In a time of the year when the market typically slows, a new report from Redfin [1] found that 33% of homes sell within a week of hitting the market—a number that has been on the rise for the last six weeks.
Redfin Analyst Tim Ellis [2] attributed the rise to homebuyer demand, which has remained steady and strong over the last few weeks. Home tours are also up 7% since January which is a 20% increase year-over-year.
Largely fueled by a lack of supply (down 8% since last year), a third of pending sales (33%) were under contract within a week, up 3% from the same period last year. 45% of homes sold within two weeks.
“Homes continue to sell quicker and quicker,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather [3]. “There are still plenty of homebuyers lying in wait who missed out during the Spring frenzy, and they are snatching up homes quickly. Now, those homes are selling for near-record prices. The housing market will likely stay hot until mortgage rates rise substantially.”
In addition, Redfin says that the median home-sale price increased 13% year-over-year to $358,125. This is up 30% from the same period in 2019. e
The report also found:
- Asking prices of newly listed homes were up 11% from the same time a year ago and up 26% from 2019 to a median of $362,335, down 1% from the all-time high set during the four-week period ending October 3.
- Pending home sales were up 2% year over year, and up 47% compared to the same period in 2019, which was a more typical year in terms of seasonality for sales and listings.
- New listings of homes for sale were down 8% from a year earlier. New listings remained positive compared to 2019, up 6%.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 22% from 2020, and were down 40% from 2019.
- 45% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, above the 42% rate of a year earlier and the 31% rate in 2019.
- Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 23 days, a full week longer than the all-time low of 15 days seen in late June and July, down from 31 days a year earlier and 44 days in 2019.
- 45% of homes sold above list price, up from 35% a year earlier and 22% in 2019, but the smallest share since April.
- On average, 4.9% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, up 1.2 percentage points from the same time in 2020, up 0.1 points from 2019.
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, was flat at 100.6%, the lowest level since April. In other words, the average home sold for 0.6% above its asking price.
- Mortgage purchase applications increased 4% week over week (seasonally adjusted) during the week ending October 22. For the week ending October 21, 30-year mortgage rates rose to 3.09%, the highest level since early April.