The median home sale price in the U.S. rose by 2.8 percent from the previous year in June, marking an all-time high of $311,300, according to Redfin.
The brokerage noted in its analysis that home prices do usually peak in June, however, given the unusual nature of 2020, and pent-up demand from spring government shut downs, it’s possible that home prices may rise even more over the next few months.
“The coronavirus hasn’t dragged home prices down; in fact, we’ve seen just the opposite — prices are rising in spite of the pandemic,” Brian Walsh, a Redfin agent in Tampa, said in a statement. During the month of June, the median home price in Tampa was up 8 percent year-over-year.
“Every house that is the slightest bit cute, fixed-up and priced right gets multiple offers — some up to 10 or 15. The winner offers are almost always all-cash with zero contingencies.”
In nearly all of the 85 largest metro areas analyzed by Redfin, median sale prices increased on an annual basis in June. However, prices did fall in the following metros: Lake County, Illinois (down 1.9 percent); New York, New York (down 1.9 percent); Baton Rouge, Louisiana (down 1.8 percent); and Honolulu, Hawaii (down 1.2 percent).
On the other end of the spectrum, some metro areas saw significant year-over-year increases in median home prices, like in Fort Lauderdale, Florida (up 11.1 percent); Bridgeport, Connecticut (up 11 percent); and Fresno, California (up 10.8 percent).
Meanwhile, home sales have continued to rise, and have now exceeded pre-pandemic levels, although inventory remains quite low. Year-over-year, pending sales are up 5.4 percent while new listings have fallen 11.6 percent.
“Pending home sales are a leading indicator of homebuyer activity, and as of early July we’ve begun to see completed home sales rebound back to last year’s levels,” Taylor Marr, Redfin lead economist, said in a statement. “However, there is still plenty of ground to make up as nearly a quarter of a million fewer households have bought a home in the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.”
Home sales fell 14.8 percent year-over-year on a seasonally-adjusted basis during the month of June, which is an improvement from the 29.8 percent drop in May, but still the third-largest drop on record since 2012 when Redfin began collecting this data.
Courtesy of Redfin
The number of homes that sold above list price in June rose modestly by 0.2 percentage points year-over-year to 26.5 percent.
Homes sold during June typically spent 39 days on market, only four days longer than the previous year, but still five days shorter than the average time on market for June months every previous year back as far as 2012.
“The market has remained very competitive even as we’re getting towards the late summer months when things usually begin to cool off,” Tony Orlando, a Detroit-based Redfin agent, said in a statement. “We saw a spike in homebuying immediately after real estate reopened in May, and ever since then we’ve been busy. At this point, homebuyers are assuming that they’ll have to pay a lot more for a home than they initially expected due to all the competition. Today’s record-low mortgage rates help with that some, but the upfront costs are still a tough pill to swallow.”
