Home sellers in 2018 realized an average home price gain of $61,000, up from $50,000 last year to the highest level since 2006, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ 2018 U.S. Home Sales Report.
The average home seller profit was an average 32.6 percent return on investment (ROI) compared to the original purchase price, up from 27 percent last year and up from 21.9 percent in 2016 to the highest average home seller ROI since 2006, the report found.
“While 2018 was the most profitable time to sell a home in more than 12 years, those along the coasts reaped the most gains. However, those are the same areas where homeowners are staying put longer,” ATTOM Chief Product Officer Todd Teta said in a release.
“The economy is still going strong and home loan rates remain historically low. But there are potential clouds on the horizon,” Teta added. “The effects of last year’s tax cuts are wearing off as limits on homeowner tax deductions are in place and mortgage rates are ticking up ever so slowly, so this could dampen the potential for home price gains in 2019.”
According to the report, the metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with the highest ROIs were San Jose, Calif. (108.8 percent); San Francisco (78.6 percent); Seattle (70.7 percent); Merced, Calif. (66.4 percent); and Santa Rosa, Calif. (66.1 percent).
The U.S. median home price in 2018 was $248,000, up 5.5 percent from 2017 to a new all-time high, ATTOM said. Annual home price appreciation in 2018 slowed slightly compared to the 7.1 percent in 2017.
The report identified the MSAs with the biggest year-over-year increase in home prices in 2018 as Mobile, Ala. (up 21 percent); Flint, Mich. (up 19 percent); San Jose, Calif. (up 18.9 percent); Atlantic City (up 16.4 percent) and Las Vegas (up 13.5 percent).
Other MSAs with a double-digit increases in home prices in 2018 were Grand Rapids, Mich. (up 10.6 percent); San Francisco, Calif. (up 10.3 percent); Columbus, Ohio (up 10.1 percent); and Atlanta (up 10.1 percent), ATTOM found.
Sixty-nine percent of the markets analyzed by ATTOM reached new record home price peaks in 2018, including Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Atlanta and Boston.