Profit margins for home sellers decreased in 2024 compared with 2023, despite rising home prices, a report from ATTOM shows.
Home sellers made a $122,500 profit on typical sales nationwide last year, generating a 53.8% return on investment. That’s down from 56.9% from 2023, according to ATTOM’s Year-End 2024 U.S. Home Sales Report.
The dip in returns comes even as the national median home price climbed to $350,000.
The drop-off marked the second straight annual decline – a pattern of consecutive downturns that hadn’t happened since the aftermath of the Great Recession in the late 2000s.
While the gross profit on median-priced single-family home and condo sales did inch up about $2,000 from 2023, the typical profit margin stood eight percentage points below a peak hit in 2022.
“After a weak 2023, the U.S. housing market mostly rebounded nicely in 2024,” says Rob Barber, CEO for ATTOM, in a statement. “Prices went back up at a healthy clip and homeowners continued to make some of the best profits on sales in the past 25 years. The renewed shine, however, didn’t come without a bit of tarnish as margins took another turn for the worse. Amid the generally good news, that’s something worth following closely in 2025.”
Barber notes that “home prices are stretching household budgets more and more, and mortgage rates have been going back up in recent months even as other forces put more upward pressure on prices. So, there are certainly major factors that could propel the market up or settle it back down. Either will have a significant effect on seller returns.”
Photo: Dillon Kydd
