Demand remains strong despite spiking prices
Home prices increased 7.7% in August from a year ago to record the biggest year-over-year price gain since May 2015, according to real estate brokerage Redfin.
The August national median sale price of $292,900 remained unchanged from July.
The month saw the biggest year-over-year decline in the number of homes sold since July 2016. Sales in August totaled 268,800, down 5.5% from last year, but up 2.3% month over month. The August decline follows the 5% drop recorded in July for the Redfin Housing Demand Index.
Additionally, August recorded the biggest year-over-year decrease in the number of homes for sale in the 23 consecutive months of falling inventory. There were 749,100 homes for sale in August, down 12.4% from August 2016 and a decrease of 4.4% from July. New listings totaled 302,400, down 2.2% month over month and slipping 1% year over year. As a result, only 2.8 months of supply were available in August.
“The real estate market still favors sellers, with strong demand and rising prices, but perhaps less so now than earlier in the year,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said. “Newly listed homes are selling faster in 2017 than in 2016, but whereas in April the market was nine days faster than the 2016 market, in August it was five; the gap between 2016 and 2017 is narrowing slightly. Normally, such differences wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but Redfin managers of coastal markets where demand has been strongest are now reporting that some buyers are stepping back from higher prices.”
Additionally, Redfin found that 24.9% of all homes sold during the month were sold above their list price. The average sale-to-list ratio was 98.5%.
