March 6th Market Update: Columbia County Real Estate
How’s the war with Iran impacting mortgage rates and the housing market?
Last week we saw the lowest mortgage rates in 3 years as rates slid down to 5.99% and stayed below 6% for a week. Then Trump launched a War over the weekend and by Monday mortgage rates jumped back up to 6.13%
Economic uncertainty tends to have a chilling effect on the housing market as buyers and homeowners hit pause and delay their plans. So let’s take a look at where things stand today in Columbia County NY in the Residential real estate market.
What happened in February?
The Median sale price in February dipped down to $411K which is down -2% from last year and down $84K from January. The median sale price for all of 2025 was $540K and YTD were at $448,500.
The number of Homes sold in Feb is up 14% year over year and are up 25% year to date. There have been 65 homes sold to date vs 52 last year
38 new listings hit the market in February which was up 2.7% year over year.
35 Homes were placed under contract, up 13% year over year.
Average days on market in Feb was 119, an increase of 38 days compared to last year.
The sale price to list price ratio was 93.5% in Feb, down 5 points from last year. I always say, winter is a great time to find a deal.
Coming out of February there was only 4.22 months of inventory available, about 1 month less compared to last February.
Ok fast forward back to today.
The median list price today is $599,950 There are currently only 192 homes on the market. Unfortunately that is significantly less active listings available today than there were a year ago. 85 homes or 44% of all homes are sitting between $300-750k. Which is where 48% of all sales happened last year 2025 and 63% of all sales year to date. 51 homes or 27% of all inventory is over $1M and this price range saw only 17% of all sales last year in 2025 and 17% of all sales year to date.
What does this all mean for the spring market?
With available homes sitting at an all time low right now, we definitely do not want to see the housing market stall or slow down just as we are defrosting and kicking off the spring market.
With these types of crisis, historically we see initial volatility, “flight to safety” for investors moves rates lower, but if there are long term disruptions to oil and energy supplies, inflation grows and rates move up and stay high. It’s gonna come down to duration… brief conflict-rate spikes temporary but a drawn out war can cause sustained higher rates and a housing market slow down.
When you zoom out and look at the bigger picture the rate movement in the past week is actually pretty mild, rates are still near the lowest we’ve see in years despite the chaos of launching a war over the weekend. So there’s no reason to panic or put your plans on hold.
Economic uncertainty is not a place where many people are interested in making the largest purchase of their life and this new conflict in Iran is the icing on the anxiety cake that includes tariffs, soft labor market, stock market volatility, and AI job loss concerns. That being said, you can’t put your life on hold, because there will always be some kind of drama. So if making a move is one of your goals this year, stay the course. Prices are stable in this region and are unlikely to crash anytime soon given the low inventory levels. If you are financing, make sure you shop around different lenders to get the lowest rates and closing costs because not all lenders are the same.
If you are curious how all this impacts you and your plans, give me a call to discuss a strategy to help you achieve your 2026 real estate goals
*stats from HVCRMLS on 3/6/26
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