Home Prices Hit All Time High In March

For every 10 homes for sale last year, there are less than five today

– The number of homes on the market is 52% lower than last year

– Despite some improvement, 117,000 fewer homes are being listed each month compared to recent years

– The typical home is selling in 54 days, nearly a week faster than a year ago

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

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