ATTOM released its Year-End 2025 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that 3.9 million homes were sold last year, with a record-high national median sale price of $360,000. That sale price was 2.6 percent higher than 2024 and 39 percent higher than 2020.
While prices reached new peaks in 2025, profit margins did not. The typical home netted $118,710 in gross profits, generating a 49 percent return on investment. That was down from a gross profit of $124,500 and a profit margin of 55 percent in 2024.
The share of homes bought by institutional investors (as a percentage of all sales) hovered below 5 percent for years, until it nearly doubled to 9.3 percent in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic ignited the housing market. It has been declining since then, but held steady in 2024 and 2025 at 6.6 percent, according to the latest data.
“Home prices kept climbing in 2025 even as affordability challenges intensified for households across the country,” Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM, said in a release. “While sellers continued to command record prices, profit margins have been declining for three consecutive years since peaking in 2022, suggesting the market may be gradually normalizing after a period of strong returns. Recent declines in mortgage rates likely provided some relief for prospective buyers, but with prices at record highs and ownership tenures stretching longer, that relief may be limited.”
Median sales prices were up compared to 2024 in 80.5 percent (107) of the 133 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed, according to ATTOM’s report. Metro areas were included in the report if they had populations over 200,000 and at least 5,000 sales.
The metro areas that saw the largest year-over-year increases in home prices were Birmingham, Ala. (median sales price up 12.9 percent); Syracuse, N.Y. (up 11.6 percent); Toledo, Ohio (up 10.4 percent); Rochester, N.Y. (up 10.3 percent); and Dayton, Ohio (up 10.3 percent).
In addition to Birmingham and Rochester, the largest increases among metros with populations over 1 million came in Detroit, Mich. (up 8.5 percent), Tulsa, Okla. (up 8.2 percent); and Kansas City, Mo. (up 8.1 percent).
The metro areas where median prices decreased the most between 2024 and 2025 were North Port, Fla. (down 9 percent); Deltona, Fla. (down 5.4 percent); Stockton, Calif. (down 4.7 percent); Huntsville, Ala. (down 4.1 percent); and Cape Coral, Fla. (down 3.9 percent).
In 2025, for the second year in a row, institutional investors purchased 6.6 percent of all homes sold in the U.S., with particularly high rates in Tennessee and Texas (9.2 percent of all sales); Missouri (9.1 percent); Indiana (9 percent); and Georgia, Alabama, and Oklahoma (8.8 percent).
The metro areas with the highest share of sales to institutional investors in 2025 were Memphis, Tenn. (14.8 percent of all sales); Huntsville, Ala. (11.9 percent); Fayetteville, N.C. (11.4 percent); Birmingham, Ala. (11.2 percent); and Dallas, Texas (11.1 percent).
Profit margins on a median-priced home sale were lower in 2025 than 2024 in 87.7 percent (114) of the 130 metro areas with sufficient data to analyze.
Nine out of the 10 metro areas that saw the largest declines in profit margins were in Florida, led by North Port, Fla. (typical profit margins down 24 percentage points to 45 percent in 2025); Cape Coral, Fla. (down 22 percentage points to 56 percent); Deltona, Fla. (down 22 percentage points to 51 percent); Palm Bay, Fla. (down 19 percentage points to 56 percent); and Port St. Lucie, Fla. (down 16 percentage points to 64 percent).
Among metros with populations over 1 million, the largest profit margin declines came in Tampa, Fla. (down 15 percentage points to 58 percent); Jacksonville, Fla. (down 13 percentage points to 45 percent); Fresno, Calif. (down 12 percentage points to 62 percent); San Jose, Calif. (down 12 percentage points to 94 percent); and Miami, Fla. (down 11 percentage points to 72 percent).
The metro areas that saw the largest year-over-year growth on typical home sale profit margins were Canton, Ohio (up 5 points to 54 percent); Akron, Ohio (up 3 points to 59 percent); Chicago (up 2 points to 47 percent); Cleveland (up 2 points to 61 percent); and South Bend, Ind. (up 2 points to 59 percent).
Gross profits, the dollar difference between what an owner purchased and sold a home for, fell year-over-year in 64.6 percent (84) of the 130 metro areas with sufficient data to analyze.
The metro areas with the largest gross profits from median home sales in 2025 were San Jose, Calif. ($755,000); San Francisco ($463,500); San Diego ($346,000); Los Angeles ($345,000); and Seattle ($317,869).
Those with the smallest typical gross profits were Beaumont, Texas ($23,668); New Orleans ($40,000); Peoria, Ill. ($45,000); Baton Rouge, La. ($48,500); and Killeen, Texas ($50,240).
Homeowners who sold their properties in the fourth quarter of 2025 had owned their homes for an average of 8.55 years, up from 8.33 years in the previous quarter and from 8.05 years at the same time last year.
The metro areas with the longest homeowner tenure prior to sale in the fourth quarter of 2025 were Barnstable, Mass. (14.12 years); Springfield, Mass. (13.49 years); New Haven, Conn. (13.37 years); Bridgeport, Conn. (13.2 years); and Hartford, Conn. (13.15 years).
The largest year-over-year increase in home tenure prior to sale came in Merced, Calif. (up 34 percent to 12.5 years); Lakeland, Fla. (up 18 percent to 8.26 years); Chattanooga, Tenn. (up 17 percent to 7.98 years); Colorado Springs, Colo. (up 16 percent to 8.43 years); and Cape Coral, Fla. (up 15 percent to 8.33 years).