On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared coronavirus a pandemic. The housing market has changed drastically since then. There are now half as many homes to choose from, and prices have surged 34 percent, according to a Redfin report.
The number of homes on the market in the beginning of March was down 49.9 percent from two years ago to a record low of roughly 456,000, according to the report.
The median home sale price was $369,125, the highest on record for Redfin and up 33.6 percent from $276,225 two years ago.
Homebuyers are twice as likely to pay above the asking price to try to beat out the competition. In the first week in March, 46 percent of homes sold for more than the asking price, up from 21 percent two years ago. Nearly 6,000 homes have sold for $100,000 or more over asking price so far this year, up from 2,241 during the same period last year.
The typical home sold in 25 days, down from 53 days two years ago. A record 45 percent of homes sold within one week, compared with 31 percent two years ago.
Mortgage rates are back above pre-pandemic levels after hitting an all-time low of 2.65 percent in January 2021. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 3.76 percent during the week ending March 3, according to Freddie Mac. That’s up from 3.29 percent two years earlier.
Homebuyer demand for second homes was up 87 percent from pre-pandemic levels in January, the most recent period for which data is available. That’s the highest level in a year and just shy of the record 90 percent gain in September 2020.