Do Homes Sell Over Asking Price in Columbus? What 19,060 Sales in 2026 Say, Suburb by Suburb

Every buyer I meet in Columbus has heard that houses go for over asking, and every seller has heard it too, which is how a house ends up listed at what the seller wants to net instead of what the street supports. The actual number, then. Of 19,060 resale homes that closed from January 1 through September 3, 2026, 30 percent sold above the original asking price. Seventeen percent sold at it. Fifty-four percent sold below it. The median house closed at 99 percent of its first list price. The over-ask house is real, it is a third of the market, and it is not the market.

What follows is the whole thing by suburb, by price band and by month, because the number that matters to you is the one for your town and your price, not the metro average. New construction is out of every table. Speed is MLS entry to contract.

What share of Columbus homes sold over asking in 2026?

Central Ohio, 2026 through Sept 3	Resale closings
Sold above the original asking price	30%
Sold at the original asking price	17%
Sold below the original asking price	54%
Median sale price to original list	99.0%
Median premium when a home went over	$10,000
Median days from listing to contract	19
Went under contract inside seven days	33%
Cash buyers	20%
Had at least one price cut before contract	30%

Two of those lines belong together. Thirty percent went over ask and thirty percent took a price cut first. The market is not one thing. It is two markets sharing a ZIP code: the house that was priced to the last three sales and drew a crowd in its first weekend, and the house that was priced to a hope and spent a month learning otherwise. Same street, same month, opposite outcomes, and the only variable was the first number.

Which suburbs go over asking the most?

Every mailing city with 100 or more resale closings.

Suburb	Closings	Median price	Over ask	At ask	Under ask	Median premium when over	Days to contract	First-week contract	Cash
Worthington	115	$500,000	56%	7%	37%	$30,000	10	46%	25%
Upper Arlington	104	$715,000	47%	21%	32%	$25,000	6	58%	25%
Galloway	224	$325,000	42%	15%	43%	$7,100	10	45%	13%
Westerville	904	$437,950	38%	17%	45%	$10,999	14	39%	20%
Hilliard	555	$375,000	36%	18%	46%	$10,100	13	38%	19%
Pickerington	399	$419,000	36%	17%	48%	$10,000	17	36%	10%
Dublin	688	$537,500	35%	18%	48%	$20,100	14	36%	23%
Groveport	106	$308,500	34%	20%	46%	$10,000	18	38%	15%
Powell	432	$549,900	33%	13%	54%	$15,100	17	38%	22%
Columbus	5,466	$285,000	32%	16%	52%	$10,000	18	34%	22%
Lewis Center	245	$519,900	32%	16%	52%	$14,800	18	34%	12%
Pataskala	211	$375,000	32%	18%	50%	$10,000	16	37%	17%
Grove City	647	$340,000	31%	19%	50%	$7,925	14	36%	15%
Reynoldsburg	388	$290,500	30%	19%	51%	$6,750	16	35%	16%
Marysville	282	$379,950	30%	16%	55%	$7,500	24	28%	12%
Delaware	526	$406,500	28%	16%	56%	$10,000	20	30%	18%
Canal Winchester	365	$329,000	27%	19%	53%	$5,100	24	31%	13%
Blacklick	278	$356,500	27%	20%	53%	$5,100	18	34%	12%
Granville	129	$491,500	26%	22%	52%	$10,100	12	37%	17%
New Albany	281	$600,000	24%	22%	54%	$20,000	21	31%	29%
Sunbury	129	$507,500	24%	12%	64%	$20,000	30	28%	19%
Galena	107	$685,000	23%	17%	60%	$15,100	24	23%	23%
Plain City	172	$580,000	18%	14%	68%	$8,000	32	19%	20%

Read the top and bottom of that table together and the pattern is not price. Upper Arlington at $715,000 goes over 47 percent of the time and gets a contract in six days. Plain City at $580,000 goes over 18 percent of the time and takes 32 days. The difference is supply. The inner-ring suburbs with no dirt left, Worthington, Upper Arlington, Westerville, Hilliard, are where a resale house has no new-build competition a mile away, so a well-priced one draws every buyer in the school district at once. The exurbs with active subdivisions, Plain City, Sunbury, Galena, Delaware, are where a resale house is competing with a builder's model and a lot premium, and the buyer knows it.

