Typical U.S. Home Sells For $4,000 Less Than Last Year, Redfin Reports
(Courtesy Redfin)
The median U.S. home-sale price dipped 0.9% year over year to roughly $383,000, reported Redfin, Seattle.
That’s due to a lack of homes for sale, with a mismatch between supply and demand, Redfin said in its monthly Housing Market Update.
The typical U.S. home now sells for about $4,000 less than the record high set last June, Redfin said.
A lack of homes for sale is keeping prices afloat, the report noted. New listings fell 27% from a year earlier during the four weeks ending June 25, the biggest drop since the start of the pandemic. That contributed to the total number of homes for sale declining 11%. “Inventory is falling because of high mortgage rates, with many homeowners staying put to hang onto their comparatively low rates,” Redfin said.
High mortgage rates are also deterring homebuyers, but they still outnumber home sellers, Redfin noted. Pending home sales are down 15%, significantly smaller than the drop in new listings. That means buyers are snapping up inventory faster than it’s being listed, which is keeping home prices elevated.
“The market isn’t nearly as fast as it was 18 months ago, when homes were flying off the market for well over asking price, and it’s not as slow as it was six or seven months ago, when mortgage rates first shot up,” said Oakland, Calif. Redfin Agent Andrea Chopp. “Buyers should keep in mind that desirable homes are getting multiple offers and selling above asking price. And sellers should know that their home may not attract as much competition as their neighbor’s home did two years ago, but it will sell if they price it fairly and put effort into marketing. Things like making small repairs and staging are important again.”
Redfin reported the following leading indicators of homebuying activity:
-The daily average 30-year fixed mortgage rate equaled 6.91% on June 28, down from a half-year high of 7.14% a month earlier. For the week ending June 22, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.67%, down slightly from the eight-month high of 6.79% hit at the beginning of the month.
-Mortgage-purchase applications during the week ending June 23 rose 3% from a week earlier, seasonally adjusted. Purchase applications were down 21% from a year earlier.
-The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index, a measure of requests for home tours and other homebuying services from Redfin agents, hit its second-highest level since May 2022 during the week ending June 25. It was up 10% from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive annual increase. Demand was dropping at this time in 2022 as mortgage rates rose.
Google searches for “homes for sale” were up 5% from a month earlier during the week ending June 24, and down about 9% from a year earlier.
