After a strong finish to the first half of 2021, home prices across the U.S. rose at an even faster pace in July as compared to June. According to Radian Home Price Index (HPI) data released by Red Bell Real Estate LLC, a Radian Group Inc. company, home prices nationally rose month over month from June 2021 to July 2021 at an annualized rate of 14.7%.
The Radian HPI also rose 10.9% year over year (July 2020 to July 2021), which was slightly higher than the year-over-year increase recorded last month. Through the first seven months of 2021, the average monthly annualized increase was 10.7%, with each of the last three months reporting above-average appreciation.
“The addition of more active home listings into the market inventory has not slowed the path of home price gains,” notes Steve Gaenzler, SVP of data and analytics. “Nationally and in most local markets, homes sales volume remains at all-time highs while supply is far below historic norms. Home prices are not showing any signs of softening or slowing their impressive gains of 2021. However, while appreciation rates have continued to rise, price affordability has declined. Even with recent reductions in mortgage rates, consumers are buying into a less affordable market which may impact future activity and price growth.”
Nationally, the median estimated price for single-family and condominium homes rose to $286,434. Across the U.S., home prices nationally rose 13.1% over the prior three months, an increase over the second quarter’s 11.7% increase. Homes continue to sell briskly across the U.S. In July, the average number of days a home was on the market prior to contracting for sale dropped to 66 days, the shortest list-to-sale period on record. In fact, homes that are listed but have not yet contracted for sale have also set a record last month for the shortest number of days on market. At only 85 days on market for actively listed properties, the rate of turnover of homes continues to be buoyed by lack of supply.
With the exceptions of only 2015 and 2020, in every year since before the Great Recession, June has been the most active sales contract month and July was the second most active. The same pattern has emerged in 2021.
The average number of monthly home sales thus far in 2021 has reached 305,000 per month. That is more than 10% higher per month than the average 275,000 homes sold in each of the first seven months of 2020. And while listing volume has increased in each of the last eight months, the number of listings remains significantly below prior years.
Similar to the national reporting, all six U.S. regions reported positive price appreciation in residential housing markets in July 2021. Year-over-year increases in home prices ranged across the regional landscape from 12.9% (West) to 9.2% (MidAtlantic). Appreciation rates are higher over the most recent months. The July appreciation rates annualized ranged from 12.7% (MidAtlantic) to 16.5% (South). In July, all regions appreciated at annualized rates greater than 12%.
Among the 51 states and territories the Radian HPI tracks, Idaho continues to be the fastest appreciating state in the nation. Nationally, states displayed a wide range of annualized appreciation rates in July 2021 from the low of 5.4% in Iowa to the high of more than 35% in Idaho.
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