Early homebuyer demand reached the highest point in at least three years during the week ending September 19, according to Redfin’s Homebuyer Demand Index, which measures requests for home tours and other home-buying services from Redfin agents, adjusted for seasonality. Mortgage purchase applications also increased 2%, on top of an 8% increase the prior week.
During the four-week period ending September 19, most other housing market measures showed a typical late-summer seasonal decline with pending sales down 12% from their 2021 peak, the share of homes sold above list price falling below 50%, and time on market inching up to 20 days. Asking prices, which often increase in September, were up 2.4% from the four-week period ending September 5.
“The fact that homebuyer demand is setting new records as summer draws to a close leads me to believe that home prices have room to grow,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “This fall will be a litmus test for how hot the 2022 housing market will get. And it looks like we are heading into another unseasonably hot fall as ultra-low mortgage rates and employers’ remote-work policies mean Americans are still on the move.”
Unless otherwise noted, the data in this report covers the four-week period ending September 19. Redfin’s housing market data goes back through 2012. Except where indicated otherwise, the housing market is generally experiencing seasonal cooling trends, similar to what was seen during this same period in 2019.
Refer to our metrics definition page for explanations of all the metrics used in this report.
