The median U.S. home sale price rose 6.2% year over year in April to $433,558—the highest level on record.
Today’s housing market is much slower than it was during the pandemic homebuying boom, but prices continue climbing because there still aren’t enough homes to go around.
New listings increased 1.7% month over month in April on a seasonally adjusted basis and rose 10.8% year over year. Still, they were roughly 20% below pre-pandemic levels, in large part because many homeowners don’t want to sell, as they feel “locked in” by the low mortgage rate they scored during the pandemic.
It’s worth noting that last April, new listings were at the lowest level on record aside from the start of the pandemic, which is one reason they’re now posting such a large year-over-year gain.
Home sales were little changed from a month earlier (0.2%) in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, but were down 1.4% from a year earlier.
Homebuyers are getting hit by the one-two punch of high prices and elevated mortgage rates. The average 30-year-fixed mortgage rate was 6.99% in April. That’s up from 6.82% in March and 6.34% in April 2023, and is more than double the all-time low of 2.65% during the pandemic.
“It’s not all bad news for homebuyers. Mortgage rates are already inching lower in response to this week’s inflation report, which signaled that the Fed may cut interest rates this summer—a possibility that just weeks ago many thought was off the table, ” said Redfin Economics Research Lead Chen Zhao. “In certain parts of the country, buyers also have room to negotiate as homes linger on the market, prompting sellers to slash their asking prices and provide concessions.”
Active listings rose to the highest level since December 2020 in April. They were up 0.3% from a month earlier and up 7.5% from a year earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, though remained far below pre-pandemic levels.
While new listings represent the number of homes that were listed for sale during a given month, active listings represent the total number of homes that were for sale during a given month. That means that the latter metric includes homes that have been sitting on the market for a while.
Nationwide, 43.9% of homes that went under contract in April did so within two weeks of being listed, down from 46.9% a year earlier.
Redfin agents say that some homes are sitting on the market because sellers are pricing them too high initially and then having to cut their prices later.
Nearly one in five (17.6%) homes for sale in April had a price cut, meaning the seller lowered the asking price after putting their home on the market. That’s up 5.6 percentage points from 12.1% a year earlier—the biggest gain in over a year.
“Most sellers in Las Vegas are willing to negotiate—anywhere from 5% to 10% off their list price,” said local Redfin Premier real estate agent Fernanda Kriese. “Sellers are offering buyers money for mortgage-rate buydowns, along with other concessions. Homes that are listed below market value get multiple offers and are snatched up in two to four days, but homes that are priced $5,000 to $10,000 over market value are sitting for 30 to 60 days longer.”
Las Vegas, like many pandemic boomtowns, has seen its housing market cool following the homebuying frenzy of 2021 and 2022.
But other markets haven’t cooled as quickly, and some are seeing substantial competition between homebuyers. In San Jose, CA, for example, three in four homes (75.8%) that sold in April went for more than their asking price. That’s up from 61.6% a year earlier and is the highest share among the metros Redfin analyzed. Next came Rochester, NY, at 72.8%, and Oakland, CA, at 69.7%. Nationwide, one-third (33.5%) of homes that sold in April went for more than their asking price.
Redfin recently surveyed its agents and found that the majority of respondents (74.4%) think the 2024 housing market is shaping up to be more favorable for sellers than buyers. That’s likely in part because sellers are fetching record-high prices for their homes. The survey, conducted by Qualtrics in April-May 2024, was fielded to roughly 300 Redfin Premier agents.
Note: Data is subject to revision
Data in the bullets below came from a list of 85 U.S. metro areas with populations of at least 750,000. A full metro-level data table can be found in the “download” tab of the dashboard in the monthly section of the Redfin Data Center. Refer to our metrics definition page for explanations of metrics used in this report. Metro-level data is not seasonally adjusted. All changes below represent year-over-year changes.
