Median Home Prices Hits All Time High

Single family homes and condos sold for a median price of $255,000 in the second quarter, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q2 2018 U.S. Home Sales Report.

The report said the median price during the second quarter was up 6.3 percent year-over-year and reached an all-time high. However, the annual appreciation in the second quarter was the slowest since 2016.

“Annual home price appreciation nationwide has now slowed for five consecutive quarters following a post-election spike to double-digit appreciation in the first quarter of 2017,” ATTOM Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist said in a release. “Although home sellers are still in the driver’s seat of this housing market, moderating home price appreciation is good news for prospective homebuyers and signals that rising mortgage rates and other housing headwinds are cooling red-hot home price appreciation in some areas.”

Good News For Sellers

According to the report, second-quarter, annual home price appreciation slowed in 66 percent of the markets analyzed, including in Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Philadelphia. The report found that annual home price appreciation accelerated in 34 percent of markets, including in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, San Francisco and Detroit.

ATTOM said the biggest year-over-year increase in median prices were in San Jose, California (25 percent); Flint, Mich. (23.7 percent); Seattle (14.3 percent); Boise, Idaho (14.3 percent) and in San Francisco (14.2 percent).

Median home prices in 65 percent of the metro areas analyzed were above their pre-recession peaks in the second quarter, the report found. Those areas included Houston (79 percent above); Dallas-Fort Worth (78 percent above); Greeley, Colo. (76 percent above); Denver (75 percent above) and San Antonio (68 percent above).

During the second quarter, Median home prices were still below pre-recession peaks in 35 percent of the metros analyzed, including in Atlantic City (36 percent below); York, Pa. (34 percent below); Salisbury, Md. (21 percent below); Naples, Fla. (19 percent below) and in Trenton, N.J. (18 percent below).