(Radio Iowa) — The president of the Iowa Association of Realtors says home sales across the state were up in August. John Goede says that’s not the only good thing he sees in the numbers. “And just as importantly — year-to-date everything statewide is stable — the sales are up slightly, the closings are up slightly, the listings are very stable,” Goede says. He says sellers are earning a little more on average. “The price of a home and also the median price of a home has gone up about three-thousand dollars.The median prices is 169-thousand statewide up from 163. And then the average price is 197-thousand up from 190,” according to Goede.

He says they normally expect an uptick in August as people try move and buy homes before school Goede says there is one factor they don’t know about yet. He says they don’t know if any of the farm subsidies or the tariffs are going to make any difference. Statewide he says they haven’t seen any impact from flooding — but in the areas where there is flooding — they have seen a drop in sales and new listings. Goede says things have really been steady when you look at statewide numbers through the year thus far. But, he says there are differences when you look at different regions. “West-central Iowa, their report year-to-date says that their median price is 95-thousand for their housing. You can compare that with Des Moines at 232-thousand, or Iowa City at 248-thousand,” Goede says. “You can see that there is quite a bite of difference.”

He says it shows the differences in the growth in the urban areas of the state compared to rural areas. “That’s no secret, there are small towns that are getting smaller and smaller, a lot of school consolidations. I guess that’s a concern,” Goede says. “And there’s a lot of counties and cities that are trying to work ways and incentives to get people to stay where they are.”

There were five-thousand-398 (5,398) homes sold in August compared to five-thousand-363 (5,363) in August of 2018. The number of days on the market this year was 55 in August, compared to 53 last year.