U.S. home-sale prices rose for the third consecutive month in June, growing 3.4 percent year-over-year to a median of $321,200, according to a report from Redfin.
The price growth in June was down from the 5.5 percent gain one year ago. Redfin said only six of the 85 largest metropolitan areas had year-over-year declines in median sales price in June.
“As national home price growth stabilizes, we’re continuing to see supply and demand dynamics play out differently in affordable inland markets than in expensive coastal markets,” Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said in a release. “In places like Philadelphia and Cleveland, where home prices are growing by double digits and buyers are rate- and price-sensitive, falling mortgage interest rates make buying a home this summer increasingly attractive. But without a commensurate increase in the number of homes for sale, some of the most affordable markets are driving nationwide home prices up.”
According to the report, the areas that had declines in median sale price in June were San Jose, Calif. (-4.9 percent); Oxnard, Calif. (-4.8 percent); Oakland, Calif. (-2 percent); Seattle, Wash. (-0.5 percent); Lake County, Ill. (-0.1 percent); and Los Angeles (-0.1 percent).
“Expensive markets like the Bay Area and Seattle are still feeling a chill with falling prices and many more homes for sale than there were a year ago,” Fairweather said. “Unlike their inland counterparts, buyers in these once-hot West Coast markets are less likely to feel the urgency to buy while rates are low and before prices rise more.”
During June, home sales fell 8 percent from one year ago, with 80 of 85 metropolitan areas seeing declines.
Redfin said the metro areas with the largest declines in sales were Rochester, N.Y. (-24.2 percent); Omaha, Neb. (-23.5 percent); and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (-22.4 percent).