1,018 Columbus Homes Just Dropped Their Price

The Sell for 1 Percent team breaks down a major shift in the Columbus market, where a staggering 1,018 listings dropped their price in just the last week. While it’s fundamentally still a seller’s market, buyers are gaining more control — they’re taking more time to compare properties instead of jumping on the first house they see. For Central Ohio sellers, this data underscores a new reality: pricing your home correctly from the start is absolutely critical, as today’s more cautious buyers will simply wait for a price change on anything that seems too high.

#SellFor1Percent #ColumbusRealEstate #MortgageRates #HomeBuying #OhioRealEstate

Full Transcript

Hey there, everyone. Jaime with Self for 1 Percent Realtors, here on August 13th, 2026. Coming at you live with a new market update, as usual, by the gang.

Jaysen Barlow, Dave Barlow, and Rich Cercone at Highlands Mortgage. We’re going to give you guys an update on the market here in central Ohio, including interest rates, recent news, MLS updates, all the good stuff our viewers are interested in. And a weather report.

Yes, it’s been a bit hectic. The swimming pool is overflowing, your mom reported today. She’s worried about Cali, Jay.

The swimming pool being up about 3 or 4 inches from where it was the other day because of all this crazy rain. It’s been overflowing. Rich, what are you seeing in the forecast? Well, the forecast came out this week, the CPI and the PPI.

Essentially, they were a big nothing burger. The inflation rate is still elevated. It wasn’t so elevated that it really alarmed the markets.

Consequently, the stock market has had a couple of decent days, but the treasury market is doing pretty much nothing, just staying in the 460s on a 10-year note. A couple of amazing stats I heard is the 30-year treasury is the highest it’s ever been since 2001. So in 25 years, this is the highest the 30-year treasury has ever been.

The 30-year used to be the benchmark for mortgage interest rates. They switched to the 10-year, I don’t know, about 15 years ago. But the 30-year treasury – and then I heard another thing, Dave, you’ll like this, is that this is the highest the gas prices have been this late in the year in history.

Gas prices have never been this high this late in the year. In other words, maybe you might get a Memorial Day or Fourth of July bump, but this late in the year, they’ve never seen gas prices this high. So all that amounts to the market feels like the Fed will do nothing in September.

That’s pretty much a foregone conclusion. They’re not going to raise, they’re definitely not going to lower. The probability of a hike sometime before the end of the year is in the 60% to 70% range.

So the market is still thinking hike by the end of the year, but not a hike in September. All this hike stuff, I mean, if you think back to January and early February, the optimism was we were going to see Fed rate cuts, worse was going to come in and comply to Trump, and the inflation rate was going to go down because of all the things Trump was doing with the economy. And all that has just – it’s all gone south because of the war in Iran.

That’s kind of where we are. I will have to say that I saw like the barrel of oil is around $85 a barrel. It’s still right around $80, yeah.

It’s fluctuating a little up to $87, $88, and then it goes back down, but $85. And I went to get gas yesterday and $4.49 a gallon. And I thought that doesn’t make any sense.

It was $4.49 a gallon when gas was over $100 a barrel, you know, six, eight weeks ago. And I’ve not ever been a conspirator, but it seems like to me something is being manipulated on the backside. And I don’t know if it’s accurate or not, but my sense is that someone has told the oil companies, make all your profit now because here in about four weeks, we’re going to want you to dump gas prices right before the election.

And we want those prices to be down around $3.25 or $3.00 or whatever so that people feel good going into the election. Who in your theory told the gas companies to do that? Well, there’s weird things that happen on the backside, but it just, the numbers don’t… Who is pulling the strings on the gas prices? Listen, Dave, you better start believing in PSYOPs because you’re in one.

I’m in the matrix. For God’s sake, somebody unplug me. Yeah.

It doesn’t make any sense how gas does not come down, you know, into the high $3.75, $3.50 with gas at $85. I’ve not gone to look at the numbers yet, but I am going to pull numbers to see price of barrel versus average price across the country and how that correlates because right now it seems like there’s a disconnect. Now, Dave, are you talking about high test gas or just regular? Just regular.

The 87 octane is at $4.49 pretty much universally everywhere that I have looked here in the last couple of days. And it just, like I say, struck me funny that when I see oil at around $85 a barrel, that that number doesn’t seem to correlate. And then I’m not against capitalism at all.

