Searches for $1 million homes have reached record highs, according to data from Redfin.com [1]. Their economists say this reflects the k-shaped economic recovery [2] we've been hearing about.
Nationwide, 10.8% of saved searches on Redfin.com filtered exclusively for homes priced over $1 million in January. That’s up from 8.5% a year prior and marks the highest share since Redfin started tracking such data in early 2017.
Meanwhile, At the same time, 36% of home searches in January filtered exclusively for homes priced under $500,000, down from 39.3% a year earlier and the lowest share since September 2017.
The researchers at Redfin attribute the million-dollar searches to two things: Low mortgage rates and quickly rising home values—the national median home-sale price rose 13% year over year in December. The trend also is due in part to the fact that in today’s economic climate, affluent Americans are the ones who can afford to buy homes.
“Wealthy people are reaping the benefits of unequal recovery from the pandemic-driven recession as they earn money from robust stock portfolios and rising real estate values,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather [3]. “Not only can they afford to move, but they also have big budgets. Unfortunately, many lower-income people, particularly those in the service industry, are struggling financially and aren’t in the market for homes.”
Actual sales of luxury homes jumped 61% [4] in the three months ending November 30, the biggest increase since at least 2013 and a much bigger increase than sales of mid-priced or affordable homes, the report said.
The heaviest concentration of home seekers searching million-dollar-plus homes is in California, specifically in five metros that are home to the highest property prices in the nation. San Jose saw [5] 48.5% of searches filtered for homes priced over $1 million in January, the highest share of the metros tracked by Redfin. It’s followed by San Francisco [6] (48%), Oakland [7] (31.8%), Anaheim [8] (25.1%), and Los Angeles [9] (24.9%).
The full report is available at Redfin.com [1].