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A new report from Redfin.com shows that the median home price across 434 metro areas in the U.S. was $319,769 as of September 27, 2020. This is the highest median cost for homes to date and shows a 14% increase year-over-year, which has been the largest spike in median home sale price since August 2013.
As the median price for a home in the U.S. has gone up, the average salary it takes to buy a home has decreased in most cities since 2018, according to a recent report from finder.com. Still, five of the top 10 most expensive cities to be a homeowner require six-figure salaries to buy a home.
Single-family home prices have seen an increase of nearly 12% to $343,000 year-over-year. The cost of condos has also gone up by 5.4%, which has created the biggest difference between condo and house prices since 2014.
The median price for new listings is also on the rise, going up nearly 13% since last year. The growth rate of listing prices, however, has been declining since it peaked at 15.7% at the end of August 2020.
Listings are selling at a steady rate, with 45.8% of homes under contract accepting an offer within their first two weeks of being listed, and this rate has been consistent over the past few months.
While the median asking price for new listings has gone up, the overall number of active listings has declined by 28% since last year. Mortgage applications have also decreased and rates have been below 3% since late July of this year.
The decrease in active listings is likely an indicator that the price growth for homes will be slowing down. The decline in active listings has no doubt been a result of the pandemic and the economic downturn it has caused.
Redfin.com also reported that a recent survey of 1,400 homebuyers and sellers showed that 20% believed now was not a good time to sell a home and 38% of home sellers had health and safety concerns regarding Covid-19. Homebuyers, however, were less worried as only 8% of those who responded to the survey said they had health concerns about coronavirus.