I’m a capitalist through and through. But then I see, you know, these quarterly profits coming from Exxon and Mobile and, you know, these big companies and they’re up in the $8, $9, $10 billion range. And it’s like, don’t mind you guys making a profit, but need a little help here.

Just a tad. A little bit. A smidge.

So that’s my report on gas. And as universal rich for high-tier gas or for the run-of-the-mill, what would you call that? Well gasoline? Like, you know, well bourbon, you know? You don’t get the top-tier bourbon. You get the well.

They’re both kind of coding. Yeah, the well bourbon and vodka and all that, right? You don’t get the Grey Goose. Exactly.

You haven’t asked GPT, your best friend AI, about why gas is not coming down the pump. It’s a pretty simple explanation, really. What is it? There are some issues with refineries right now.

The Midwest is fueling it on a larger than most basis because Indiana has a refinery outage currently. Those dirty dogs in Indiana. So that’s causing wholesale Midwest gasoline prices to jump.

And that’s where Ohio is supplied from. And talking about the disturbances with Middle East and Russia, have reduced supply of finished gasoline. So it goes through and explains why.

So I don’t think that it’s a conspiracy. If you had more experience with conspiracies, you would have some more well-thought-out conspiracies. Yeah, yeah.

Jaysen and I can help concoct a really good conspiracy if you want. Well, let’s just wait and see whatever that first Tuesday is in November. I’m guessing by the end of September, you’re going to start to see gas plummet.

So we’ve got about six weeks, I guess, before that happens. It’d be shocking if it didn’t. Again, we’re at all-time highs.

I don’t think your prediction is very bold, sir. It’s all-time high maybe for this time of the year, I think, was the point. Going this late into the year.

So it stands to reason as we get further in the year, it’ll come down. Especially with elections. Like I say, we’re going to see if this holds water.

Anyways, back in reality, inventory is climbing. Inventory nationally is down 2%. Here in Columbus, we’re almost to 6,000 again.

And then the average day is on market. It’s still hanging at 71%, the median at 35%. So no change the last two weeks on our average time on market.

That would be an active status, Father, yes. Coming soon. That’s not actually on the market, but it’s coming soon.

I see. Or it could be in contract. It’s still on the market.

I don’t track those. Oh, okay. All right.

We have some fishy numbers, but go ahead. That’s all I’ve got. Some guy reached out to me and told me to make these numbers inflated.

And then when we get closer to the election, they’re going to plummet. Inventory is going to crash. As a result of more houses going into contract.

Because Rich’s interest rates have dumped to 5.78. The pending sales, let me pull those back up, they’re still higher than last year. But they’ve been on their seasonal march down.

The pitch of this chart is pretty steep. It’s not a gradual come down. I think that has a lot to do with the Iran conflict and rates going up the way they have.

But buyer demand has been holding. So that’s a good thing. And that’s here in Columbus and nationally, buyer demand is holding.

Excuse me. Do you guys think it’s skewing more towards the buyer’s market right now? Or pretty much just an even-steven healthy market? Waiting for Jaime to take your softball. Fundamentally, I think it’s still a seller’s market.

But buyers definitely have more control. Good houses are still selling pretty quick. A few of them will be bidding wars.

Multiple offers. But in general, a lot of listings are sitting longer. Sellers are more willing to negotiate.

There’s more homes available. Good houses sell quick. Average houses eventually sell.

And overpriced listings will sit. But I think if you’re in really good shape and priced correctly, you can find yourself with multiple offers pretty easily. But I think in general, buyers have a little bit more leverage on the negotiation in most scenarios.

But I would still call it a seller’s market. It’s not 2021 though, basically. Well, nothing.

Definitely not. And you never can say never. We thought back in 2008 that this is as good as it gets.

We’re selling about everything we put on the market. The house could be… If you used to kid, it could have shag carpeting, green flock wallpaper, and mirrors on the ceilings, and the house would still sell.

And then the foreclosure crisis hits. And then you couldn’t give them away. And then slowly since 2012, the market has got better, better, better, better.

And then, yeah, 2021 was the apex that anything you put on the market sold in about 20 minutes, and you had 112 showings and 60 offers. And it was madness. So I won’t say that we will never see that again.

But I think that was pretty unusual. The one interesting thing that I am seeing, and Jay, I was going to ask you with your numbers, the number of homes that have had price changes. Do you see that number? About 50%.

This is just overall, 50% of listings are dropping price. So I don’t know if this is doing… It’s on the MLS stats where it shows how many in the last week.

