Thanks to a significant increase in home prices in most areas of the U.S., home sellers in 2015 realized an average price gain since purchase of 11%, or $20,378, according to RealtyTrac’s Year-End 2015 U.S. Home Sales Report.
That’s the biggest average price gain since 2007, according to the report.
What’s more, 2015 was the second consecutive year that home sellers realized an average price gain, following six consecutive years when they saw an average price loss.
“With some local market exceptions, the 2015 home sales data paints the picture of a properly functioning U.S. housing market where homeowners can, once again, count on real estate as an appreciating asset – a long-touted axiom soundly debunked as ironclad truth between 2008 and 2013,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac, in a release. “This return to consistent home price gains for sellers should reinforce confidence in real estate in 2016 and produce another year of solid sales volume as homeowners cash out their equity gains.”
Counties that saw the highest average price gains for home sellers in 2015 included San Mateo County, Calif.; Alameda County, Calif.; Santa Clara County, Calif.; Middlesex County, N.J.; and Multnomah County, Ore., according to RealtyTrac.
The average price for a home in the U.S. increased a whopping 10% during 2015, according to the report. Among 87 major metropolitan statistical areas analyzed for the report, 79, or 91%, posted a year-over-year increase in median home price.
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