Published October 26, 2026 in Market Update

Higher rates are slowing the pace, not stopping Augusta sales

By Jasmin Bradley

Real estate, Augusta

Rates crossed 7% again. Realtor.com reported that mortgage rates climbed above 7% for the first time since January 2025. CNBC reported that the monthly payment on a median-priced home ate up about 33% of a median family's income in 2025. That is up from 26% in 2022. Buyers feel that. It shows in the data.

The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 375 homes sold across ZIP codes 30909, 30906, and 30904 in the three months ending August 31, 2026. That is down 6.7% from the same three months in 2025. Fewer closings, but 430 pending sales in the same period, up 8.6% year over year. The pipeline is not empty.

The one number that changed the most is inventory. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 520 homes for sale across the three ZIPs combined, up 26.5% from a year before. More choices for buyers means sellers have real competition now. Pricing right matters more than it did in 2025.

Days on market: the shift is real

This is where the rate story lands. Homes are sitting longer in every ZIP the Real Estate Data Aggregator tracked here. Not a little longer. In some cases, a lot longer.

ZIP 30904 added 34 days compared to the same period in 2025, according to the Real Estate Data Aggregator. That is a big jump. ZIP 30909 added 21 days. ZIP 30906 added 7 days. If you are a seller, your timeline just got longer. Plan for it.

Prices: mostly flat, one ZIP slipped more

ZIP 30906, on the Southside, saw the sharpest price drop. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the median sale price there at $166,700, down 4.7% from a year before. Inventory in 30906 jumped 54.1% year over year. More supply, softer prices. That math is straightforward.

ZIP 30909 came in at $298,550, down 3.7%. ZIP 30904 was the only one that held, up 0.7% to $186,750. Small move, but it held. The Real Estate Data Aggregator also noted that the sale-to-list ratio in 30904 was unchanged year over year at 96.2%. Sellers there gave no extra ground on price.

Sale-to-list and above-list sales

Homes are still selling close to asking price, but the gap is widening a little. The Real Estate Data Aggregator put the average sale-to-list ratio at 97.1% in 30909, 96.9% in 30906, and 96.2% in 30904 for the three months ending August 31, 2026.

Fewer homes are selling above list price too. In 30906, 20.4% sold above asking, down 4.3 points from 2025, per the Real Estate Data Aggregator. In 30909, 12.5% sold above list, down 1.1 points. In 30904, 11% sold above list, down 5.5 points. Buyers have a little more room to negotiate than they did a year ago. Not a lot. But some.

One bright spot: quick contracts are up

This surprised me. The share of homes that went under contract within two weeks of listing jumped sharply in all three ZIPs. The Real Estate Data Aggregator counted 27.3% of 30906 homes going under contract in two weeks, up 22.6 points from 2025. In 30909, that share was 25.4%, up 23 points. In 30904, it was 22.9%, up 19 points.

So what does that mean? The right home, priced right, still moves fast. The homes sitting 44 to 56 days are likely the ones that came in priced too high or needed work. Buyers are not gone. They are just pickier.

The national picture

Nationally, Realtor.com reported that 20.8% of listings took a price cut in September 2026, the highest share since October 2022. Active listings nationally topped 1.16 million homes for sale. The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that U.S. house prices rose 2.6% from July 2025 to July 2026. Prices are still moving up nationally, just slowly.

Augusta is in Richmond County, and those Richmond County prices are not Columbia County prices. Different school districts, different price per square foot. Do not assume what happens in one county tells you what your home is worth in the other.

One more thing. These numbers cover whole ZIP codes. One street inside 30909 can look nothing like the ZIP average. A block with newer builds reads differently than one with older stock. The ZIP is a starting point, not the whole answer.