What a long, strange, and hard trip it has been. As CNN Money reports, it may have taken 11 years, but home prices are finally back to pre-crash highs as the median home price in the U.S. hit $231,000 in June, according to a report from ATTOM Data Solutions. That number is a 9 percent year-over-year increase and a 1 percent increase over the previous record of $228,000 reached in July 2005.
Nationally, median home prices have increased every month for over four years, which explains how sellers in June sold their homes for an average of $41,000 more than their purchase price.
Salisbury, Md. (22 percent), Pensacola, Fla. (21 percent), Tampa, Fla. (20 percent), St. Louis, Mo. (19 percent), and Boulder, Colo. (19 percent) have seen some of the largest year-over-year increases in prices.
The higher prices have pushed the share of buyers that don’t require financing for homes and condos down to 27.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016, the lowest level since the end of 2007. On the bright side, buyers are still benefiting from rock-bottom interest rates, allowing them to purchase a more expensive house than if the rates were higher.
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