Is It a Good Time to Buy a House in Columbia SC Right Now?

I get this question every week, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you are buying and where. But if you are asking whether the Columbia SC area is a reasonable place to buy right now, the short version is that buyers have more room to breathe here than they have in years. Let me walk you through what the numbers actually look like this fall, and what they mean for you.

I am Jill Hydrick, a REALTOR with EXIT Real Estate Consultants who has spent nine years helping people buy and sell across the Midlands, from Irmo to Lexington to Chapin and out to Lake Murray. Before real estate I spent 34 years in accounting, so I tend to look at the market the way you would look at a budget: what the numbers say, what they do not say, and what it means for your money.

The market has shifted in the buyer's favor

For a long stretch after the pandemic, buying in the Midlands meant competing hard and moving fast. That is not the market we are in right now. As of this fall, inventory is up across most of the area, and homes are sitting longer than they did a couple of years ago. In the city of Columbia, roughly two out of three homes are selling below asking, and the average home is spending somewhere around 40 to 50 days on market. That is a big change from the days when a decent listing was gone in a weekend.

The same story plays out in Irmo and Lexington. Lexington County's median listing price is running in the low-to-mid $300,000s, and homes there are also averaging around 40 days on market. Irmo leans the same way, with most sales closing below list. What that means in plain terms: you have time. You can look at more than one or two houses. You can make an offer that makes sense for you, and you have a real chance of negotiating on price, closing costs, or both.

One important caveat before I go further: the market is not the same everywhere. Lake Murray waterfront is a completely different animal. Waterfront inventory stays thin, the right property does not sit around, and prices there run well above the rest of the area, often $850,000 and up. If you are shopping for lakefront, the rules are different and you need to move differently. But for the vast majority of buyers looking in Columbia, Irmo, Lexington, or Chapin, this is the most favorable market we have seen in a while.

Rates are the part nobody can control

The other side of the coin is mortgage rates, which are sitting in the mid-to-high 7 percent range on a 30-year fixed loan as of early October. That is higher than anyone would like, and it is the main reason some buyers are hesitating. I am not going to tell you rates are cheap, because they are not, and I am not going to tell you to wait for them to drop, because nobody actually knows when that will happen.

Here is what I do tell people. You do not buy a home because of the rate alone. You buy because the monthly payment fits your life and the house fits your family, and you plan to be there long enough for the rate to matter less. If you plan to stay five, seven, ten years, a higher rate today is not the disaster the headlines make it sound like, especially when you can refinance later if rates come down. And right now, that higher rate is doing you one real favor on the price side: it is taking some of the heat out of the market by thinning out the competition.

You do not need a 20 percent down payment

A lot of first-time buyers assume they need to bring 20 percent to the table, and that assumption keeps people out of the market longer than they need to be. The typical first-time buyer in this country puts down around 9 or 10 percent, and plenty put down a lot less. Conventional loans can start at 3 percent down, and FHA loans at 3.5 percent. South Carolina also has down payment assistance programs that can put real money toward your down payment and closing costs, which I have written about before.

The way I look at it, the down payment question is a math question, not a rule. I have sat with enough buyers over the years to know that the number that matters is the one you are comfortable with, not the one a relative or a stranger on the internet told you to hit.

What a good time actually looks like

If you are waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect rate, and the perfect house all at once, you will be waiting a long time. That is not how buying a home works, and it never has been. A good time to buy is when the monthly payment fits your budget, you are planning to stay put long enough to build equity, and you have found a place that actually fits how you want to live. Everything else is noise.

What I can tell you from nine years on the ground: the buyers who do best in this market are the ones who come in knowing their numbers cold, get pre-approved early, and treat the extra inventory as an advantage instead of a reason to keep scrolling. They look at more homes, they make offers that make sense, and they end up with a better deal than the buyers who waited for the market to feel exciting again.

If you are relocating from out of state, this is a genuinely good window to buy in the Columbia area. You have the time to actually visit, walk neighborhoods, and make a decision instead of being rushed into one. That is exactly the situation my relocation clients want to be in.

The honest version

I am not going to tell you this is the absolute best time in history to buy, because that is not true, and I do not talk that way. Rates are high, and that is a real cost. But the price side of the market has softened, inventory is up, and buyers have negotiating room they have not had in years. For most people looking at Columbia, Irmo, Lexington, or Chapin, the balance is about as reasonable as it has been in a while.

If you are wondering whether it makes sense for you specifically, that is a conversation worth having. I will run the actual numbers with you, listen to what you are looking for, and give you a straight answer about whether this is your time to buy. No pressure, no pitch, just the math and the honest read on the market.

Warm regards, make it a great day.

Reach out anytime at (803) 721-3632 or through the site. I would love to help you figure out whether now is the right time for you.