The median home-sale price rose 2.2 percent year-over-year to an all-time high of $408,776 in June, according to a new report from Redfin.
Existing-home sales ticked up 0.1 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of roughly 4.4 million in June — the highest level since November 2022. On a year-over-year basis, existing home sales rose 4.2 percent from last June.
The total number of homes sold — including both existing and newly built homes — fell 0.5 percent in June from May but were still at their second-highest level since October 2022 and up 4.5 percent year-over-year.
Pending home sales ticked up 0.5 percent from May to June to their highest level since 2023, with the exception of April. Compared to a year ago, pending sales increased 4.5 percent. All figures in Redfin’s report are seasonally adjusted, with the exception of median sale price data and mortgage rate data.
Affluent bay area and south Florida homebuyers were major drivers of June’s strong housing market, according to Redfin:
- San Francisco’s median home-sale price rose 9.2 percent year-over-year, the biggest increase of the major metro areas. Next came Pittsburgh, with a 9.1 percent increase, followed by West Palm Beach, Fla., where the median price rose 8.6 percent. A separate Redfin report shows that in San Francisco and West Palm Beach, luxury sales are fueling overall home-price increases.
- West Palm Beach and San Francisco both posted increases of roughly 23 percent year-over-year in closed home sales, the biggest upticks of all the major metros.
- The increase in pending home sales was also driven by San Francisco, which had a 16.4 percent year–over-year uptick to the second-highest level in four years — the biggest increase of the metros in this analysis. In West Palm Beach, pending home sales rose 13 percent year-over-year, the third-biggest increase.
Billionaires, executives and other ultra-wealthy Americans are moving to Florida and buying up expensive homes due to its favorable tax environment, sunny climate and beachfront lifestyle, according to Redin. The story is a bit different in the Bay Area, where the AI boom is driving the surge in luxury home sales and driving prices up.
Redfin agents in other parts of the country, including Boston and Nashville, Tenn., say wealthy buyers are propping up their markets, too.
“High-end buyers are driving demand and prices in much of the country,” Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research, said in a release. “Many of the house hunters who are buying homes are the ones who can afford today’s high prices and elevated mortgage rates without busting their budget. There’s a pool of higher-income buyers who are purchasing seven-figure homes, but a lot of first-time and average move-up buyers are priced out as mortgage rates stay near 6.5 percent, making monthly payments challenging.”
June’s average 30-year mortgage rate was 6.49 percent, up slightly from a month earlier, exacerbating high prices to drive up monthly payments. High housing payments, along with economic uncertainty about things like the Iran war and inflation, pushed away some average American would-be buyers, while affluent buyers were undeterred, according to the Redfin.
Growing homebuying demand is leading to a slightly more competitive market. More than one in five (22.2 percent) homes that sold in June went for more than their original list price, the highest share in over a year on a seasonally adjusted basis. That’s also part of the reason Redfin says home prices ticked up in June.
While home sales picked up steam as summer started, new listings ticked down about 1 percent month-over-month in June, dipping to their lowest level since December. Would-be sellers have caught on to the fact that there are many more home sellers than buyers in the market, and some have opted to hang on to their homes until the market becomes more balanced, Redfin said.
New listings are falling most in metros with the strongest buyer’s markets. They fell most in Dallas (-6.5 percent), Fort Worth, Texas (-6.2 percent) and Jacksonville, Fla. (-5.5 percent).
Median sale prices rose most from a year earlier in San Francisco (9.2 percent), Pittsburgh (9.1 percent) and West Palm Beach, Fla. (8.6 percent). They fell most in Seattle (-4.9 percent), San Jose, Calif. (-3.9 percent) and Portland, Ore. (-1.8 percent).
Pending sales rose most in San Francisco (16.4 percent), Austin, Texas (13.2 percent) and West Palm Beach (13 percent). They fell most in Seattle (-10.8 percent), Houston (-10.5 percent) and Denver (-3.1 percent).
Home sales rose most in West Palm Beach (23.8 percent), San Francisco (23.1 percent) and San Diego (12.8 percent). They fell most in Philadelphia (-6.8 percent), Seattle (-5.9 percent) and Atlanta (-3.7 percent).
New listings rose most in Philadelphia (16.7 percent), Anaheim, Calif. (15 percent) and St. Louis (13 percent). They fell most in Dallas (-6.5 percent), Fort Worth, TX (-6.2 percent) and Jacksonville, Fla. (-5.5 percent).
Active listings rose most in Cincinnati (15 percent), Boston (14.1 percent) and St. Louis (13.3 percent). They fell most in Jacksonville (-16.6 percent), San Francisco (-15.7 percent) and Miami (-13.5 percent).