Siskiyou's Median Home Price Keeps Lurching. What Mount Shasta Buyers Should Watch Instead

In December 2025, the median price of an existing single-family home in Siskiyou County was 15.5% lower than a year earlier. One month later, in January 2026, it was 18.5% higher than a year earlier. No county's housing market loses a sixth of its value and then gains nearly a fifth in thirty days. The change came from which houses happened to close in each month.

This matters right now because the newest figure looks like good news for sellers. The California Association of REALTORS® September 2026 report puts Siskiyou's September median at $315,000, up 3.1% from September 2025. The same table row shows county sales down 33.3% year over year. C.A.R. named Siskiyou and Imperial as the two counties with the steepest sales declines in the state that month. If you're comparing Mount Shasta with other mountain towns, the median is the least useful number in that report. The useful figures are a few columns over.

Thirteen months of the same county

The table below lists C.A.R.'s monthly Siskiyou County figures from September 2025 through September 2026. The figures cover existing single-family detached homes only. The unsold inventory index estimates how many months it would take to sell every active listing at the current sales pace. Median time on market is the number of days a typical sold home was listed.

In the price column, the median moved by more than 20% in a single month three times. It rose 20.6% from October to November 2025, fell 20.6% from January to February 2026, and rose 21.3% from February to March. Over thirteen months it ranged from $285,000 to $365,000, with no clear direction. September 2026 landed at almost exactly the same figure as April 2026.

The wider region was much steadier. C.A.R.'s Far North region includes Siskiyou along with its neighboring counties. From September 2025 through August 2026, its month-over-month median changes stayed between a 4.0% drop and a 2.8% gain. The same economy, the same mortgage rates and the same buyers produced a calm regional line and a jagged county line.

Why a small county's median behaves this way

C.A.R. explains the pattern in its own notes. Its September report says that in smaller counties, "some of the outsized gains and declines likely reflected limited transaction volumes and shifts in the mix of homes sold rather than broad changes in underlying home values." The methodology note adds that county median movements "should not be interpreted as changes in the cost of a standard home."

Siskiyou's monthly median is set by whichever homes happened to close in town and out in the county that month. A month with a few more larger homes near Mount Shasta pushes it up. A month with a few more modest homes in the county's lower-priced towns pulls it down. A September with a third fewer sales than the year before gives each closing more influence over the median. The +3.1% headline from September 2026 comes from a smaller sample than the year-earlier figure it is compared to.

For a buyer, the practical result is that the county median can't tell you whether a Mount Shasta home is priced high or low this fall. Recent sales of similar homes in the same part of town can. The median does have one use. It shows that the typical Siskiyou price has stayed roughly in a $285,000 to $365,000 range for more than a year.

The columns that follow the seasons

The inventory and time-on-market columns also go up and down, but they follow the seasons and the overall level of demand, and this fall both broke from last year's pattern.

In September 2025, Siskiyou's inventory index was 6.8 months. Over the next two months it fell to 5.1 months, so last fall the supply of homes tightened as the year ended. In September 2026 the index was 10.5 months. That is higher than any reading in the table except February 2026, when it reached 10.8 months in the middle of winter. In other words, the county entered fall 2026 with a supply level it last saw in midwinter.

Statewide, C.A.R. reported an inventory index of 3.7 months for September 2026, unchanged from August. At the current sales pace, Siskiyou's listings would take nearly three times as long to sell as the typical California listing.

Time on market points the same way. From April through August 2026, median days on market in Siskiyou stayed between 28 and 43. In September it rose to 63 days, up from 37.5 in August and 49 a year earlier. The only longer readings in the table were February and March 2026, when winter listings sat for 103 and 115.5 days. September is the earliest month in this series with a winter-like reading.

Why rates fit the timing

Mortgage rates explain why September changed so quickly. C.A.R. reports that rates have been "increasing sharply since the end of August," with the 30-year fixed rate averaging 6.86% in September, up from 6.67% in August and 6.35% a year earlier. Freddie Mac's weekly survey put the 30-year average at 7.32% as of October 22, 2026. That was down from 7.40% the week before but up from 6.19% a year earlier.

C.A.R.'s chief economist, Jordan Levine, described two forces working against each other statewide. Rising rates are holding back demand, and the lock-in effect, where owners with low-rate mortgages hold off on selling, is holding back new listings. "These competing forces suggest that slower sales may not translate into a comparable decline in prices in the near term," he said in the September release. In Siskiyou, inventory is not holding back the market. At 10.5 months, supply there is far looser than the statewide picture Levine described.

What this means for a Mount Shasta purchase this fall

Taken together, the figures describe a slower market with more homes to choose from, and they say little about where prices are headed. Last year, buyers house-hunting in Siskiyou in October and November had a shrinking pool of listings. This year they start with the highest fall inventory reading in the table and a typical sale taking about two months. For a buyer, that can mean more homes to compare, more time between showings and offers, and sellers who have already watched their listing sit through the fall. Each of those conditions is a good reason to ask for an inspection window, repair credits, or a price based on recent comparable sales.

It also changes what a seller's pricing tells you. If a Mount Shasta listing cites the September county median as proof that values are rising, that same table row shows a third fewer sales and a much longer typical time on market. Recent closings of similar homes nearby are the better comparison. Day counts on the homes you're considering will also tell you more than a countywide figure.

Prices have stayed within the same broad range for more than a year, and C.A.R.'s statewide view is that slower sales don't necessarily lead to lower prices.

FAQ

Does C.A.R. publish a separate figure for the city of Mount Shasta?

No. C.A.R.'s monthly tables report Siskiyou at the county level, so Mount Shasta's sales are combined with sales from the rest of the county. To judge a specific Mount Shasta home, compare it with recent nearby sales of similar homes.

Does a 10.5-month inventory reading mean prices will drop?

The table doesn't say that. Over the past thirteen months the Siskiyou median stayed between $285,000 and $365,000 while inventory rose and fell. A high inventory reading measures how much choice buyers have and how long homes take to sell. It is not a price forecast.

When does the next county report come out?

C.A.R. has been releasing each month's figures in the middle to latter part of the following month. The September 2026 report, for example, came out on October 19. The October figures should show whether fall inventory keeps rising toward winter levels.

If you're weighing a Mount Shasta home this fall and want to know what September's slower pace means for a specific property, Krista can walk you through the recent closings and days on market that actually apply to it. Reach out to Siskiyou Homes to schedule a free local market consultation.