The U.S. median home sale price increased 13% from 2019 to $319,178—the highest on record, according to a new report from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage. This 13% year-over-year increase was the largest since October 2013.
“Home price growth this high is making the housing market especially difficult for first-time homebuyers right now,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Rising prices are just one more reason for people to leave expensive urban neighborhoods behind. The sudden rise of remote work has allowed homebuyers who are priced out of one neighborhood to expand their search to more affordable areas. In turn, they are pushing up home prices in those relatively affordable areas, causing more people to look to even more affordable areas, and so on. Price growth may slow in 2021, but even if it does, high prices are going to continue to make affordability a concern for buyers.”
Below are other key housing market takeaways for 434 U.S. metro areas during the 4-week period ending September 6.
- Pending home sales climbed 28% year over year, the largest increase since the four weeks ending August 2, 2015.
- New listings of homes for sale were up 9% from a year ago—the largest increase since the four weeks ending December 20, 2015.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 28% from 2019 to a new all-time low. The year-over-year decline has been about the same for the past couple of months.
- 46.4% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, the highest level since at least 2012 (as far back as our data on this measure goes).
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to 99.3%—an all-time high and a full percentage point higher than a year earlier.
- For the week ending September 6, the seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index was up 21% from pre-pandemic levels in January and February.