Home sales are up, and so are the prices.
Median home sale prices have made the largest increase on record, jumping 15% year over year for the week ending Oct. 4. The previous largest increase was 14.5% seen in September 2005, according to Redfin analysis of the Case-Shiller national home price index and analysis of MLS data.
As of last week, the median home sale price in America was $320,625, compared to $279,090 a year ago.
“Large, expensive, luxury homes are taking up a bigger share of the homes that are selling, which is driving a high growth rate for the median sale price,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Remote work is increasing demand from affluent people, while middle-income people are more often expected to do their jobs in-person, and many have been affected by furloughs and shutdowns.”
At HousingWire Annual on Thursday, Fannie Mae SVP and Chief Economist Doug Duncan said to expect home prices to keep on rising.
Also setting records this month is the average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices. That index rose to 99.4%, 1.2 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
The number of active listings for sale at any point during the period also sank to a new all-time low of 28% year over year, Redfin said.