I can go see if I can pull it up really quick. Yeah, I think that… Half the listings are dropping price.

Well, we have what? You said 5,900 listings, active listings. 1,018 in the last week have dropped price. So, I mean, it’s..

And, you know, Rich, back in 2021, that number was two. Yeah. You know? Right.

Even six, eight months ago, that number was, you know, 6,700 a week. And so, you know, that number has gone to over 1,000. It’s been pretty consistent there at 1,000.

I do a weekly news update to my client base, and that’s one of the stats that I always quote. And it’s been above 1,000 for about six weeks now. You know, before that, it was solid 900s.

And then before that, solid 800s. And so, it’s kind of stair-stepped up. But it wasn’t too long ago, back when, you know, we had interest rates in February that you were quoting people before this Iran conflict.

You know, you were quoting people in the high fives. You know? Yeah, I had some fives in front of some of my mortgages or low sixes, for sure. But definitely, 5.8, 5.9 was attainable on even conventional loans if you had the right scenario.

So, we’re up almost to full point, because we’re in the high sixes now. Yeah. You know, mid to high sixes.

So, yeah. You know, it all ebbs and flows, but, you know, we’d like to see a lot more flows than ebbs. Just because we’re kind of selfish like that.

It’s an interesting market. We are still seeing properties sell, you know, in a reasonable amount of time, if they’re priced properly. We still have some sellers that, you know, think their house is made of gold.

And, you know, it’s the biggest house with the biggest yard, you know, and it deserves to be $50,000 overpriced over my neighbor’s. But those houses are not selling. And, you know, as Jaime said, buyers have a little more choice.

Seems like because interest rates are elevated, that buyers aren’t as apt just to jump in head first, to buy the first thing that they look at. They may go look at, and I’ve had this happen, they may go see one of my listings. And a week later, they come back with an offer.

Because they’ve gone out and they’ve looked at, you know, another dozen houses and my house is the perfect house for them. A week later. And it’s like, that house could have gone into contract.

Why wouldn’t you write then? Well, because we have to compare, we have to look, we have to see. And I think that’s what’s happening in the market more often than not, that buyers aren’t just jumping in head first, you know, to the first house that feels right. They’re taking a step back, they’re taking a deep breath, they’re going to look at five, six, seven other houses, and then three, four, five days later, they write an offer.

So, it’s an interesting, I don’t know that it’s a seller’s market, and it’s not a buyer’s market. I think it’s really rich, I think it’s balanced. Yeah, healthy.

Yeah, I think it’s a good balance. If Jay’s inventory levels, you know, start creeping up into the 8, 9,000, then I think it’s going to be a buyer’s market. If it dips down into the 3, 4,000, then I think it becomes, you know, a seller’s market.

You know, as the teeter-totter kind of, again, ebbs and flows. So, that’s what I’m seeing. So, basically, if you are a good seller with a good price and an updated house, you’re going to sell it.

And if you’re a good buyer, you come in strong, non-contingent, you have a good free approval, you’re going to be able to buy it. And I think that’s probably a healthy situation in some ways. Yeah, I mean, Jay, you have more listings than I have, so you’re seeing more feedback.

But one of the common themes I’m seeing is, oh, this is the first day out with my buyer, and so we really like the house, but this is first day and they want to look some more. Yeah, I see that. I mean, you know, there’s all kinds of different things that pop up.

What you’re talking about where, like, buyers see the house, they like it, they want to go think about it, and then, you know, you never hear from them again. You kind of hope they pop back up in a week. But it’s like, you know, it’s an interesting market.

And a lot of people, they don’t fill out the feedback form, which still blows my mind. Yeah. I mean, it’s crazy how many people don’t give you feedback.

It’s like, just shoot me a text telling me they didn’t like it so I can close the loop off with my seller. Right. Because people like us, we get numb to this.

We do it every day. And just kind of the way it is. So we expect it.

But, you know, if you can imagine you’re a home seller and you got your house on the market and you’re doing these showings and you’re getting the house spotless for the showing. I mean, you like to hear what they didn’t like, what they did like. Are they interested? Are they not? Just kind of like common courtesy.

So that’s a theme I get from people all across the board. Other realtors mention it. Clients mention it that I can’t get a call back.

I call realtors and they don’t ever call me back. I don’t know how any of these people make money. So, it will, and that’s been going on since I was 17 years old working in dad’s office.

You know, I’m trying to track down feedback for dad’s clients. I mean, that’s a theme that’s existed for all of time in real estate. Yeah, but it seems like that’s a little more prevalent now of not getting feedback at all.

