Housing Prices Hit New High as Few Americans Put Homes Up for Sale

Housing Market Update: Prices Reach New High as Few Americans Put Homes Up for Sale

by and
Updated on October 26th, 2022

Homes sell even faster as dwindling supply and rapidly rising mortgage rates fuel fierce competition.

Housing prices jumped the most since summer—up 17% year over year to a new high—as a 7% drop in new listings kept homebuyer competition elevated amid rapidly rising mortgage rates. Nearly 3 in 5 homes were snapped up within two weeks, an all-time high, and half sold for over the asking price.

“With so much uncertainty in the world and economy, it makes sense that homeowners are staying put,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “High prices and rising mortgage rates are a strong impediment even for homeowners who would ideally like to move to a better home. First-time homebuyers, on the other hand, are still seeking the security of homeownership despite the chaos of this market.”

Key housing market takeaways for 400+ U.S. metro areas:

Unless otherwise noted, the data in this report covers the four-week period ending March 20. Redfin’s housing market data goes back through 2012.

Data based on homes listed and/or sold during the period:

  • The median home sale price was up 17% year over year to a record high of $379,230, the biggest increase since the four weeks ending Aug.1, 2021. Prices were up 6% from 4 weeks prior.
  • The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 15% year over year to $398,850.
  • The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price home rose to a record high of $2,183 at the current 4.42% mortgage rate. This was up 28% from a year earlier, when mortgage rates were 3.17%.
  • Pending home sales were up 1% year over year.
  • New listings of homes for sale were down 7% from a year earlier.
  • Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 23% year over year to an all-time low of 469,000.
  • 59% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, an all-time high. This was up from the 53% rate of a year earlier.
  • 45% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, an all-time high. This was up from 41% during the same period a year earlier.
  • Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 21 days, down from 31 days a year earlier.
  • 50% of homes sold above list price, up from 39% a year earlier.
  • On average, 2.8% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, up from 2.3% at the same time in 2021.
  • The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to 101.7%. In other words, the average home sold for 1.7% above its asking price. This was up from 100.0% in 2021.

Other leading indicators of homebuying activity:

  • Mortgage purchase applications decreased 8% week over week (seasonally adjusted) during the week ending March 18.
  • For the week ending March 24, 30-year mortgage rates rose to 4.42.%—the highest level since January 2019. This was up from 4.16% the prior week.
  • The Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index fell less than 1% from the previous week during the seven-day period ending March 20 and was up 6% from a year earlier. The seasonally adjusted Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index is a measure of requests for home tours and other home-buying services from Redfin agents.

Refer to our metrics definition page for explanations of all the metrics used in this report.

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Tim Ellis

Tim Ellis has been analyzing the real estate market since 2005, and worked at Redfin as a housing market analyst from 2010 through 2013 and again starting in 2018. In his free time, he runs the independently-operated Seattle-area real estate website Seattle Bubble, and produces the "Dispatches from the Multiverse" improvised comedy sci-fi podcast.

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Lily Katz

Lily Katz

As a data journalist, Lily is passionate about helping readers understand complex facets of the housing market. She is particularly interested in the issues of climate change, race and gender equality and housing affordability. Prior to working at Redfin, Lily spent four years as a reporter at Bloomberg News in New York City.

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