People are more picky. People have like one house that they might want to buy.

If they don’t get that house, they’re out. You know, they’re not like continuing. Like back in 2020 and 2021, people were picking a house.

It goes, they lose out. They’re picking another house an hour later and then another house two hours after that. Now it’s like, I want this one house.

I didn’t get it. I’m just going to stay where I am. So we get a lot of people asking about rates and being pre-approved.

But it’s very specific and it’s definitely not the same activity as we had a few years ago. It’s slower than it was. Jay, with the sellers that you’re dealing with, what are you seeing? I mean, as far as you talked about the numbers, but on a personal level as a listing agent, what are you seeing? I’m seeing things right now are popping all of a sudden.

It’s the same old story where it’s like, if you’re way over your skis on price, and I tell every seller this when I talk to them for the first time, we talk about pricing. If you ask $2 million, well, you’re never going to sell. If you ask $100,000, you’re going to sell in the first five minutes.

This entire experience is controlled by pricing. The variables in the process, they are price, photos, and the description. I can’t change a square footage.

I can’t change a style. I can’t change the number of bedrooms in a location. It really comes down to, well, do your photos suck? No, we have professional photos.

Does your description on the listing suck? Who are you marketing to? No, I’ve been writing descriptions since I was 16 years old for Dad’s old Remax company. Really, the only thing that’s going to keep a listing that I have from selling is it’s going to come down to pricing. I’m always game to reach.

I’ve been wrong before, so it’s like, let’s try for the most possible money, but you’ve got to have a strategy in place where you move down. The days on market is starting to tick up slightly. The median days on market has gone from 28 to 35 to 40.

That’s for the entire metro area. You’re seeing things take a little bit longer to sell. In my opinion, I think it’s easy as the realtor to come in and try and underprice something to get a quick sale.

I think the true art in being good at this craft is, how can I beat the days on market, average, median, and still get you the most possible money? There’s a lot of strategies that go into place. Some sellers need to sell right now, and we price it a little aggressively, but most sellers want to get as much as they possibly can. Shocking, I know.

We’ll start a little bit on the heavy side and have a strategy in place that we can work our way back down if we need to. 46% of the listings in the metro are dropping price. It’s not like you look crazy.

You started too high. No, you look like every other listing. I’ve got a tale of two ships.

I was just at a closing yesterday with our good friend, Christopher, over at Caliber Title First. I’ve got a listing on Liberty Road, and we had a lot of discussion about where to price that house. I had told the sellers about the price bracketing and the things that we talk about, and it’s the experience.

27 years, 4,000 or 5,000 houses sold. I told them, I said, what you just said, I’m game for anything. The right situation may get you the price you want, but what you’re hiring me to do is look you in the eye, give you a good, honest assessment.

What I think the value is. I told them, stay under a million bucks. They wanted to go to a million one.

I said, we can try it, but here’s what I would do. I would list it at $999,900. Stay under that million.

They eventually did take the advice. The property went in the contract for $1,010,000. They got their million dollar price.

The week after we went on the market and we went into contract that weekend, the house next door went on the market for guess what? A million one. That’s been a month ago now. That house is still sitting.

They’re good friends with the people next door. Yesterday, those people did lower their price to the $999,000 price tag. It’s the experience is what people pay for.

Rich has been doing this close to 30 years. Jay, you’ve been doing it 21 years now. Jaime, you’re into it eight years.

I’m 27 years into it. You’re paying for the experience. There’s 10,000 real estate agents in Columbus.

Everybody knows a realtor. It’s crazy, but does everybody have access to people who have the experience that we’ve done this? One quick caveat, and I’ll turn it back over to you guys. We’re seeing a little pop in the market right now because this is an annual trend.

This is the last week for people to try to get in the contract before school starts August 15th. Rich can get them done in two weeks, but most people, their lenders are telling them it’s going to take three, four weeks to get your process, get you closed. If you want to be in school before August 15th, you better get your contract written today.

That’s, I think, what we’re seeing. We see it every year. After this week, I think, Jay, you’re going to start to see those numbers fall off like they normally do through the month of August.

Then we’ll see the market pick back up in September, October, because why? Well, now people want to be in their new home for the holidays. It’s understanding the markets, the ebbs and the flows. We look at a lot of different things.

Jay loves the numbers. He’s very good at it. History does tell a tale, and that’s what we look at.

I’ll end it there, fellas. Jaime, take us home. I like how you do the wrap-ups.

I want you to wrap it up. You do a great job. If you liked the video, leave a like.

If you want Jaime to call you and harass you constantly, put your phone number in the comments. He reads every comment. He’d be happy to answer all your real estate questions with his vast knowledge of real estate.

If you have complaints, call Dave. If you need to get a loan, call Rich. I’ve been voted the best-looking realtor 21 years in a row here in Columbus by my peers.

If you would like to work with somebody that is dashing, charming, and can get you the most money, all for a 1% commission, call me, Jaysen Barlow. Thanks for watching. We’ll catch you next week, guys, when interest rates are 7.5%, bombs are dropping, and the world is ending.

Until then, bye-bye, house. Have a great day.