The median home-sale price increased 17% year over year to $328,350—an all-time high—according to a new report from Redfin, the technology-powered real estate brokerage. This is the largest increase on record in this data set, which goes back through 2016.
Below are other key housing market takeaways for more than 400 U.S. metro areas during the 4-week period ending March 7.
- Asking prices of newly listed homes hit a new all-time high of $349,975, up 10% from the same time a year ago.
- Pending home sales were up 19% year over year and up 3% from the four-week period ending February 7. In the two weeks since pending sales dipped during the winter storms over the 7-day period ending February 21, the weekly number of pending sales is up 17%.
- New listings of homes for sale were down 17% from a year earlier.
- Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 41% from 2020 to a new all-time low. This is the largest decrease on record in this data, which goes back through 2016.
- 56% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, well above the 45% rate during the same period a year ago. This is another new all-time high for this measure since at least 2012 (as far back as Redfin’s data for this measure goes). During the 7-day period ending March 7, 59% of homes sold in two weeks or less.
- 44% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, up from 32% during the same period a year earlier. This is also an all-time high for this measure. During the 7-day period ending March 7, 48% sold in one week or less.
- The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased to 99.8%—1.7 percentage points higher than a year earlier and an all-time high. During the 7-day period ending March 7, the ratio shot up to 100.1%, the first time on record since this data series began in 2016 that the average home has sold for above its list price nationwide.
- For the 7-day period ending March 7, the seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index—a measure of requests for home tours and other services from Redfin agents—was up 55% from the same period a year ago.
- Mortgage purchase applications increased 7% week over week (seasonally adjusted) and were up 2% from a year earlier (unadjusted) during the week ending March 5. For the week ending March 11, 30-year mortgage rates increased to 3.05%, the highest level since July.
“Sellers’ asking prices have marched upward every week this year. Buyers have learned that if they aren’t aggressive enough one week, they will have to bid higher on a home that’s listed the following week,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “This super competitive housing market has been fueled by rock-bottom mortgage rates, so home prices should start to grow at a slower rate as mortgage rates tick up.”
