The median U.S. home pierce rose 5.2% year over year this week, and mortgage rates hit their highest level since November 2023
SEATTLE, April 25, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: RDFN) —The median U.S. home-sale price hit a record $383,725 during the four weeks ending April 21, up 5.2% from a year earlier—one of the biggest jumps since October 2022. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
The average weekly mortgage rate hit 7.1% this week, its highest level since November 2023, as it became clear the Fed would keep interest rates high longer than expected. High prices and mortgage rates drove the median monthly housing payment to a record $2,843, up 13% year over year.
Prices are soaring despite the fact that there’s more inventory than last year. New listings are up 10.2% year over year, though growth in listings may be losing momentum as stubbornly high rates solidify the lock-in effect. Prices are being buoyed by the fact that inventory remains low despite the recent improvement. Demand is holding up fairly well in the face of 7%-plus rates, though some indicators are starting to show a slowdown. Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for tours and other buying services from Redfin agents—is near its highest level in about eight months, but mortgage-purchase applications are down slightly (-1%) week over week.
“My advice to sellers is to price your home fairly. Even though sellers are getting top dollar at the moment, they should price competitively to attract buyers from the start and avoid having to drop their price as stubbornly high mortgage rates eat into buying budgets,” said Redfin Economic Research Lead Chen Zhao. “My advice for serious buyers who can afford today’s costs is to shop for your dream home and accept that this year is probably not the time to find a dream deal. Price growth may cool slightly in the coming months if mortgage rates stay high or rates might fall slightly—but overall housing costs are likely to remain elevated for the foreseeable future.”
For more of Redfin economists’ takes on the housing market, including how current financial events are impacting mortgage rates, please visit Redfin’s “From Our Economists” page.
Leading indicators
Indicators of homebuying demand and activity |
||||
|
Value (if applicable) |
Recent change |
Year-over-year change |
Source |
Daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate |
7.39% (April 24) |
Up from roughly 7% one month earlier; near highest level since November 2023 |
Up from 6.59% |
Mortgage News Daily |
Weekly average 30-year fixed mortgage rate |
7.1% (week ending April 18) |
Up from 6.87% a month earlier; highest level since November 2023 |
Up from 6.39% |
Freddie Mac |
Mortgage-purchase applications (seasonally adjusted) |
|
Decreased 1% from a week earlier (as of week ending April 19) |
Down 15% |
Mortgage Bankers Association |
Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index (seasonally adjusted) |
|
Up 3% from a month earlier (as of week ending April 21) |
Down 9% |
Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, a measure of requests for tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents |
Touring activity |
|
Up 34% from the start of the year (as of April 23) |
At this time last year, it was up 29% from the start of 2023 |
ShowingTime, a home touring technology company |
Google searches for “home for sale” |
|
Unchanged from a month earlier (as of April 21) |
Down 17% |
Google Trends |
Key housing-market data
U.S. highlights: Four weeks ending April 21, 2024 Redfin’s national metrics include data from 400+ U.S. metro areas, and is based on homes listed and/or sold during the period. Weekly housing-market data goes back through 2015. Subject to revision. |
|||
|
Four weeks ending April 21, 2024 |
Year-over-year change |
Notes |
Median sale price |
$383,725 |
5.2% |
All-time high; biggest increase since Oct. 2022, with the exception of the 4 weeks ending Feb. 11, 2024 and the 4 weeks ending Feb. 18, 2024 (5.3% increases) |
Median asking price |
$415,925 |
6.7% |
All-time high; biggest increase since Sept. 2022 |
Median monthly mortgage payment |
$2,843 at a 7.1% mortgage rate |
12.6% |
All-time high |
Pending sales |
86,786 |
-3.8% |
Biggest decline in 6 weeks |
New listings |
95,580 |
10.2% |
|
Active listings |
840,411 |
10.1% |
|
Months of supply |
3.2 months |
+0.4 pts. |
4 to 5 months of supply is considered balanced, with a lower number indicating seller’s market conditions |
Share of homes off market in two weeks |
43.3% |
Down from 46% |
|
Median days on market |
35 |
Unchanged |
|
Share of homes sold above list price |
29.8% |
Essentially unchanged |
|
Share of homes with a price drop |
6% |
+1.7 pts. |
|
Average sale-to-list price ratio |
99.2% |
+0.1 pt. |
|
Metro-level highlights: Four weeks ending April 21, 2024 Redfin’s metro-level data includes the 50 most populous U.S. metros. Select metros may be excluded from time to time to ensure data accuracy. |
|||
|
Metros with biggest year-over-year increases |
Metros with biggest year-over-year decreases |
Notes |
Median sale price |
Anaheim, CA (25%) New Brunswick, NJ (14.9%) Detroit (14%) West Palm Beach, FL (13.4%) San Jose, CA (13%)
|
Austin, TX (-0.9%)
|
Declined in just 1 metro |
Pending sales |
San Jose, CA (14.2%) San Francisco (6.4%) Seattle (5.7%) Milwaukee (5.2%) Anaheim, CA (4.5%) |
Nassau County, NY (-13.9%) Phoenix (-13%) Fort Lauderdale, FL (-12.5%) Houston (-11.9%) Riverside, CA (-11.4%)
|
Increased in 9 metros |
New listings |
San Jose, CA (43.1%) Jacksonville, FL (29.1%) Phoenix (25.8%) Sacramento, CA (24%) Miami (21.9%)
|
Newark, NJ (-9.1%) Cleveland, OH (-5.9%) Chicago (-4.7%) Milwaukee (-4.7%) Providence, RI (-4.4%) Detroit (-4%) |
Declined in 6 metros |
To view the full report, including charts, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-home-prices-costs-record-high
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We run the country’s #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can have our renovations crew fix it up to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.
Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.
For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin’s press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin’s press center, click here.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425347655/en/
Contacts
Contact Redfin
Redfin Journalist Services:
Kenneth Applewhaite, 206-414-8880
press@redfin.com
Price growth is leveling off as elevated mortgage rates strain buyer budgets, but prices are still at historic highs because there aren’t enough homes for sale
SEATTLE, April 23, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–(NASDAQ: RDFN) — U.S. home prices climbed 0.6% from a month earlier on a seasonally-adjusted basis in March, matching February’s 0.6% month-over-month gain, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
On a year-over-year basis, prices rose 7.3%, also little changed from the prior month’s 7% annual increase.
This is according to the Redfin Home Price Index (RHPI), which uses the repeat-sales pricing method to calculate seasonally adjusted changes in prices of single-family homes. The RHPI measures sale prices of homes that sold during a given period, and how those prices have changed since the last time those same homes sold. It’s similar to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices but publishes more than one month earlier. March data covers the three months ending March 31, 2024.
“Elevated mortgage rates are putting a cap on home price growth. Sellers can’t jack up prices like they did during the pandemic because buyer budgets are already constrained by 7% interest rates,” said Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari. “But while price growth is leveling off, prices remain at historic highs. That’s because a shortage of homes for sale—largely driven by the mortgage-rate lock-in effect—is buoying prices.”
Price growth may continue to stagnate in the coming months as mortgage rates stay high. The Federal Reserve recently warned that elevated inflation will probably delay the interest-rate cuts they had been planning this year.
Prices Fell in the Bay Area, Texas and Florida
Home prices fell from a month earlier in nine of the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas: San Jose, CA (-1%), San Antonio (-0.8%), Fort Worth, TX (-0.6%), San Francisco (-0.5%), Fort Lauderdale, FL (-0.5%), Charlotte, NC (-0.5%), Orlando, FL (-0.3%), Indianapolis (-0.3%) and Minneapolis (-0.1%).
Prices rose most in Providence, RI (3.2%), Montgomery County, PA (2.5%), Nassau County, NY (2.4%), Milwaukee (1.7%) and Anaheim, CA (1.7%).
To view the full report, including charts and metro-level data, please visit:
https://www.redfin.com/news/redfin-home-price-index-march-2024
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We run the country’s #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can have our renovations crew fix it up to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we’ve saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.
Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide®, Title Forward® and WalkScore®.
For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin’s press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin’s press center, click here.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240423788774/en/
Contacts
Redfin Journalist Services:
Kenneth Applewhaite, 206-414-8880
press@redfin.com
SEATTLE (KOMO) — If you’re waiting for a break in home prices, a new report from Seattle-based Redfin might convince you to get what you can.
According to their data, the U.S. housing market gained $2.4 trillion in value over the last year. The total value now is $47.5 trillion.
That’s based on more than 90 million residential properties nationwide. Mortgage rates may drop this year, but buyers still face limited supply.
RELATED | Here’s how much you need to make to ‘comfortably afford’ a Seattle home
“If you look at national listings across the U.S., we have 40% fewer listings today than we had in 2019. So if you’re trying to shop for a home, don’t think that you’re going to be flush with options,” said Ali Wolf, Chief Economist with Zonda.