And, you know, one of the things, you know, for a seller is that feedback is important because it can help the seller understand, you know, what that client liked or didn’t like about the property. And if we see a common theme of things that people don’t like and we can fix it, then ultimately that helps the seller. So, it used to be kind of a common courtesy.

And I would say, you know, 10 years ago, you probably got 75% of people who showed your properties would give you feedback. And I think that number is probably closer to 50% today. And I don’t know if that’s just because of the type of person that’s coming into the real estate business.

I think that it has a lot to do with it, that people coming into the real estate business aren’t business people. God bless them. You know, you’re a former school teacher or you’re a firefighter or, you know, you got a part-time, you know, this is your part-time job that you got a full-time job.

And if you sell a house, you can afford to, you know, to pay for the family vacation or whatever it may be. But there’s no, and you hate to say it, but there’s no business etiquette. You know, they don’t run it like a business.

And so, they see the email come in, hey, can you give us feedback, delete. See the next one come in, you know, because Showing Time sends, I think, three emails. I think you’re giving people a lot of credit that they manage their email properly.

They probably just have it buried somewhere in their inbox. I don’t know. It’s just, I sound like the old curmudgeon.

You said that. You are a curmudgeon. You got that part right.

You said something there just a few minutes ago, made me think of grandpa. I am trying to help you. Yeah, you know.

Well, and I started to preempt at my sellers. It’s like, well, no feedback is feedback. It’s not the feedback you want, but they’re not interested.

You know, and I’ll chase it down so we can try and identify themes, but no feedback is feedback. Learn that phrase, real estate agents. Well, but what you’d like them to say is that I think the house is way overpriced.

You know, because that’s helpful feedback. Excuse me. No feedback is feedback.

Yeah, I understand what you’re saying, that the client’s not interested, but give me a reason why the client’s not interested. Well, I think the house is $50,000 overpriced, or you got to change out all that orange shag carpeting, or you got to update the bathroom, or, you know, whatever. That helped to give direction to the client as to, you know, what to do.

You either replace the carpet or you reduce the price. And a lot of times it’s cheaper to replace the carpet. I hear you.

That’s my complaint. My argument of nature would be, you know, that while they don’t like the house, clearly to them it’s overpriced. And I’ve had 10 feedbacks say overpriced, and then you have a show and they make a full price offer.

So, but I understand, you know, what you’re saying. You know, I like to get, like, themes in the feedback. Like you were saying, everyone complains about the carpet.

Well, then we probably want to offer an allowance. We want to get out in front of whatever that objection is. Versus just being ghosted.

You know, and I’ll send, you know, the realtors the messages, you know. You know, hey, can you send me feedback? And you wait a couple hours, let me know. You wait a couple hours and you put the question mark emoji on it.

And, you know, usually you’ll get a response. Oh, I’m so sorry. No problem.

You know, let me know the feedback. I’ll put it in for you. Just, you know, let me know what it is.

It’s all good stuff. All right, who’s doing the wrap-up here today? Jaime, Jaysen? Jaime’s going to salute the way Jaysen does it. So, I’ll just do it.

Listen, dad’s about to tear apart the seams in the simulation. He’s got his cameras going. It is, I noticed that.

It’s kind of weird. If you need to get a loan, refinance, have questions, Rich Cercone is the man. Give him a shout.

If you’re looking to buy a house, give Jay Marunsky a call. He is the handsome mustachioed man in the corner of your screen. Give him a shout.

He’ll be happy to drive you around, take you to Mr. Hero, take you to Kane’s, Wendy’s, buy you lunch and show you 12 to 15 houses in a single trip. If you need to sell a house, give me a call.

I’m Jaysen Barlow, voted the most handsome realtor 21 years in a row by my peers. That’s who you want representing you, and I will get feedback for you. Rich is doing business.

Rich is closing deals, and if you need to complain about Jaime, about me, about anything, you want to talk about gas prices and complain about the government who is directing them to control oil prices, give him a call. Give him a call. If you’re a well-seasoned conspiracy expert, call Dave.

He needs some guidance. If you’re watching on YouTube, leave a comment, like the channel, smash the ring notification bell, and if you’re on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, leave us a five-star review. Make it easier for people to find us.

There you go. I’m Jaysen Barlow, once again, the most handsome realtor in the Columbus Metro, possibly the world. Thank you for watching, and have a great day.