The cost of homeownership has become so high that economists express concern.
The following are the latest housing market metrics from Redfin.com [1], which examines data from more than 400 metros nationwide. Because comparisons to 2020 are skewed due to pandemic-related lockdowns in spring 2020, the researchers compared their statistics to both 2020 and 2019.
- The median home-sale price increased 20% year over year to $347,500, an all-time high. Note that this number is somewhat inflated due to a slight dip in median sale prices around this time in 2020, and due to fewer high-end homes being sold at this time a year ago, and more high-end homes being sold now. Asking prices reached an all-time high of $357,200.
- Homes that sold during the period were on the market for a median of 20 days, down 16 days from the same period in 2020 and the shortest time on the market since at least 2012.
- An all-time high 46% of homes sold for more than their list price, up 19 percentage points from the same period a year earlier.
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased 2.5 percentage points year over year to an all-time high of 101.2%, meaning the average home sold for 1.2% more than its asking price.
- 58% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market. This was a new all-time high since at least 2012.
- 46% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, an all-time high.
- Pending home sales were up 23% from the same period in 2019.
- New listings of homes for sale were down 12% from the same period in 2019. New listings were up 2% from the four-week period ending March 28. The small boost in the number of new listings fell far short of the 12% increase during the same period in 2019.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 48% from the same period in 2019 to a new all-time low.
Redfin's Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather expressed concern—not about a potential market crash, but about the general state of homeownership in this country.
I am concerned about how we as a society are going to reckon with just how expensive housing has become,” Fairweather [2] said. “But I’m not worried about a housing crash because these sky-high prices are supported by the new reality of well-funded buyers who are often benefiting from newfound mobility via remote work. As the economy recovers, we have the opportunity to reimagine our country’s role in supporting a healthy housing market. For instance, we can subsidize construction of affordable homes or support first-time homebuyers in underserved communities. We have our work cut out for us when it comes to ensuring homeownership is attainable for middle-class Americans with good jobs and money saved up, not just for the wealthiest among us."