SEATTLE, Oct. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- (NASDAQ: RDFN)
— The median home sale price increased 15% year over year to
$320,625—the highest on record,
according to a new report from
Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.
In the week ending October 18, home
prices were up 16% from the same week a year earlier. Home prices
continue to buck their typical seasonal pattern.
Below are other key housing market takeaways for 434 U.S. metro
areas during the 4-week period ending October 18.
- Since the four-week period ending July
5, home prices have increased 6.8%. Over that same period in
2018 and 2019, prices declined an average of 4.4%.
- The median asking price of new listings was up 14.2% from a
year earlier.
- Pending home sales climbed 32% year over year even as the
number of sales continued a typical seasonal decline.
- New listings of homes for sale were up 8% from a year
earlier.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any
point during the period) fell 29% from 2019 to a new all-time
low.
- 45.2% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer
within the first two weeks on the market. This measure typically
peaks in April or May and declines through the end of the year, but
this year it has held steady since late June.
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close
homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to 99.5%—an all-time
high and 1.4 percentage points higher than a year earlier.
- For the week ending October 18,
the seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index was up 42%
from pre-pandemic levels in January and February.
- Mortgage applications decreased 2% week over week
(seasonally-adjusted) and were up 26% from a year earlier
(unadjusted) during the week ending October
16. For the week ending October
22, 30-year mortgage rates were down just slightly to 2.80%.
Rates have been below 3% since late July.
"It's remarkable how this late in the year the market remains
highly competitive," said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. "There are still plenty of
homebuyers lying in wait for new listings to hit the market. And
when homebuyers see their perfect house listed amid the ongoing
shortage of homes for sale, they are willing to pay asking price or
even more just to make sure the deal goes through before another
buyer swoops in. The election may slow down homebuying activity in
the coming weeks as buyers and sellers get anxious about the
outcome, but once the dust settles, it's likely that there will
still be a lot of pent-up demand that will heat things right back
up."
"More and more homes are selling above list price lately, which
is something I haven't seen here since the build-up to the housing
bubble in 2005," said Columbia, SC
Redfin real estate agent Jessica
Nelson. "The sudden ability that so many people have to work
from home is really changing the market, bringing in a lot of
out-of-town money, making everything more competitive for
homebuyers."
To view the full report, including charts and methodology,
please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/us-housing-market-strong-prices-up-15-percent/
About Redfin
Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a
technology-powered residential real estate company, redefining real
estate in the consumer's favor in a commission-driven industry. We
do this by integrating every step of the home buying and selling
process and pairing our own agents with our own technology,
creating a service that is faster, better and costs less. We offer
brokerage, iBuying, mortgage, and title services, and we also run
the country's #1 real estate brokerage search site, offering a host
of online tools to consumers, including the Redfin Estimate. We
represent people buying and selling homes in over 90 markets in
the United States and Canada. Since our launch in 2006, we have
saved our customers over $800 million
and we've helped them buy or sell more than 235,000 homes worth
more than $115 billion.
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.
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SOURCE Redfin