Westerville is the one I watch closest because it is where I sell most, and I pull this table every month for my own listings. Thirty-eight percent over ask, $11,000 when it happens, 14 days, and 39 percent of houses under contract in the first week. That is a strong market. It is also a market where 45 percent of sellers took less than they first asked, and 22 percent cut the price before they found their buyer. Both of those numbers are yours to choose between on listing day.

Does the over-ask share change with price?

Price band	Closings	Over ask	Under ask	Median premium when over	Days to contract	First-week contract	Cash
Under $250,000	5,672	23%	60%	$5,100	23	30%	29%
$250,000 to $400,000	6,817	32%	51%	$7,000	18	34%	14%
$400,000 to $600,000	4,074	34%	51%	$10,900	17	34%	15%
$600,000 to $1 million	2,017	33%	50%	$21,600	16	36%	19%
Over $1 million	480	28%	50%	$50,000	17	39%	34%

The middle of the market is where the bidding happens. From $250,000 to $1 million, a third of homes go over and the premium climbs with the price, $7,000 to $21,600. Under $250,000 is a different animal: 60 percent under ask, 23 days, and 29 percent cash, which is the investor and the estate sale, not the first-time buyer winning a bidding war. Over $1 million, a third of buyers are cash and the premium, when there is one, is $50,000, but half of those homes still closed under the first ask.

Is the market cooling as 2026 goes on?

Month closed	Closings	Median price	Over ask	Under ask	Median ratio to original list	Days to contract	First-week contract
January	1,410	$305,000	17%	69%	96.8%	36	21%
February	1,695	$302,000	20%	66%	97.5%	35	25%
March	2,023	$316,000	26%	56%	98.5%	23	31%
April	2,331	$327,500	34%	49%	100.0%	17	35%
May	2,929	$340,000	35%	47%	100.0%	13	39%
June	2,995	$338,000	36%	46%	100.0%	13	39%
July	2,954	$340,000	31%	54%	99.0%	18	33%
August	2,574	$329,450	28%	56%	98.7%	19	32%

The month a home closes is roughly a month after it went under contract, so the June peak is the May market and the August number is July's buyers. The spring ran hot: a third over ask, two weeks to contract. Summer cooled to 28 percent over and 19 days, which is still faster than any month of last winter. The January and February numbers, 17 and 20 percent over and five weeks to contract, are what a winter listing should expect, and they are why a seller who can wait for March usually should.

What should you do with this?

If you are selling, price to the last three closed sales on your street, not the top of this table. The 30 percent that went over did it because the first number was right and the crowd showed up. The 30 percent that cut the price were, mostly, the same houses priced $15,000 higher on day one. The market decides in the first seven days, which is why a third of contracts happen inside them. After that you are negotiating down from a number nobody believed.

If you are buying in Worthington, Upper Arlington, Westerville or Hilliard, walk in assuming competition on anything that has been on the market less than a week and is priced at the comps. Your offer needs to be your best on the first round, and the premium that wins is in the table above. In Plain City, Sunbury, Delaware and Galena, take your time and ask for things. Sixty percent of those sellers took less than they asked, and a third cut the price first.

If you want the number for one specific town and price band, or the same table for a single ZIP code, send me the address you are looking at or selling and I will run it. Start with a home value estimate if you are selling or a home search if you are buying, and I will run it myself. To talk it through, book a call.

Related reading: how to win a house with multiple offers in Columbus, how long it takes to sell a Westerville house in 2026, Dublin versus Westerville for buyers, and the Westerville submarket page.

Adam Geuy, Realtor, Blacktree Realty. 937-239-2919.

Sources

• Every figure: Columbus REALTORS MLS closed residential listings, January 1 through September 3, 2026, resale only (new construction excluded), limited to sales with a recorded original list price (19,060). Over, at and under ask compare the closed price to the original list price, not the last list price. Days to contract are MLS entry to under-contract date. Cash is the sold-terms field. Computed by Adam Geuy from MLS exports; the script is on file.