Redfin: Home Prices Hit Record High in June
(Illustration credit: Curtis Adams via pexels.com)
Redfin, Seattle, reported the median U.S. home-sale price rose 2.2% year over year to a record $408,776 in June.
U.S. existing-home sales ticked up 0.1% month over month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of roughly 4.4 million in June—the highest level since November 2022. On a year-over-year basis, existing home sales rose 4.2% from last June. The total number of homes sold—including both existing and newly built homes—fell 0.5% in June from a month earlier but were still at their second-highest level since October 2022 and up 4.5% year over year.
Pending home sales ticked up 0.5% from a month earlier in June to their highest level since 2023, with the exception of April. Compared to a year ago, pending sales increased 4.5%. All figures in Redfin’s report are seasonally adjusted, with the exception of median sale price data and mortgage rate data.
Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research, said high-end buyers are driving demand and prices in much of the country. “Many of the house hunters who are buying homes are the ones who can afford today’s high prices and elevated mortgage rates without busting their budget,” she said. “There’s a pool of higher-income buyers who are purchasing seven-figure homes, but a lot of first-time and average move-up buyers are priced out as mortgage rates stay near 6.5%, making monthly payments challenging.”
The report noted affluent Bay Area and South Florida homebuyers were major drivers of June’s strong housing market:
• San Francisco’s median home-sale price rose 9.2% year over year, the biggest increase of the major U.S. metro areas. Next came Pittsburgh, with a 9.1% increase, followed by West Palm Beach, where the median price rose 8.6%. A separate Redfin report shows that in San Francisco and West Palm Beach, luxury sales are fueling overall home-prices increases.
• West Palm Beach and San Francisco both posted increases of roughly 23% year over year in closed home sales, the biggest upticks of all the major U.S. metros.
“Billionaires, executives and other ultra-wealthy Americans are moving to Florida and buying up expensive homes due to its favorable tax environment, sunny climate and beachfront lifestyle,” the report said. “The story is a bit different in the Bay Area, where the AI boom is driving the surge in luxury home sales and driving prices up.” June’s average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.49%, up slightly from a month earlier, exacerbating high prices to drive up monthly payments. High housing payments, along with economic uncertainty about things such as the Iran war and inflation, pushed away some average American would-be buyers, while affluent buyers were undeterred.
