For the first time since early March, the median home sales price missed hitting a month-over-month record high, remaining relatively flat from June through July yet still significantly elevated since last year during the same period, according to Redfin's latest Housing Market Update.
“Although homes are much pricier than they were before the pandemic, homebuyers now have the benefit of very low mortgage rates and a little less competition than they faced earlier in the summer,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather [1].
The economist offered an anecdote of what could be things to come.
“This week a young first-time buyer with an FHA loan had her offer accepted on a home near Myrtle Beach, S [2]outh Carolina after losing out in five bidding wars. I am hopeful that more opportunities like this will arise in the coming weeks if things continue to stabilize.”
Fairweather's hopes are supported by some of the key findings in the study covering the four-week period ending August 1.
- The median home-sale price increased 18% year over year to $362,750, but decreased .2% from the four-week period ending July 25.
- Asking prices of newly listed homes were up 12% from the same time a year ago to a median of $358,475, but down 1% from their all-time high posted during the four weeks ending June 27.
- Pending home sales were up 3%, the smallest year-over-year increase since the four-week period ending June 28, 2020. They were down 3% from the four weeks ending July 25 and down 12% from their 2021 peak hit during the four-week period ending May 30.
- New listings of homes for sale were down slightly by -0.2% from a year earlier, the first decrease since March. The number of homes being listed ticked up 1.9% compared to the four weeks ending July 25, a similar trend seen the last two years during this time.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 26% from the same period in 2020—the smallest decline since the four-week period ending December 27, 2020. Active listings were up 13% from their 2021 low hit during the four-week period ending March 7.
- 49.7% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, well above the 44% rate during the same period a year ago. The rate has been plateauing since the four weeks ending July 11, but this was the first time it fell below 50% since the four-week period ending February 7.
- 36% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, up from 31.6% during the same period a year earlier. This rate has also been plateauing since the four weeks ending July 11.
- Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 16 days—that's 20 days faster than a year ago and flat from the four weeks ending July 25.
- 54% of homes sold above list price, up from 30% a year earlier. This measure is plateauing, clocking in at 54-55% since the four-week period ending June 27.
- At 4.7%, the share of homes for sale with price drops hovered just below 2019 levels (4.9%), surpassing last year's rate of 3.7%.
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, fell to 102.1%—still only slightly below the 102.3% peak set in the four weeks ending July 4. In other words, the average home sold for 2.1% above its asking price. This measure was 3.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier.