Median Home Prices Hit Record Highs; Active Home Listings Hit Record Lows

Redfin, the Seattle-based, technology-powered real estate company, reported that the median home-sale price in the four-week period ending December 5, 2021 hit a new all-time record high of $360,250 — up 14% year-over-year and up 30% for the same period of time in 2019. At the same time, new listings of homes for sale were down -7% year-over-year but up 11% from 2019. Active listings (the number of homes listed for sales at any point during the period) fell to a new all-time low, down -25% from 2020 and -43% from 2019.

In the report, Redfin noted that homebuyer demand is projected to slow in the coming winter months, as it may return to a more typical seasonal trend. Redfin reports that the share of homes sold in one week fell after Thanksgiving more than it has since early September. Pending home sales fell to their lowest level since early February.

In a statement prepared for the release of the report, Redfin’s Chief Economist, Daryl Fairweather said, “Homebuying demand seems to be returning to a slowdown trend that we’d typically expect to see in the last few weeks of the year. The latest research on the Omicron variant seems to be easing consumers’ worst fears, but a lot of uncertainty remains in the economy—from inflation, jobs and wages to how the Fed reacts to those factors. Amid all that economic uncertainty, the notion that home prices will continue to grow in the near-term feels relatively certain.”

“The number of homes for sale typically declines another 15% in December,” Fairweather added. “That means that by the end of the year, there will likely be 100,000 fewer homes for sale than there were in February when housing supply last hit rock bottom. I think more new listings will hit the market in the new year, but there will also be a long line of buyers who are queuing up right now.”