Buying a house in Macon County costs more on both ends this fall. Home values here are more than half again what they were in 2020, and mortgage rates have climbed back above 7 percent.
The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 7.32 percent the week of Oct. 22, according to Freddie Mac's weekly survey of lenders. It was 6.19 percent a year earlier. The rate hit 7.4 percent on Oct. 8 and 15, the highest since November 2023.
The rate has climbed most of this year. It was 6.16 percent in the first week of January and crossed 7 percent in late September, Freddie Mac figures show.
On a $150,000, 30-year fixed loan, principal and interest at this week's average rate come to about $1,030 a month. At last year's rate, the same loan cost about $918, and at the end of 2020, when the average rate was 2.67 percent, it cost about $606. Taxes and insurance are extra.
Higher home values mean buyers are borrowing more to start with. The Federal Housing Finance Agency's county house price index for Macon County rose 53.8 percent from 2020 to 2025. Missouri's statewide index rose 51.1 percent over the same years.
The index is built from sale prices and appraisals on mortgages bought or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It measures the change in value, not a typical sale price, and the agency calls its county figures developmental. Small counties have small samples.
That shows in Macon County's year-to-year numbers. The index rose about 1 percent in 2022, then 17.7 percent in 2023. It rose 7.4 percent in 2024 and 5.8 percent in 2025.
Over 10 years, the county's index rose 70.8 percent from 2015 to 2025. The Chronicle reported Oct. 15 that residential assessed valuation in Macon County rose 46.8 percent over the same decade, according to State Tax Commission tables.
Most neighboring counties with a 2025 figure saw bigger increases than Macon from 2020 to 2025:
- Linn: up 66.3 percent
- Monroe: up 66.2 percent
- Randolph: up 61.7 percent
- Adair: up 45.1 percent
The agency's file has no 2025 value for Chariton County. Its index rose 48.4 percent from 2020 to 2024. Shelby County's index has no value after 2022, and the agency publishes no index for Knox County.
Incomes have risen too, but more slowly than home values. The Chronicle reported Oct. 19 that Macon County's median household income rose to an estimated $60,822 in 2024, up 33 percent from 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The county's home value index rose 53.4 percent from 2019 to 2024.