According to a new report from Redfin, the national median home-sale price rose 16% year over year to $380,271 in August, marking the 13th consecutive month of double-digit price gains but the lowest growth rate since February.
Moreover, seasonally adjusted home sales in August were down 6% from a year earlier – the first annual decline in 15 months. They were also down 1.4% from July.
Compared to August 2020, home sales fell in 44 of the 85 largest metro areas Redfin tracks.
Median sale prices increased from a year earlier in all but two of the 85 largest metro areas Redfin tracks: Milwaukee, WI (-1.6%) and Bridgeport, CT (-1.1%). Both of these metro areas had already seen significant price gains a year ago, with prices up 14% and 30% respectively in August of 2020, compared to a 11% gain nationally. They may have overheated last year, and prices have moderated since, leading to a slight decline in the latest data.
The largest price increases in August 2021 were in Austin, TX (+36%), followed by Phoenix, AZ (+25%) and Salt Lake City, UT (+24%).
The biggest sales declines were seen in New Orleans, LA (-23%), Salt Lake City, UT (-16%) and Warren, MI (-14%). The largest gains were in places where sales were still somewhat depressed in August 2020, including New York, NY (+65%), Honolulu, HI (+47%) and Nassau County, NY (+32%).
Seasonally adjusted active listings – the count of all homes that were for sale at any time during the month – fell 19% year over year: the smallest decline since April. Only four of the 85 largest metros tracked by Redfin posted a year-over-year increase in the number of seasonally adjusted active listings of homes for sale: Austin, TX (+5%), Virginia Beach, VA (+4%), Columbus, OH (+3%) and Milwaukee, WI (+1%).
The biggest year-over-year declines in active housing supply in July were in Baton Rouge, LA (-53%), North Port, FL (-44%) and West Palm Beach, FL (-37%).
Seasonally adjusted new listings of homes for sale were down 6% in August from a year earlier, which was the first decline since February. New listings fell from a year ago in 56 of the 85 largest metro areas. The biggest declines were in Baton Rouge, LA (-55%), Allentown, PA (-49%) and St. Louis, MO (-39%). New listings rose the most from a year ago in McAllen, TX (+27%), Virginia Beach, VA (+17%) and Tulsa, OK (+15%).
Measures of housing market competition based on completed home sales eased further in August from all-time records set in June. The typical home that sold in August went under contract in 16 days – about half as much time as a year earlier, when homes sold in a median 31 days, but up one day from the record low in June.
In August, 52% of homes sold above list price, down 4 percentage points from the record high in June but up 20 percentage points from a year earlier. The average sale-to-list price ratio also dipped slightly in July to 101.6%, down from a record high of 102.5% in June but up from 99.2% a year earlier.
