Redfin Reports the Median U.S. Home Price Hit an All-Time High of $434,000 in April

Rhea-AI Summary

The median U.S. home sale price reached a record high of $433,558 in April 2024, marking a 6.2% increase year-over-year, per Redfin. Despite a slower market compared to the pandemic boom, housing prices continue to rise due to supply. New listings were up 1.7% month-over-month and 10.8% year-over-year but remain 20% below pre-pandemic levels. Active listings hit their highest level since December 2020. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.99% in April, significantly higher than the all-time low of 2.65% during the pandemic. Notably, 17.6% of homes for sale had price cuts, up from 12.1% a year earlier, with significant competition in metros like San Jose and Rochester.

Positive

• Median U.S. home sale price reached a record high of $433,558, a 6.2% year-over-year increase.
• New listings rose 1.7% month-over-month and 10.8% year-over-year.
• Active listings were up 7.5% year-over-year, the highest level since December 2020.
• Sellers in certain metros, such as San Jose, are fetching more than their asking prices.
• Redfin agents predict a favorable 2024 housing market for sellers.

Negative

• Home sales were down 1.4% year-over-year, showing a slowing market.
• Average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.99%, significantly higher than pandemic lows.
• 17.6% of homes for sale had price cuts, indicating potential overpricing or cooling demand.
• New listings remain 20% below pre-pandemic levels, reflecting supply concerns.
• 43.9% of homes went under contract within two weeks, down from 46.9% a year earlier, indicating slower market activity.

Insights

Financial Analyst

The all-time high median home price of $433,558 reflects a significant upward trend in the U.S. housing market. The year-over-year increase of 6.2% suggests strong demand against limited supply. Despite a slower market compared to the pandemic boom, higher home prices can enhance profitability for real estate firms like Redfin. However, high mortgage rates—with the average 30-year fixed at 6.99%—might deter potential buyers, affecting transaction volumes and the overall market liquidity.

Investors should note the increase in new listings by 10.8% year-over-year, yet these are still 20% below pre-pandemic levels. This scarcity supports higher prices, but the potential for increased supply in the future could stabilize or even reduce prices if demand wanes.

Short-term, Redfin might benefit from higher transaction values, but long-term, sustained high prices and mortgage rates could lead to a market correction, impacting revenues.

Market Research Analyst

The report's data on regional disparities is particularly insightful. San Jose and Rochester, both with over 70% of homes sold above asking price, showcase regions where demand is extremely high. This might direct Redfin’s strategic focus toward these hotter markets. In contrast, markets like Las Vegas with higher price cuts indicate buyer negotiating power, possibly resulting from overpricing or reduced demand. Understanding these regional dynamics can help investors gauge Redfin's regional performance and risk exposure.

Investor takeaway: Markets with high competition and sales above asking price like San Jose offer growth potential, while regions with high price reductions and longer market times, such as Las Vegas, present risks of overvaluation and market softening.

Real Estate Economist

The findings of historically low housing supply reaching a four-year high indicate a shift worth monitoring. An increase in active listings, while still below pre-pandemic levels, suggests a possible easing of the tight market conditions. If this trend continues, it could balance supply-demand dynamics and stabilize prices, reducing the current pressure on homebuyers.

Furthermore, the increase in the share of homes with price reductions (17.6%) suggests sellers are adjusting expectations, possibly as a response to mortgage rate impacts. This could indicate potential future pricing adjustments across the market, which might affect Redfin's transaction values and volume.

San Jose and Rochester are hotter than other parts of the country; roughly three-quarters of homes that sold in those metros last month fetched more than their asking price—a higher share than anywhere else in the U.S.

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (NASDAQ: RDFN) — The median U.S. home sale price rose 6.2% year over year in April to $433,558—the highest level on record, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

Today’s housing market is much slower than it was during the pandemic homebuying boom, but prices continue climbing because there still aren’t enough homes to go around.

New listings increased 1.7% month over month in April on a seasonally adjusted basis and rose 10.8% year over year. Still, they were roughly 20% below pre-pandemic levels, in large part because many homeowners don’t want to sell, as they feel “locked in” by the low mortgage rate they scored during the pandemic.

It’s worth noting that last April, new listings were at the lowest level on record aside from the start of the pandemic, which is one reason they’re now posting such a large year-over-year gain.

Home sales were little changed from a month earlier (0.2%) in April on a seasonally adjusted basis but were down 1.4% from a year earlier.

Homebuyers are getting hit by the one-two punch of high prices and elevated mortgage rates. The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate was 6.99% in April. That’s up from 6.82% in March and 6.34% in April 2023, and is more than double the all-time low of 2.65% during the pandemic.

“It’s not all bad news for homebuyers. Mortgage rates are already inching lower in response to this week’s inflation report, which signaled that the Fed may cut interest rates this summer—a possibility that just weeks ago many thought was off the table,” said Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao. “In certain parts of the country, buyers also have room to negotiate as homes linger on the market, prompting sellers to slash their asking prices and provide concessions.”

Housing Supply—While Historically Low—Hit a Four-Year High in April as Homes Lingered on the Market

Active listings rose to the highest level since December 2020 in April. They were up 0.3% from a month earlier and up 7.5% from a year earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, though remained far below pre-pandemic levels.

While new listings represent the number of homes that were listed for sale during a given month, active listings represent the total number of homes that were for sale during a given month. That means that the latter metric includes homes that have been sitting on the market for a while.

Nationwide, 43.9% of homes that went under contract in April did so within two weeks of being listed, down from 46.9% a year earlier.

18% of Home Sellers Are Cutting Their Asking Prices

Nearly one in five (17.6%) homes for sale in April had a price cut, meaning the seller lowered the asking price after putting their home on the market. That’s up 5.6 percentage points from 12.1% a year earlier—the biggest gain in over a year.

