BUYERS & SELLERS

• The 30-year fixed averaged 6.66% this week per Freddie Mac, barely changed from 6.65% the week before and still near a 13-month high. More than a year of waiting for rates to drop has not paid off; the question that matters is whether a given property and payment work today.
• Grants Pass MLS figures for August: the median sale price was $391,750, up 2.5% from August 2025, while the average sale price eased to $431,693, down 3.7%. The typical home sold in 26 days, down from 35 a year ago, and homes closed at roughly 96% of list price. Well-priced listings are moving faster than last summer even with rates high.
• Volume and inventory both thinned. 58 homes sold in August against 96 a year ago, active listings are down about 17%, and months of supply sits at 4.68 versus 6.16 last August. Fewer homes are changing hands, but the ones priced to the market are still selling, which is why overpricing is what stalls a sale right now.

INVESTORS & DEVELOPERS

• Sales of new single-family homes fell 10.5% in July to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 607,000, leaving 9.6 months of unsold supply and pulling the median new-home price down to $393,800, per the Census Bureau. Builders are cutting prices and adding incentives to move inventory, so buyers open to newer construction have real negotiating room right now.
• Medford is beginning construction on the Capital Hill Reservoir replacement, swapping three aging reservoirs for one larger, earthquake-resilient tank on the same site. It shores up the water-storage capacity the city needs to keep approving new residential and commercial hookups.
• A Farm Resource-zoned tract near Lower River Road cleared its first vote before the Josephine County commissioners on August 19 to become RR5 Rural Residential, with a second reading set for September 2. If it passes, five-acre rural homesites would become buildable on land where farm zoning bars a new dwelling today.

TALK OF THE TOWN

• Josephine County’s Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention levy returns to voters on the November 3 ballot at its current rate of $0.93 per $1,000 of assessed value, unchanged since voters first approved it in 2017. Five-year local-option levies require renewal; if this one fails, the county loses the dedicated funding source that keeps the jail and juvenile division running.
• Two Grants Pass-area parks change hands within a week. Josephine County reopens the upper section of Whitehorse Park on September 2 after years of planned improvements, while the City hands Debo Park to the Oregon Center for Creative Learning on September 8, closing it to the public.
• The City of Grants Pass is filling a Central Business District business-owner seat on its Historical Buildings and Sites Commission, the body that reviews exterior changes to buildings in the historic downtown core, worth knowing for anyone weighing a purchase or renovation downtown.

Questions about what any of this means for your situation? Get in touch.