Housing Market Update: Supply Shortage Intensifies, Driving Prices Up 18%

Housing Market Update: Supply Shortage Intensifies, Driving Prices Up 18%

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Updated on October 26th, 2022

Homes sell at their fastest pace on record with nearly half off-market within one week

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

Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending April 18.

Note: At this time last year, pandemic stay-at-home orders halted homebuying and selling, which makes year-over-year comparisons unreliable for select housing metrics. As such, we have broken this report into two sections: metrics that are OK to compare to the same period in 2020, and metrics for which it makes more sense to compare to the same period in 2019.

Metrics to compare to 2020:

  • The median home-sale price increased 18% year over year to $344,625, an all-time high. Asking prices reached an all-time high of $356,175.
  • Homes that sold during the period were on the market for a median of 21 days, the shortest time on market since 2012. This was 16 days fewer than the same period in 2020.
  • 45% of homes sold for more than their list price, an all-time high. This was 18 percentage points higher than the same period a year earlier.
  • The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased 2.3 percentage points year over year to an all-time high of 101.0%, meaning the average home sold for 1% more than its asking price.
  • 58% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market. This was a new all-time high (Redfin’s data for this measure goes back to 2012).
  • 46% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, an all-time high.

Metrics to compare to 2019:

  • Pending home sales were up 23% from the same period in 2019.
  • New listings of homes for sale were down 10% from the same period in 2019.
  • Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 47% from the same period in 2019 to a new all-time low.

Mortgage purchase applications increased 6% week over week (seasonally adjusted). For the week ending April 22, 30-year mortgage rates fell to 2.97%, the lowest level since the week ending February 25.

“There has been an ongoing debate at Redfin about whether fear of coronavirus infection was keeping homeowners from selling. With a third of American adults now fully vaccinated and still hardly any homes being listed for sale, we’re close to settling that debate,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “Homeowners are staying put because if they move and buy another home they will face a very competitive housing market as buyers, and they don’t need to sell to take advantage of record low mortgage rates. They can just refinance their current home. On top of that, builders are struggling to construct new homes given an ongoing lumber shortage. Without more homeowners listing, buyers are scrambling to compete for the limited number of homes on the market, which continues to drive prices up to new heights.”

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

Home Sale Prices Up 18% From 2020

Asking Prices on New Listings Up 19% From 2020

Pending Sales Up 80% From 2020, Up 23% From 2019

New Listings of Homes Up 45% From 2020, Down 10% From 2019

Active Listings of Homes For Sale Down 40% From 2020, Down 47% From 2019

58% of Pending Sales Under Contract Within Two Weeks

46% of Pending Sales Under Contract Within One Week

Days on Market Hit a Record Low of 21 Days

45% of Homes Sold Above List Price

Sale-to-List Price Ratio Climbing Past 100%

Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index Up 130% From 2020, Up 58% From 2019

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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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