Sales of homes costing $1 million more than doubled over the past three years, but buyers are getting less than they used to, according to Zillow.
Homes that sold at or near $1 million contracted nearly 500 square feet, from 3,021 in the middle of 2020 to 2,530 in early 2022, according to floor plan data for Zillow listings. Home size bounced back before July and is now 2,624 square feet, down 397 square feet from the 2020 peak.
“Buyers with seven-figure budgets shopping for homes during the pandemic were doing so coming off the longest period of economic growth in U.S. history and with the help of historically low interest rates,” Zillow Economic Data Analyst Anushna Prakash said in a release. “Sales for expensive homes soared while buyers in the heat of competition accepted smaller layouts.”
The typical home in the $1 million range shrank in nearly every major metropolitan area. The largest declines were found in Phoenix, where size dropped by 1,116 square feet from 2019 to 2022, and Nashville, Tenn., where homes lost 1,019 square feet.
Floor plans grew in just two major metros, according to Zillow: Minneapolis (36 square feet) and St. Louis (406 square feet).
Sales for homes priced at $1 million or more rose in the second quarter from 43,421 in 2019 to 90,110 in 2022, a new record volume. The share of single-family homes that sold for $1 million or more has more than doubled, from 2.7 percent in 2019 to 2.5 percent in 2020 to 6.4 percent in 2021.
Portland, Ore., led major metros in sales volume increase, soaring by 253 percent since mid-2019. Austin, Texas, saw sales jump by 220% percent The only metro that saw a decline in the volume of $1 million-plus homes sold was Boston, where the share fell by 32 percent.
Among the 50 major metros Zillow studied, Hartford, Conn., had the lowest price per square foot, followed by Indianapolis, Oklahoma City, Kansas City and Cincinnati.