Thanksgiving is just a couple weeks away and we are now into the final stretch of the 2026 real estate market in Lawrence. It's shaping up to be one of the slowest finishes we've seen in many years. Rising interest rates and economic uncertainty continue to influence buyer behavior at the local, state, and national levels.
Sales continue to plummet, homes are now sitting on the market, and month-of-supply is at its highest point in many years. The number of homes under contract has declined significantly since my last update. Despite this, home sales prices in Lawrence have remained steady.
I think this market climate is just the name-of-the-game in the United States right now. To sum it up, I'll quote NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun: “Homebuying is difficult when mortgage rates have climbed to their highest levels since 2000, aside from a single month in 2023. As a result, home sales fell to their lowest level since August 2010. We are now back to pre-COVID inventory conditions.”
It's going to be a tough end to the year for most home sellers. If you're a home buyer, I cannot stress this enough, NOW is the time to buy! Now is the time to test the market, test seller's asking prices, and utilize seller credits for rate buy-downs. If the market continues apace, the delayed demand will build until either the spring market or when rates fall. At that point, buyers will flood the market again and prices will continue to climb. Clearly, prices are NOT going down. For home sellers, this is the silver lining: it may just be a matter of time.
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 decreased 23.8% from the previous month with 61 sold homes
- Average Price increased 2.7% in October vs. the previous month, to $356.2K
- Median Price decreased 0.8% to $300,000
- Average DOM decreased 15.2% to 28 days-on-market
- 90 homes were listed in October, a 168.9% decrease from 111 listed in September
- List-Price-to-Sales-Price Ratio for September was 98.1%
- Average Per-Square-Foot in September was 188/sq.ft.
Year-over-Year
- Home sales were down 17.6% in October '26 vs '25, a decrease of 13 homes sold
- Average Price was up 1.9%
- Median Price was up 3.4%
- The 90 homes listed last month was a 6.3% decrease YoY
- Market Dollar Volume was down 16.2% at $21.7M
YTD
- Homes Sales are down 10.5% YTD through October; a decrease of 91 homes sold this year
- Average Price is up 0.1% at $366.6K
- Median Price is up 2.0% at $326,500
- Average DOM is flat at 23 days-on-market
- 1088 Homes have been listed so far this year; a decrease of 2.4% from last year
- Total Market Dollar Volume is down 10.4% YTD for a total of $284.5M
- Average Per-Square-Foot for the year is at $194/sq.ft., up from $193/sq.ft. in 2025
Active Properties
- There are 203 "Active" properties in Lawrence, an increase of 9.1% since my last update
- There are 48 properties currently listed as "Under Contract" which is a decrease of 33.3% since my last update
- The average list price of homes currently Under Contract is $461,034
- The average DOM for Under Contract homes is 26 Days
- The average list price of homes currently Active is $434,564
- The average DOM for Active homes is 61 Days
- Months-of-Supply: There is currently 2.7 months-of-supply in Lawrence
Stay tuned to R+K Real Estate for great new content, updates, advice, opinions and more in 2026. 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
