Home Prices Jump 13%—Highest Yearly Advance in 7 Years

For the four-week period ending September 6, median home sales, pending homes sales, and new listings increased. Median homes sales grew by 13% year over year, according to Redfin. Now the median home price is $319,178—the highest on record and the largest year-over-year increase since October 2013. Another year-over-year high came from pending home sales which jumped by 28%, the largest growth since August 2015. Thankfully, though, new listings for homes advanced as well, by 9%. But overall, active listings fell by 28% during the four-week period, a record low.

“Home price growth this high is making the housing market especially difficult for first-time homebuyers right now,” said Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather. “Rising prices are just one more reason for people to leave expensive urban neighborhoods behind. The sudden rise of remote work has allowed homebuyers who are priced out of one neighborhood to expand their search to more affordable areas. In turn, they are pushing up home prices in those relatively affordable areas, causing more people to look to even more affordable areas, and so on. Price growth may slow in 2021, but even if it does, high prices are going to continue to make affordability a concern for buyers.”

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