Franklin County Home Sales Cool as Mortgage Rates Hit a Yearlong High

Franklin County's median home sale price came in at $329,900 the week of July 31 through August 6, well below the region's June median of $352,000, as mortgage rates climbed to 6.69 percent, their highest level in nearly a year.

What the Auditor's Weekly Snapshot Shows

The Franklin County Auditor's Office recorded 498 residential sales during that week, with an average sale price of $391,108. The report breaks results down by ZIP code, using deed transfers as they are recorded, not the pending contracts real estate agents track, so the numbers reflect closings that already happened rather than deals still in progress.

How Franklin County Compares to the Region

Central Ohio's most recent monthly report, covering June 2026, counted 3,100 closed sales across the Columbus REALTORS Multiple Listing Service and put the region's median sale price at $352,000, up 0.6 percent from a year earlier. That monthly report also found homes spent a median of 25 days on the market and active inventory rose 7 percent year-over-year to 5,551 homes, a 2.2-month supply.

Subtracting the county's weekly median from the region's June median shows Franklin County homes sold for about $22,100 less than the broader 15-county region typically fetched the month before. Franklin County is the region's most urban county, with a mix of older, smaller homes that tends to pull its median below the wealthier outer counties included in the regional figure. Follow more Central Ohio market trends as new monthly and weekly data comes in.

Mortgage Rates Add a New Pressure Point

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.69 percent for the week ending August 6, up from 6.66 percent a week earlier, according to Freddie Mac data reported by Money. That is the highest weekly average in close to a year, reversing recent gains in affordability.

Why the Price Gap Matters

A weekly county snapshot and a monthly regional report will never line up perfectly. They cover different geographies, different time windows, and different home mixes. But the weekly county number and the monthly regional number measure different things, and the gap between them is a reminder that price trends inside the county's older, denser core can diverge from the broader metro picture that includes faster-growing suburbs in neighboring counties. Both figures are worth tracking as the fall market approaches, since they can tell different stories about the same county.