The number of homes sold above list price — and the number of homes sold within a two-week period — continues to gradually decline as competition cools off, but the market is still seeing strong demand, according to a report released by Redfin on Wednesday.
During the four-week period ending Sept. 5, pending sales were up 6 percent from the year before, while at the same time, new listings dropped 7 percent year over year (which is typical for the season). The median home price was also up by 14 percent from the year prior to $358,250.
“More homes were listed this summer, but they were quickly snatched up by homebuyers even as bidding wars have become more rare,” Redfin Lead Economist Taylor Marr said in the report. “The market hasn’t cooled off any further than it usually does this time of year, and we expect homebuying demand to remain strong through the fall.”
Asking prices were up 10 percent year over year to a median of $353,500, which is about where asking prices were in late April, but down 2 percent from a record high reached during the four-week period ending June 27.
Active listings were down 23 percent from the same period in 2020. However, active listings were also up 14 percent from this year’s low, which was set during the four-week period ending March 7.
Nearly half of all homes that went under contract (47 percent) had an offer accepted within the first two weeks of being on market. That figure was up from the 43 percent who had an offer accepted during the same time frame the year before, but down 9 percentage points from 2021’s peak, which was set during the four-week period ending March 28.
Meanwhile, 34 percent of homes that went under contract had an offer accepted within one week of being on market, up from 31 percent the previous year.
Homes spent a median of 19 days on market before being sold, up from a record low of 15 days, which was set in late June and July, but down from 33 days during the same period the year before.
Half of homes sold above list price, up from 33 percent of homes the year before. That metric has been gradually declining since mid-July when it hit a peak of 55 percent.
An average of 4.9 percent of homes for sale each week saw a price drop, up 0.8 percentage points from the year before, and the highest level reached since the four-week period ending October 13, 2019.
A week-over-week decline of 0.2 percent in mortgage applications for the week ending September 3 was another indication of the slightly cooling market. Meanwhile, Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index, which measures requests for services by Redfin agents, like home tours, was up 19 percent year over year during the week ending September 5, but down modestly from the week before.
