Columbia County Housing Market Report: August 2026

Inventory is up 12%. Prices didn't budge. Here's what that actually means for your street.

Columbia County ended August with 865 homes for sale — 94 more than this time last year. That's the single most important number in this month's report, and it changes the math for anyone thinking about buying or selling this fall.

But the story isn't as simple as "more supply, lower prices." Because prices went up.

Here's the whole picture.

Columbia County at a glance — August 2026

Residential property only — single-family, condo and townhome. Source: Flexmls (Hive MLS), pulled September 2, 2026.

Three things worth knowing

1. The "70 days on market" number is misleading — on purpose

The average is 70 days. The median is 32 days.

When those two numbers are that far apart, it tells you the market has split into two markets. Correctly priced homes are still going under contract in about a month. Meanwhile a growing tail of overpriced and hard-to-place listings is sitting for four, five, six months and dragging the average up behind it.

If you're a seller, you don't live in the average. You live in one of those two groups, and pricing is what decides which one.

2. More inventory has not meant lower prices — yet

This is the part that surprises people. Inventory is up 12%, months of supply climbed from 3.51 to 3.92 — and the average sale price still rose 1.3% to $396,668. Asking prices are essentially flat at $434,740.

What extra inventory has bought buyers is time and negotiating room, not a discount. You can see a house twice before you write. You can ask for repairs. You can include an inspection contingency without losing the deal to someone waiving everything. A year ago in Columbia County, a lot of that was off the table.

For sellers, the takeaway is the mirror image: you're still getting your price, but you're competing with 94 more homes to get it, and the buyer on the other side has options they didn't have last summer.

3. Closings slowed, but contracts didn't

205 homes closed in August, down 14% from 239 last year. That's the softest number in the report.

The more useful number is right underneath it: 215 homes went under contract. Pendings running ahead of closings is what a steadying market looks like, and it points to a better September than August was.

What happened in your neighborhood

County averages will not price your street. Here's August in the subdivisions we track:

Several of these neighborhoods closed only one to three homes in August. Small samples move a lot month to month — read them as direction, not gospel.

The spread is the story. West Lake sold in an average of 5 days. Knob Hill took 12. Highland Lakes and Whispering Pines both averaged 80. That's a 16x difference between the fastest and slowest tracked neighborhoods, inside one county, in one month.

A few things standing out:

• Highland Lakes is carrying the inventory. 34 active listings — more than a quarter of all the inventory across the nine neighborhoods we track — on two closings for the month. If you're listing there this fall, you are entering the most crowded field in the county.

• West Lake and Knob Hill are moving fast. Five days and twelve days respectively. Very little inventory, and what comes on gets taken.

• Riverwood Plantation has 8 homes under contract — the most of any tracked subdivision, against 19 actives. Quiet activity that hasn't shown up in closings yet.

• River Island is the county's luxury barometer. Six closings averaging $1,238,450, with eight still on the market averaging $1,160,175. The high end is transacting.

What to do with this

If you're selling this fall: Your competition is roughly 12% larger than it was last year. The gap between the 32-day median and the 70-day average is exactly where pricing mistakes live. Price to the first two weeks of showings, not to the last comparable sale in your neighborhood — and get a number that's specific to your subdivision, because as the table above shows, the county number won't tell you much.

If you're buying: You have more choice and more leverage than buyers had a year ago, and it hasn't cost you a higher price. That combination doesn't last forever. Inspection contingencies, repair requests, and taking a second look before you write are all realistic again.

If you're just watching: Keep an eye on the days-on-market spread. If the median starts climbing toward the average, that's when prices actually begin to move.

Want the number for your specific street?

We pull this report from the MLS the first Wednesday of every month, and we can run the same four metrics for any Columbia County subdivision — including yours.

The Ehrin Fairey Team | eXp Luxury serves Evans, Martinez, Grovetown, North Augusta and all of Columbia County, GA. And every closing we do sends $150 to a local nonprofit our client chooses — because we believe in real estate that gives back.

📍 faireyteam.com · Reach out and we'll send you your neighborhood's numbers.

Data source: Flexmls (Hive MLS) Market Summary, Columbia County, GA, Residential, pulled September 2, 2026. Days on market is cumulative days on market (CDOM). Active listings reflect inventory standing at month end. Information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed. Aggregate market statistics only. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results, and this report is not an appraisal or valuation of any specific property.