Housing Market Update: Typical Buyer’s Monthly Payment Up 39%

Housing Market Update: Typical Buyer’s Monthly Payment Up 39%—The Biggest Annual Gain on Record

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Updated on October 26th, 2022

Home sellers and buyers are retreating at similar rates, resulting in a housing market that remains very competitive even as it slows.

The typical homebuyer’s monthly mortgage payment shot up 39%, the largest year-over-year gain on record as the average 30-year-fixed rate hovered at a 12-year high of 5.1%. Redfin’s data on homebuyer mortgage payments is based on asking-price data going back to 2015.

“Rising mortgage rates are taking a bite out of pending sales as both buyers and sellers take a step back from the turbulent market,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “It seems as though the ratio of buyers to sellers remains mostly the same, which is why we have yet to see a substantial drop in bidding wars or the share of homes selling quickly. It’s still early days though when it comes to 5% mortgage rates. The number of buyers willing to pay such high mortgage payments could evaporate by late summer.”

Pending home sales posted their largest year-over-year decrease since mid-February and mortgage purchase applications fell 17%. On the supply side, new listings fell 4% and the share of listings with price drops rose to its highest level since November.

Leading indicators of homebuying activity:

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

Unless otherwise noted, the data in this report covers the four-week period ending April 24. 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—the biggest increase since August—to a record $395,600.
  • The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 16% year over year to $404,950, a new all-time high.
  • The monthly mortgage payment on the median asking price home rose to a record high of $2,349 at the current 5.1% mortgage rate. This was up 39% from from $1,685 a year earlier, when mortgage rates were 2.98%.
  • Pending home sales were down 3% year over year, the largest decrease since mid-February.
  • New listings of homes for sale were down 4% from a year earlier, and have turned in annual declines since mid-March.
  • Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 19% year over year.
  • 57% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, up from 54% a year earlier, down less than a percentage point from the record high during the four-week period ending April 3.
  • 43% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, up from 41% a year earlier, down less than a percentage point from the record high during the four-week period ending April 17.
  • Homes that sold were on the market for a record low median of 16 days, down from 22 days a year earlier.
  • A record 55% of homes sold above list price, up from 45% a year earlier.
  • On average, 3.5% of homes for sale each week had a price drop. Overall, 14% dropped their price in the past four weeks, up from 11% a month earlier and 9% a year ago. This was the highest share since the end of November.
  • The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, rose to an all-time high of 102.7%. In other words, the average home sold for 2.7% above its asking price. This was up from 101% a year earlier.

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

Median Sale Price

Median Asking Price

Median Mortgage Payment

Pending Sales

New Listings

Active Listings

Off-Market in 2 Weeks

Off-Market in 1 Week

Days on Market

Sold Above List

Price Drops

Sale-to-List

Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index

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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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