Home Prices Hit an All-Time High of $370,000 in March, Realtor.com® Housing Report Shows

Rhea-AI Summary

According to realtor.com®'s Monthly Housing Trends Report, home buyers face a challenging spring market with 50% fewer homes for sale compared to last year, coupled with record-high prices and rising mortgage rates. The median listing price hit $370,000, a 15.6% increase year-over-year. Inventory decreased 52% nationally, with markets like Austin experiencing a 72.7% drop. While some sellers are expected to enter the market, increasing interest rates may slow price gains. Homes are selling faster, averaging 54 days on the market.

Positive

• Median national home listing price rose 15.6% to $370,000.
• Homes are selling more quickly, averaging 54 days on the market.
• Increased seller activity reported, with a 6.3% year-over-year rise in newly listed homes in the last week of March.

Negative

• National inventory of homes decreased by 52% compared to last year.
• Only 20% fewer homes were listed for sale in March than a year ago.
• In markets like Austin, active listing count fell by 72.7% year-over-year.

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Finding a home is only getting more difficult for this spring's home buyers who in addition to having more than 50% fewer homes to choose from are facing the double whammy of record-breaking prices and rising interest rates, according to the realtor.com^®  Monthly Housing Trends Report released today. And while more choices and slowing price growth may come to those who wait, mortgage rates will likely continue to creep up.

"In many areas of the country, there are half as many available homes for sale than a year ago -- and in some markets that number increases to less than one-third. For a buyer, that means if they had 10 homes in their price range to choose from last year, they have less than five, perhaps as few as three, available to them today," said realtor.com^® Chief Economist, Danielle Hale. "As a result, home prices have skyrocketed, shattering previous records. We expect to see more sellers emerge in the weeks ahead, which should give buyers more options. Homes will likely continue to sell fast, but increasing interest rates and monthly costs could slow the pace of price gains, unless we see a boost in demand from equity-rich repeat buyers."

In March, the median national home listing price grew to $370,000, up 15.6% over last year and a new all-time high, according to realtor.com^® records, which date back to 2012. Listing prices in the 50 largest metros grew by an average of 12.1% year-over-year with some markets seeing listing prices grow by nearly triple that amount. Topping the list was Austin where listing prices were up 39.8%, followed by Buffalo, N.Y. (+28.3%) and Los Angeles (+24.8%).

For a buyer putting 20% down, the monthly cost (principal and interest) of the typical March listing financed with a fixed-rate loan over 30 years was $1,260 as a result of rising home prices and rising interest rates, which averaged 3.08% in the month, according to Freddie Mac. Comparatively, the monthly cost was $1,160 in February and $1,140 in March 2020. Put another way, a buyer hoping to keep that $1,140 monthly payment would need to find a home priced at roughly $335,000 -- nearly $35,000 or 10% below the typical home on the market this March.

Inventory declines continue despite more seller activity
Nationally, the number of homes for sale in March decreased by 52% compared to last year, a steeper decline than February's 48.6% drop. This amounted to 534,000 fewer homes for sale compared to March 2020. Austin topped the list of inventory declines, down 72.7% from a year ago followed by Jacksonville, Fla. (-70.7%), and Raleigh, N.C. (-70.3%).

Although the trend of sellers putting their home on the market improved slightly from February, 20.0% fewer homes were listed for sale in March than a year ago. Overall, newly listed homes in the largest 50 metros decreased by 17.9% compared to last year. Only San Jose, Calif., (+48.1%), San Francisco (+39.1%), Los Angeles (19.7%), and New York (6.9%) saw an increase in the number of new listings in March.

In the final week of March -- which overlapped the initial housing market activity drop after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic -- newly listed homes increased by 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Despite the increase, newly listed homes ended March down 20%. Compared to a more typical non-pandemic year, March saw 117,000 fewer new sellers, adding to the more than 200,000 new listings deficit over the previous two months relative to the 2017 to 2019 average for the same time period.

Homes selling a full week more quickly than last year
Rising interest rates have yet to deter buyers, or perhaps, they are pushing them to act quickly. Either way, the typical home spent 54 days on the market in March, six days less than last year. Homes are selling even faster in the 50 largest U.S. metros, spending an average of 39 days on market. 

Buffalo, N.Y., saw the greatest decline in days on market, with homes selling in just 29 days on average, 30 days faster than last year. Homes also are selling fast in Riverside, Calif., and Austin, Texas, where they are spending 23 and 26 days on market on average, respectively. 

