The national median home price in July rose 8.2 percent year-over-year to $323,800 in July, according to a report from Redfin.
The real estate brokerage said July was the third time in four months that prices have hit a new all-time high.
“The housing market is intense right now,” Albuquerque Redfin agent Jimmy Martinez said in a release. “We’ve got about half as many homes for sale as there were at this time last year, met by a big surge in people moving here from across the country in addition to lots of local homebuyers, all of which has pushed prices up dramatically from last year.”
Redfin said median prices increased in all but one of the 85 largest metro areas it tracks (Honolulu). It said the largest year-over-year increases were in Birmingham, Ala. (+16.8 percent); Bridgeport, Conn. (+16.5 percent); and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (+14.3 percent).
“Home sales made a whopping recovery in July,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said. “It may seem like the Twilight Zone for the housing market to be performing better than ever while the economy is in the tank, but it goes to show that we are in truly unprecedented times.
“The housing market was incredibly robust going into the pandemic with household debt at its lowest level in 40 years,” Fairweather said. “The less debt someone has, the less likely they are to be worried about affording a mortgage, which is as inexpensive as it’s ever been due to record-low interest rates, making a home purchase very appealing to people who are lucky enough to be securely employed.”
The report found that home sales increased in July from a year earlier in 67 of the 85 largest metro areas, with the largest gains in Bridgeport, Conn. (+34.9 percent); Baton Rouge, La. (+33.8 percent); and Lake County, Ill. (+26.4 percent).