Areas seeing the biggest price jump are cities in the Northeast and Midwest. Homes in urban areas are also more expensive than a year ago, but residential properties in the suburbs saw a bigger boost.
RELATED | Congress to take another swipe at tackling housing affordability crisis
“What we are seeing in the housing market is right now we are living through a record housing affordability shock,” said Zonda.
In Seattle, the entire housing market is now worth more than $911 Billion, up 4.6% from last year.
Tacoma saw an even bigger jump, gaining 5.6% in total value.
RELATED | High prices and interest rates leave 70% of Americans doubting home ownership in 2024
If you’re watching mortgage rates, hoping a break will help you compete, hold on.
Interest rates could be cut three times this year and economists said that could start as early as May.
LYNN — The city’s housing market grew by roughly 22% in value in 2023, leaving the city’s residential real estate price at a six-year high.
Data collected from the online brokerage company Redfin reports that the median sale price of a home in Lynn has risen from $480,000 at the end of 2022 to $585,000 at the end of 2023. The 21.9% price bump follows the city’s first housing market dip since 2017, which occurred in 2022 when the median housing price decreased by 4% from the prior year.
North Shore Community College Economics Professor Moonsu Han said that while overall, property values throughout the country have been trending downwards since 2022, housing prices in the Northeast, particularly the Greater Boston area, have been steadily increasing.
“The gap (in housing prices) between Western area and Northeastern areas is still huge, near record high. The housing market in the Northeastern part of the United States is really hot, even though we have really high-interest rates, especially in Lynn and the Greater Boston area,” Han said.
According to Redfin, the number of home sales in Lynn also dropped by more than 11% between the end of 2023 and 2022. In 2023, listed homes remained on the market three days fewer than in 2022 before being sold.
Han said the growth of life sciences in the greater Boston area is growing the region’s population of young, well-paid professionals, contributing to a greater demand for quality housing in Lynn and, consequently, a more competitive market.
“The inflow of people into the area is big. That’s why a lot of people want to buy houses. However, COVID was a period of time when a lot of people refinanced their house with really, really, low-interest rates, leaving little incentive to sell their houses,” Han said. “There’s a much greater demand than there is a supply.”
Considering Mayor Jared Nicholson’s Administration and the city’s goals for inclusive growth, economic development, improved education, and reduced crime intervention, Han said he expects the city’s housing market to continue to grow in the future.
“The city’s leadership has a focus on inclusive growth, better infrastructure, education, and peace… that’s very important for housing prices and for the overall welfare of Lynn’s residents,” Han said.
With the revival of the Lynn ferry last summer and the temporary Lynn Commuter Rail platform on Ellis Street opening last December, Han said he expects faster transit between Lynn and Boston to correlate with the growth of Lynn-to-Boston commuters.
Han added that the development of condominiums and houses in Lynn and investments in education will likely fuel one another, increasing demand for Lynn homes.
“I think the City of Lynn has a really, really bright future,” Han said. “The housing market in Lynn is very, very hot, and it will continue to grow.”
“Nobody can afford a home right now.”
That’s how the vast majority of would-be buyers felt last year, according to a recent analysis by real estate group Redfin.
That was closer to being true for minority households.
The average Black household could afford just 7% of listings for sale last year on a median income, while white households could afford 22% of listings. The share was nearly as bad for Latino households, which could afford just 10% of homes for sale. Meanwhile, Asian households could afford 27% of homes for sale at the median income.
The affordability picture was bleak overall. Just 16% of homes for sale in 2023 were affordable to the typical US household, the lowest share on record since Redfin started tracking the metric a decade ago. Overall, the share of affordable listings in the US dropped to 352,500 last year, down 41% from 596,135 a year earlier and down from over 1 million during the prior decade. The costs of homeownership rose even in historically affordable areas due to limited inventory propping up prices.
Read more: How to buy a house: 13 steps to getting the keys to your new home
Despite these hurdles, there are signs 2024 could be better. Redfin economists noted that wages for non-white households grew faster last year, helping reduce the income gap. Rents have also shown signs of falling, which could help renters — often communities of color — save more toward their homebuying nest egg.
“The wage gap is a big part of it,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Yahoo Finance. “Home prices have become so expensive in a lot of metro areas. It makes it really hard for Black and Latino households to be able to afford a home compared to their white counterparts.”
Fairweather added: “The higher the mortgage rate, the higher a mortgage payment will be. It creates another barrier for people with less income to put towards a down payment.”
