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Rising mortgage interest rates may be cooling off half of Lawrence’s housing market, but it probably isn’t the half many people would prefer. The number of homes sold in Lawrence declined significantly in May, but the selling prices of those homes continued to increase.

Lawrence homes sales in May fell by 11% compared to May 2021, according to the latest report from the Lawrence Board of Realtors. For the year, home sales are now down 6.4% compared to a year ago.

This May report doesn’t capture any slowdown that has come from the Federal Reserve’s big interest rate increase that was announced in June. But mortgage interest rates were on their way up in May. They ended April at a national average of 5.1% for a 30-year fixed mortgage, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. They hit a high of about 5.3% by mid-May before dipping again later in the month. In case you haven’t kept up, the national average is now 5.78%, according to Freddie Mac. It is understandable if you aren’t following mortgage rates. (Inflation is sucking the joy out of all number watching. I knew it was bad when contestants on The Price Is Right quit guessing prices and simply started making obscene gestures at Drew Carey.)

The median selling price for a home in May increased by 4.7% despite rising interest rates — or perhaps due to rising interest rates, as there is a theory that home buyers will become more aggressive in the short-term as buyers try to get a home before rates get higher.

Whatever the case, the median selling price hit $298,485 in May. For the entire year, the median selling price is at an even $300,000. That’s up 13.9% from a year ago. Compared to two years ago, the median selling price is up $75,000, or 33%.

What is happening in the Lawrence real estate market also is happening elsewhere. But there are some signs that it is a little more pronounced here. The greater Kansas City market hasn’t seen as large of a decrease in home sales in 2022 and hasn’t seen as much of an increase in prices.

According to the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, home sales in the KC region have fallen by 1.7% for the year, and they were actually up by 1.3% for May. So, that’s a fairly significant difference from what Lawrence is experiencing. The situation on the price front is more similar. Median selling prices in the greater KC region are up 11.1% for the year, compared to about 14% in Lawrence.

But it is worth noting that the median selling price for a home thus far in 2022 in the KC region is $280,000. That’s $20,000 below the median in Lawrence. However, do remember that the KC region is a big one, and several of the smaller, more rural counties in the region help bring the average down. When you drill down deeper, you see that Lawrence does not have the highest home prices in the region. Johnson County, for example, has a median selling price of $405,000, thus far in 2022.

Lawrence real estate leaders, thus far, aren’t pointing to rising interest rates as having much of an impact on the local real estate market. Instead, they continue to highlight a small inventory of homes for sale in Lawrence. One indication of that is the median number of days a house sits on the market before it sells is four days.

“While it’s true that home prices are increasing at a record rate, it’s also clear that these numbers in part are inflated because there is a small amount of inventory available in the lower price ranges,” Lindsay Landis, president of the Lawrence Board of Realtors, said in the May report. “In May there were 45 homes sold between $200,000 and $300,000, yet we enter June with just 15 homes on the market in that price range.”

The May report did show some small signs of improvement on the inventory front. Lawrence added 154 new for sale listings during the month, up from 132 new listings in May 2021. For the year, though, the new listing data continues to be negative. The city has added 580 new listings thus far, compared to 667 during the same period a year ago.

“It’s a broken record, but we need to identify more ways to grow housing availability in our community,” Landis said in the report. “Until we can balance out supply and demand, we will continue to experience upward pressure on home prices, exacerbating our housing affordability concerns.”