According to new Radian Home Price Index (HPI) data, home prices nationally rose from June 2020 to July 2020 at an annualized rate of 6.8 percent, as well as rose 8.1 percent year-over-year (August 2019 to July 2020), which was unchanged from the year-over-year increase recorded last month.
Through the first seven months of 2020, the average monthly annualized increase was 7.8 percent, with each of the last four months reporting above average appreciation.
“Home prices across the U.S. continued an impressive appreciation run in July,” says Steve Gaenzler, SVP of data and analytics. “When contrasting the effect on home prices of negative COVID headwinds on the U.S. consumer and economy versus the trifecta of historic low mortgage rates, near record low supply of homes for sale and increased demand for homeownership, so far home prices have come out on top.”
Nationally, the median estimated price for single-family and condominium homes rose to $258,206. On-going imbalances between housing supply and demand continue to provide solid support for home prices. On the demand side, July 2020 recorded the highest level of monthly home sale transactions over the last decade.
Conversely, supply of homes in July, as measured by the count of listings of homes for sale, was 15 percent below the average monthly count over the last five years, and nearly 27 percent below the peak monthly listing count over the same period. Strong demand for the limited supply also pushed the average number of days that a property for sale has been listed to 114 days, the shortest stay in over a decade.
Similar to the national reporting, all U.S. regions reported positive price appreciation in residential markets in July 2020. Year-over-year increases in home prices ranged across our regional landscape from 9.9 percent (Midwest) to 4.3 percent (Northeast). All other regions recorded annual price appreciation rates between 6.5 percent and 7.8 percent.
In July, all but five U.S. states reported the highest average sales price of 2020. However, the five states that did not record the highest average sales prices of 2020 (CT, ME, PA, RI, SD, HI) all recorded average sales prices in July well above the 2020 year-to-date average. Momentum of home price appreciation differs by state, but all states are still recording positive home price appreciation.
Across the 20 largest metro areas of the U.S., nearly all of them recorded the strongest month of price appreciation of 2020 in July. A total of 18 of the 20-largest CBSAs had a stronger annualized monthly increase in July than those recorded in prior months of 2020.
Also, the month of July saw homes listed for sale going under contract at rates up to 60 percent higher in 2020 than 2019.