March Housing Overview By Market

Metro	Median Listing Price	Median Listing Price Y/Y	Active Listing Count Y/Y	New Listing Count Y/Y	Median Days on Market	Median Days on Market Y/Y (Days)
Atlanta-Sandy Springs- Roswell, Ga.	$395,000	19.7%	-60.4%	-29.3%	31	-18
Austin-Round Rock, Texas	$520,000	39.8%	-72.7%	-20.7%	18	-26
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, Md.	$335,000	2.0%	-59.3%	-17.0%	30	-13f
Birmingham-Hoover, Ala.	$267,000	2.9%	-47.4%	-16.1%	44	-13
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Mass.-N.H.	$695,000	10.3%	-36.7%	-2.8%	27	-5
Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, N.Y.	$260,000	28.3%	-46.6%	-12.6%	29	-30
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C.-S.C.	$414,000	18.3%	-62.6%	-39.4%	36	-8
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Ill.- Ind.-Wis.	$365,000	11.1%	-48.2%	-23.1%	39	-4
Cincinnati, Ohio-Ky.-Ind.	$348,000	16.0%	-51.4%	-26.8%	48	0
Cleveland-Elyria, Ohio	$231,000	14.1%	-55.0%	-22.6%	48	-12
Columbus, Ohio	$329,000	7.2%	-53.6%	-11.3%	29	-11
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas	$383,000	12.0%	-69.0%	-36.6%	34	-12
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo.	$558,000	-0.4%	-48.7%	-9.3%	15	-11
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Mich.	$286,000	19.2%	-55.9%	-25.2%	40	-8
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn.	$314,000	10.4%	-45.8%	-14.7%	40	-11
Houston-The Woodlands- Sugar Land, Texas	$355,000	13.3%	-52.3%	-24.4%	49	-2
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Ind.	$300,000	7.1%	-57.6%	-32.0%	47	-8
Jacksonville, Fla.	$354,000	10.4%	-70.7%	-43.7%	37	-22
Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.	$390,000	14.7%	-57.3%	-19.2%	57	-7
Las Vegas-Henderson- Paradise, Nev.	$370,000	10.4%	-40.9%	-22.0%	34	-5
Los Angeles-Long Beach- Anaheim, Calif.	$1,199,000	24.8%	-19.7%	19.7%	52	1
Louisville-Jefferson County, Ky.-Ind.	$277,000	1.8%	-55.7%	-15.3%	39	-12
Memphis, Tenn.-Miss.-Ark.	$240,000	-1.4%	-57.2%	-29.9%	49	-11
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Fla.	$403,000	-1.2%	-42.0%	-5.1%	80	-6
Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wis.	$340,000	3.8%	-54.2%	-29.2%	46	2
Minneapolis-St. Paul- Bloomington, Minn.-Wis.	$385,000	3.2%	-46.1%	-27.6%	29	-6
Nashville-Davidson- Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn.	$415,000	9.4%	-64.3%	-39.7%	26	-9
New Orleans-Metairie, La.	$344,000	19.0%	-47.7%	-37.4%	53	-8
New York-Newark-Jersey City, N.Y.-N.J.-Pa.	$629,000	10.5%	-16.9%	6.9%	88	N/A
Oklahoma City, Okla.	$319,000	20.7%	-61.9%	-42.6%	42	-1
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Fla.	$329,000	2.1%	-53.7%	-26.0%	48	-8
Philadelphia-Camden- Wilmington, Pa.-N.J.-Del.-Md.	$335,000	11.7%	-45.8%	-6.4%	44	-5
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz.	$477,000	17.8%	-62.4%	-25.5%	21	-22
Pittsburgh, Pa.	$267,000	N/A	-52.9%	-11.6%	63	-15
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Ore.-Wash.	$542,000	13.0%	-50.7%	-16.6%	26	-15
Providence-Warwick, R.I.- Mass.	$434,000	8.5%	-58.3%	-14.2%	32	-19
Raleigh, N.C.	$420,000	12.0%	-70.3%	-39.0%	39	-12
Richmond, Va.	$395,000	18.2%	-53.6%	-21.9%	38	-9
Riverside-San Bernardino- Ontario, Calif.	$507,000	19.4%	-64.7%	-7.7%	23	-28
Rochester, N.Y.	$285,000	20.9%	-47.6%	-19.0%	36	-1
Sacramento-Roseville-Arden- Arcade, Calif.	$587,000	15.7%	-55.0%	-10.0%	16	-19
San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas	$328,000	10.0%	-66.6%	-31.3%	43	-16
San Diego-Carlsbad, Calif.	$885,000	17.9%	-26.6%	-8.6%	61	N/A
San Francisco-Oakland- Hayward, Calif.	$1,050,000	9.4%	-12.4%	39.1%	23	-7
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.	$1,243,000	0.8%	-0.6%	48.1%	15	-9
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Wash.	$680,000	10.6%	-42.6%	-7.6%	14	-16
St. Louis, Mo.-Ill.	$270,000	17.4%	-43.9%	-21.9%	72	8
Tampa-St. Petersburg- Clearwater, Fla.	$325,000	15.2%	-69.9%	-35.8%	33	-20
Virginia Beach-Norfolk- Newport News, Va.-N.C.	$322,000	1.6%	-55.6%	-25.4%	31	-16
Washington-Arlington- Alexandria, DC-Va.-Md.-W. Va.	$510,000	1.0%	-34.7%	-3.5%	26	-3

*Some data for Pittsburgh, New York and San Diego has been excluded due to data quality.

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SOURCE realtor.com

FAQ

What is the current median home price according to the March 2021 realtor.com® report?

The median national home listing price reached $370,000, marking a 15.6% increase compared to last year.

How much has the inventory of available homes changed year-over-year in March 2021?

The inventory of homes for sale decreased by 52% compared to March 2020.

What is the average time homes spent on the market in March 2021?

In March 2021, typical homes spent an average of 54 days on the market.

Which market saw the largest inventory decline in March 2021?

Austin experienced the largest inventory decline, with a 72.7% drop from last year.

What impact are rising interest rates having on home buying?

Rising interest rates are increasing monthly costs, potentially reducing price growth momentum.