As of Sept. 6, the U.S. median home sale price had increased 13% year over year, to $319,178 – the highest on record, according to a new report from Redfin. This increase – tallied from 434 U.S. metro areas – was the largest year-over-year jump since October 2013.
Moreover, pending home sales climbed 28% year over year – the largest increase since the four weeks ending August 2, 2015. New listings of homes for sale were up 9% from a year ago – the largest increase since the four weeks ending December 20, 2015.
Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 28% from 2019 to a new all-time low. The year-over-year decline has been about the same for the past couple of months.
Almost 47% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, which is the highest level since at least 2012 (as far back as Redfin’s data on this measure goes).
The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to 99.3% – an all-time high and a full percentage point higher than a year earlier.
“Home price growth this high is making the housing market especially difficult for first-time home buyers right now,” says Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Rising prices are just one more reason for people to leave expensive urban neighborhoods behind. The sudden rise of remote work has allowed home buyers who are priced out of one neighborhood to expand their search to more affordable areas. In turn, they are pushing up home prices in those relatively affordable areas, causing more people to look to even more affordable areas, and so on.
“Price growth may slow in 2021, but even if it does, high prices are going to continue to make affordability a concern for buyers,” he adds.
To view the full report, click here.
