Home prices rose to a new high in the third quarter, according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions, curator of a property database and property data provider of Data-as-a-Service.
Median home prices rose 8.3% from last year and up 2.9% from the previous quarter in the third quarter of 2019, according to the Q3 2019 U.S. Home Sales Report from ATTOM. Single-family homes and condos sold for a median price of $270,000 in the third quarter.
Homeowners are also getting more profit than ever on the sale of their home. Homeowners who sold their home in the third quarter earned a median profit that ticked up to a post-recession high of 34.5%, up from 34.4% in the second quarter of 2019 and 34.3% in the third quarter of 2018, according to the report.
And homeowners are getting more profit on their homes not only because of rising home prices, but also they are seeing their equity rise as the average homeownership tenure hit a new high of 8.19 years in the third quarter. This is up 3% from the previous quarter and previous year, according to the report. For reference, homeownership tenure averaged 4.2 years between the first quarter of 2000 and the third quarter of 2007.
“The seven-year U.S. housing boom is back in high gear,” said Todd Teta, ATTOM Data Solutions chief product officer. “After a series of relatively small price increase quarters, home prices saw quite the uptick, seller profits rose and the problem of distressed sales continued to fade, helping to make the third quarter the strongest in four years.”
“That all happened as mortgage rates sank back to near-historic lows, which clearly powered the market upward along with stock market surges and a continued strong economy,” Teta said. “There had been signs before the latest surge of a cooling market, but they seem to have diminished, at least for now.”
But while these rising home prices are great for homeowners and sellers, it is also creating an affordability crisis for homebuyers, especially at the lower end of the market.
As housing affordability continues to be a cause of concern for the nation’s homeowners, a report from the National Association of Homebuilders indicates that many Americans now perceive the problem to be a crisis.