Read more: Mortgage rates below 7% — is this a good time to buy a house?
‘The racial affordability gap exists nationwide’
Even the most affordable metropolitan areas in the US became less accessible to Black and Latino homebuyers last year as both prices and rates soared.
In Detroit, where mortgage payments are among the lowest in the country, just 31.8% of listings were affordable for the typical Black household in 2023, and 50.2% were affordable for the average Latino household. That’s much lower than the 66% affordable listings for the typical white household.
Homes listed in Detroit were priced at an average $85,000 in December, up 21.4% from 2022. According to the US Census Bureau, the typical single earner in Michigan made an annual income of $63,380.
And in more expensive markets, where nearly everyone had a hard time finding affordable housing, Black and Latino households had far less options to pick from.
For instance, in Anaheim, Calif., less than 0.5% of listings were affordable to the typical Black and Latino households in 2023, compared with nearly 2% that were affordable for the average white household, Redfin found.
As of December, the typical home listed in Anaheim cost $866,000, up 12% year over year. Meanwhile, the average Californian earned $75,235 annually as of May 2023.
“The racial housing affordability gap exists nationwide, from the least affordable metros to the most affordable metros,” the report said.
According to Redfin, a listing is considered affordable if a buyer would have to spend no more than 30% of their income on the payment. However, that goal has become harder to achieve as wages have failed to keep up with rising housing costs.
At a national level, an average homebuyer in 2023 had to earn an annual income of at least $109,868 if they were aiming to spend under 30% of their income on a monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home. That was 8.5% more than 2022 and $31,226 more than the typical household earned in a year.
While wages for non-white households grew at a pace of 5.9% in December 2023 — compared to 5.6% for white households — minorities still lag behind. Per the latest US Census data, in 2022, the median household income varied by race.
The average Black household earned a median income of $52,860, compared to Latino households, which earned an average of $62,800. Meanwhile, white and Asian households made a median household income of $81,060 and $108,7000, respectively. On a national scale, the median household income was $74,580 in 2022.
“A perfect storm of inflation, high prices, soaring mortgage rate and low housing supply caused 2023 to go down as the least affordable year for housing in recent history,” Redfin senior economist Elijah de la Campa said in a separate report. “The good news is that affordability is already improving heading into the new year.”
Expect better homebuying conditions in 2024
Last year’s dramatic decline in affordability was in part due to a drop in listings, which fell 21% on a national scale year over year. Elevated mortgage rates also propped up housing costs as fewer homeowners decided to list their homes for sale — aggravating the inventory shortage.
But buyers could have better luck in 2024.
Rent prices are finally cooling down due to the building boom in recent years, Redfin noted, and should reduce further in 2024. Already, the median asking rent fell 2% year over year in November 2023 to $1,967, the largest annual drop since February 2020.
Renters, typically younger Americans in prime ages for homebuying, have long cited an inability to save for a down payment due to rising rent prices as a barrier to homeownership. The softening of rent prices could give them some wiggle room to save.
It’s not hard to imagine why down payments have been so hard to save up for.
According to a separate study by Realtor.com, down payments hit a new peak in the third quarter of 2023 with an average 15% down payment amount of $30,000. That’s up from 11.5% in 2020, when the typical down payment was just $17,000.
That uptick in down payments, a result of higher rates and home prices, was a major barrier for both Latino and Black homebuyers. Particularly those with below-average or no credit score.
“If you’re paying in cash or putting a large down payment, you can offset some of that increase in interest payments, but when you have a low down payment and if you have a lower credit score, the mortgage impact can be really high,” Fairweather said.
Further aiding affordability in 2024 would be softening mortgage rates, which Redfin predicts will land on 6.6% by the year-end. Other economists expect a bigger drop to around 6% or even under. The improved affordability could thaw some of the mortgage rate lock-in effect, convincing some homeowners to list now that rates are down over a full point from their near 8% peak in October.
According to Redfin, the increase in housing supply throughout 2024 and a burst of new construction could cause prices to drop by 1% on average by year-end.
“Small homes, like condos and townhomes, are in direct competition with apartment rentals. And since asking rents have been declining for three months in a row, that will put downward price pressure on more affordable, smaller homes,” Fairweather said. “This should improve affordability for first-time home buyers seeking starter homes.
“Also, the drop in mortgage rates we are forecasting should improve affordability.”
Gabriella is a personal finance and housing reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @__gabriellacruz.