ATTOM: Home Prices Hit Record Highs in 2025, but Profit Margins Fall

(Image courtesy of Constanze Marie/pexels.com)

ATTOM, Irvine, Calif., released its Year-End U.S. Home Sales Report, finding that the national median sales price hit an all-time high of $360,000 last year.

That’s a 2.6% increase from 2024 and a 39% increase from 2020.

But, despite higher sales prices, profit margins are not rising. The typical home sale netted $118,710 in gross profits, or a 49% return on investment.

That’s down from a gross profit of $124,500 and a profit margin of 55% in 2024.

“Home prices kept climbing in 2025 even as affordability challenges intensified for households across the country,” said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. “While sellers continued to command record prices, profit margins have been declining for three consecutive years since peaking in 2022, suggesting the market may be gradually normalizing after a period of strong returns.”

The percentage of homes bought by institutional investors in 2025 was 6.6%, steady from 2024 and down from 9.3% in 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a buying boom.

Homeowners who sold their places in Q4 2025 had owned them for an average of 8.55 years, up from 8.33 years in Q3 and from 8.05 years in Q4 2024.

All-cash deals were 39.1% of sales last year, the highest rate since 2013. However, that’s only a slight bump–all-cash sales made up 39% of the market in 2024.

Sales of foreclosed homes to lenders were 1.3% of all sales, down narrowly from 1.4% in 2024.

Approximately 8.7% of all home sales were via Federal Housing Administration loans, up from 8.4% in 2024.