During last year’s fourth quarter, home sellers realized an average home price gain since purchase of $54,000, according to ATTOM Data Solutions U.S. Home Sales Report.
The fourth-quarter average home price gain since purchase increased compared with the $53,732 in the previous quarter and the $47,133 during 2016’s fourth quarter. It was the highest average home price gain since purchase since the third quarter of 2007.
“It’s the most profitable time to sell a home in more than 10 years yet homeowners are staying put longer than we’ve ever seen,” ATTOM Data Solutions Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release. “While home sellers on the West Coast are realizing the biggest profits, rapid home price appreciation in red state markets is rivaling that of the high-flying coastal markets and producing sizable profits for home sellers in those middle-American markets as well.”
The metropolitan statistical areas with the highest average home seller return on investment were San Jose, Calif. (90.9 percent); San Francisco (73.3 percent); Merced, Calif.(64.6 percent); Seattle (64.4 percent); and Santa Cruz, Calif. (59.8 percent).
According to the report, the U.S. median home price in 2017 was $235,000, up 8.3 percent from 2016 to a new all-time high. Annual home price appreciation in 2017 slowed slightly compared to the 8.5 percent in 2016.
The metropolitan statistical areas with populations of 200,000 or more with the biggest year-over-year increases in home prices were Ocala, Fla. (14.3 percent); Kansas City, Mo. (13.4 percent); San Jose, Calif. (13.3 percent); Salem, Ore. (12.9 percent); and Nashville (12.5 percent).
Along with Kansas City, San Jose and Nashville, other major metro areas with a population of at least 1 million with double-digit percentage increases in home prices in 2017 were Las Vegas (12.3 percent); Salt Lake City (10.9 percent); Seattle (10.8 percent); Orlando (10.7 percent); Tampa-St. Petersburg (10.7 percent); Portland, Ore. (10.5 percent); and Jacksonville, Fla. (10.1 percent).