Home Prices Keep Climbing at Record Pace

Given that nationwide home prices hit an all-time record in March, it probably won’t come as a shock that home prices rose by a significant amount in the last year. However, a deeper dive into the data shows that the substantial rise in home prices is a truly nationwide phenomenon.

In fact, a new report from the National Association of Realtors shows that 89% of the nation’s major metro areas saw home prices rise by 10% or more in the last year.

Beyond that, the report showed that 99% of all markets saw some form of price increase since the first quarter of 2020.

Overall, the median sales price for an existing single-family home rose by 16.2% from the first quarter of 2020 to the first quarter of 2021. According to NAR’s report, that’s the highest year-over-year growth in home prices since 1989.

Each region of the country also saw double-digit price increases over the last year. The Northeast led the way with a price increase of 22.1%, followed by the West (18%), South (15%) and Midwest (14.4%).

“Significant price increases throughout the country simply illustrate strong demand and record-low housing supply,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said. “The record-high home prices are happening across nearly all markets, big and small, even in those metros that have long been considered off-the-radar in prior years for many home seekers.”

The increase in home prices affected higher-cost and lower-cost markets equally.

According to NAR’s report, the 11 markets where home prices rose by the most had median sales prices ranging from the $100,000s to the $600,000s.

The markets where prices rose by the most were:

• Kingston, N.Y., where home prices rose by 35.5% in the last year to $303,100
• Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn., where home prices rose by 34.3% in the last year to $580,400
• Atlantic City-Hammonton, N.J., where home prices rose by 34% in the last year to $277,200
• Barnstable Town, Mass., where home prices rose by 33.1% in the last year to $567,600
• Boise City-Nampa, Idaho, where home prices rose by 32.8% in the last year to $422,600
• Sherman-Denison, Texas, where home prices rose by 29.8% in the last year to $234,800
• Elmira, N.Y., where home prices rose by 29.1% in the last year to $126,900
• Austin-Round Rock, Texas, where home prices rose by 28.2% in the last year to $437,900
• Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa., where home prices rose by 27.7% in the last year to $119,500
• Decatur, Ill., where home prices rose by 27.5% in the last year to $102,400
• Glens Falls, N.Y., where home prices rose by 27.5% in the last year to $214,600