The red-hot housing market has increased the median listing price of homes throughout the country by more than $31,000 since the start of the year.
New data from Realtor.com shows the national median listing price has increased 8.3% between January and April. As of April 29, the median price was $375,000.
Homes have seen double-digit growth for 40 consecutive weeks now. For the week ending May 15, the median listing price was up 15.5% year-over-year. (Median rent prices are up 2.7%, and are showing their fastest growth since last March.)
Prices are the highest they’ve been since Realtor.com started keeping records in 2012, but the rate of the increase so far this year is actually a bit slower than normal. During the same January-to-April time period from 2017 through 2019, the median listing price of homes was normally up 9.8% each year.
That number of course, was a lower dollar amount.
The year-over-year comparison for house prices shows that sellers are commanding more and more for their homes. In February, the median listing price surged 13.7% year-over-year—topping the peak 2020 price in the process. In April, though, the year-over-year increase has increased to 17.2%.
That doesn’t seem likely to slow down. Spring is peak selling season, typically. A slow rise in interest rates could slow things down slightly, but rates are still well below where they were in 2019.
“For buyers, the good news is we are beginning to see more new listings coming onto the market, and we expect to see even more sellers over the next few months,” said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. “For those who choose to wait for more options, they are likely to see both higher home prices and interest rates.”
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