Sale Prices Top List Prices – First Time in a Year

SEATTLE – The average sale-to-list price ratio hit 100.1% during the four weeks ending July 2, 2023 – the first time in nearly a year that the average U.S. home sold for more than its asking price, according to a report from Redfin.

The report also found little year-to-year drop in price, with the median home-sale price down about $1,000 (-0.3%). And one year ago, home prices were near record highs.

The main reason for higher selling prices compared to listing prices? Too few homes for sale. New listings were down 25% year-to-year, and the total inventory of for-sale homes was down 12% as existing homeowners hung onto their relatively low mortgage rates.

Despite the double dilemma, though, homebuyer demand is picking up. The Homebuyer Demand Index – a measure of requests for home tours and other buying services from Redfin agents – is up 4% month-to-month and near its highest level in over a year.

Report takeaways based on 400+ U.S. metro areas

• The median home sale price was $383,800, down $1,000 (-0.3%) from a year earlier.
• Home-sale prices declined in 22 metros, with the biggest drops in Austin, Texas (down 9.8% year-to-year), Las Vegas (down 7.6%), Detroit (down 6%), Oakland, California (down 5.9%) and Fort Worth, Texas (down 5.7%).
• Price declines are shrinking in many metros, largely because prices posted an unseasonal decline at this time last year.
• Sale prices increased most in Milwaukee (11.2%), Providence, Rhode Island (8%), Newark, New Jersey (6.3%), Miami (6.2%) and West Palm Beach (5.5%).
• The median asking price of newly listed homes was $395,725, up 1.1% year-to-year.
• The monthly mortgage payment on the median-asking-price home was $2,622 at a 6.71% mortgage rate, the average for the week ending June 29. That’s down slightly from the record high hit about a month earlier, but up 14% ($313) year-to-year.
• Pending home sales were down 14.2% year over year, continuing a year-plus streak of double-digit declines.
• Pending home sales fell in all but one of the metros Redfin analyzed, up 2.6% in Austin.
• New listings fell 24.7% year-to-year.
• Active listings – the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period – dropped 11.6% year-to-year, the biggest drop since April 2022. Active listings were essentially flat month-to-month, even though they typically post increases at this time of year.
• Month’s supply – a measure of the balance between supply and demand, calculated by the number of months it would take for the current inventory to sell at the current sales pace – was 2.6 months, near the lowest level in a year.
• 36.8% of homes sold above their final list price – the highest share in 10 months but down from 51% a year earlier.

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