“Most sellers in Las Vegas are willing to negotiate—anywhere from 5% to 10% off their list price,” said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Fernanda Kriese. “Sellers are offering buyers money for mortgage-rate buydowns, along with other concessions. Homes that are listed below market value get multiple offers and are snatched up in two to four days, but homes that are priced $5,000 to $10,000 over market value are sitting for 30 to 60 days longer.”

Las Vegas, like many pandemic boomtowns, has seen its housing market cool following the homebuying frenzy of 2021 and 2022.

But other markets haven’t cooled as quickly, and some are seeing substantial competition between homebuyers. In San Jose, CA, for example, three in four homes (75.8%) that sold in April went for more than their asking price. That’s up from 61.6% a year earlier and is the highest share among the metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Rochester, NY, at 72.8%, and Oakland, CA, at 69.7%. Nationwide, one-third (33.5%) of homes that sold in April went for more than their asking price.

Redfin recently surveyed its agents and found that the majority of respondents (74.4%) think the 2024 housing market is shaping up to be more favorable for sellers than buyers. That’s likely in part because sellers are fetching record-high prices for their homes. The survey, conducted by Qualtrics in April-May 2024, was fielded to roughly 300 Redfin Premier agents.

April 2024 Highlights: United States

	April 2024	Month-Over-Month Change	Year-Over-Year Change
Median sale price	$433,558	3.2%	6.2%
Homes sold, seasonally adjusted	425,102	0.2%	-1.4%
New listings, seasonally adjusted	522,713	1.7%	10.8%
All homes for sale, seasonally adjusted (active listings)	1,617,980	0.3%	7.5%
Months of supply	2.3	-0.2	0.1
Median days on market	35	-5	-2
Share of for-sale homes with a price drop	17.6%	1.9 ppts	5.6 ppts
Share of homes sold above final list price	33.5%	3.5 ppts	0.1 ppts
Average sale-to-final-list-price ratio	99.7%	0.4 ppts	0.2 ppts
Share of homes that went under contract within two weeks	43.9%	-1.4 ppts	-3 ppts
Average 30-year fixed mortgage rate	6.99%	0.17 ppts	0.65 ppts

Note: Data is subject to revision

Metro-Level Highlights: April 2024

Data in the bullets below came from a list of 85 U.S. metro areas with populations of at least 750,000. A full metro-level data table can be found in the “download” tab of the dashboard in the monthly section of the Redfin Data Center. Refer to Redfin’s metrics definition page for explanations of metrics used in this report. Metro-level data is not seasonally adjusted. All changes below represent year-over-year changes.

• Prices: Median sale prices rose most from a year earlier in Buffalo, NY (24.3%), Anaheim, CA (22.8%) and Rochester (15%). They fell in just five metros: San Antonio (-1.6%), Memphis, TN (-0.7%), Birmingham, AL (-0.7%), North Port, FL (-0.2%) and Austin, TX (-0.1%).
• New listings: New listings rose most in San Jose (46.9%), Tacoma, WA (38.3%) and Oakland (38%). They fell in one metro Redfin analyzed: Greensboro, NC (-1.6%).
• Active listings: Active listings rose most in Cape Coral, FL (50.6%), North Port (49.1%) and Fort Lauderdale, FL (42.2%). They fell most in Raleigh, NC (-12.3%), New Brunswick, NJ (-8.7%) and Lake County, IL (-7.4%).
• Closed home sales: Home sales rose most in San Jose (38.2%), San Francisco (30.4%) and Stockton, CA (23.2%). They fell most in Fresno, CA (-3.5%), Jacksonville, FL (-3%) and Albany, NY (-2.6%).
• Sold above list price: In San Jose, 75.8% of homes sold above their final list price, the highest share among the metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Rochester (72.8%) and Oakland (69.7%). The shares were lowest in North Port (6.8%) West Palm Beach, FL (7.1%) and Cape Coral (9.3%).
• Off market in two weeks: In Rochester, 84.6% of homes that went under contract did so within two weeks—the highest share among the metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Seattle (75.9%) and Buffalo (74.5%). The lowest shares were in Honolulu (7.4%), Tucson, AZ (16.6%) and Chicago (16.9%).

To view the full report, including charts, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-tracker-april-2024/

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We run the country's #1 real estate brokerage site. Our customers can save thousands in fees while working with a top agent. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can have our renovations crew fix it up to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1.6 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 4,000 people.

Redfin’s subsidiaries and affiliated brands include: Bay Equity Home Loans^®, Rent.™, Apartment Guide^®, Title Forward^® and WalkScore^®.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240517700892/en/

Redfin Journalist Services:

Isabelle Novak, 414-861-5861

press@redfin.com

Source: Redfin

FAQ

What was the median U.S. home sale price in April 2024?

The median U.S. home sale price in April 2024 was $433,558.

How much did the median U.S. home sale price increase year-over-year in April 2024?

The median U.S. home sale price increased by 6.2% year-over-year in April 2024.

What was the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate in April 2024?

The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate in April 2024 was 6.99%.

How much did new listings rise year-over-year in April 2024?

New listings rose by 10.8% year-over-year in April 2024.

What percentage of homes for sale had price cuts in April 2024?

17.6% of homes for sale had price cuts in April 2024.

Which metro areas saw the highest competition among homebuyers in April 2024?

San Jose and Rochester saw the highest competition among homebuyers in April 2024.

How did active listings change year-over-year in April 2024?

Active listings increased by 7.5% year-over-year in April 2024.

What was the share of homes that went under contract within two weeks in April 2024?

43.9% of homes went under contract within two weeks in April 2024.