With another Halloween in the books, we find ourselves in the month of November! That means 10 months of real estate stats are complete, and we have only two months left in the year. It's been a busy and wild 2025 so far. How will it end?
October numbers paint a little bit of mixed picture. We did rebound in home sales from a slump in September with an increase of over 25% in closed transactions month-over-month. But average price saw a small decline of 2% to just about $350K. Number of new homes listed was basically flat in October from the previous month. However, both home sales and average price saw increases year-over-year from 2024 in October.
October sales usually give us an indication as to whether or not we had a spike in activity in September after coming out of the typically sleepy months of July and August. This month's update appears to indicate that there was an increase in market activity heading into the fall. Next month's update will confirm whether or not that activity was sustained and we've ended up with a decent overall Fall Market.
All of the stats that follow are sourced from the Lawrence MLS. What follows is a look at some market numbers specifically within the city limits of Lawrence:
Month-over-Month
- October home sales increased 25.4% from the previous month (74 homes sold)
- Average price decreased 2.0% in October vs. the previous month, down to 349.5K
- Average Days-on-Market was up 5.6% at 19 Days-on-Market
- 90 homes were listed in October, 3 fewer than listed in September
- List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio for the month was 98.3%
- Average Per-Square-Foot was 187/sq.ft., a 3.6% decrease MoM
Year-over-Year
- Home sales were up 16.9% in October '25 vs October '24, an increase of 15 homes sold
- Average Price was up YoY 1.8%
- Average Days-on-Market was down 26.9% YoY
- The 90 homes listed last month was a 16.7% decrease YoY
YTD
- Homes Sales are up 10.2% YTD through October; an increase of 80 homes sold this year
- Average Price is up 4.4% this year
- Average DOM is flat at 23 days
- 1,102 Homes have been listed so far this year; a decrease of 2.0% from last year
- Dollar Volume is up 15% YTD for a total of $316.4M
- Average Per-Square-Foot for the year is at $193/sq.ft., up from $188/sq.ft. in 2024
Active Properties
- There are 125 "Active" properties in Lawrence, a decrease of 10.7% since my last update
- There are 70 properties currently listed as "Under Contract" which is a increase of 4.5% since my last update
- The average list price of homes currently Under Contract is $388,199
- Months-of-Supply: There is currently 1.5 months-of-supply in Lawrence
While October was the second consecutive month of a drop, average price remains increased in 2025 by 4.4% over 2024. Sales continue to be up, and listings continue to be down. With 1.5 months-of-supply, the Lawrence area remains in a Seller's Market. With a government shutdown currently unresolved, and a recent small drop in interest rates, there plenty of mixed signals heading into the final months of the year.
It will be interesting to see how 2025 ends, and how 2026 begins. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently commented that we are in a "housing recession." While I think that's undoubtedly true in some parts of the country, it's not quite helpful when looing at the local market. Recall that in the Great Recession, NE Kansas was not nearly as impacted as the country's coastal regions. This is likely to be true again. While the market softens in many parts of the US, Lawrence remains fairly steady. I expect that to continue on for the near future.
Stay tuned to R+K Real Estate for great new content, updates, advice, opinions and more in 2025. We plan to continue our advance of transparency, consumer advocacy, and empowering our clients with alternate business models designed to provide high levels or real estate service with drastically reduced commissions!
-Ryan Desch, Broker/Owner R+K Real Estate Solutions
