One-third of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, a new report from Redfin found. This is up from 30% during the same period a year prior and 2.2 points from a month earlier.
The report is based on data from the four-week period ending Oct. 10.
In addition, the number of homes that went under contract within two weeks of listing rose to 46% from 42% during the same period in 2020. While the median number of days a home is on the market rose to 22 days, which is a full week longer than the all-time low of 15 days in June and July, it is still 10 days less than a year earlier.
This increase in the share of homes selling this quickly is unexpected for this time of year when we typically see a seasonal slowdown.
“Most sellers who are on the market now are very motivated to move: landlords with vacant homes, families who already upgraded and need to sell their previous homes, couples splitting up,” David Palmer, a Redfin listing agent, said in a statement. “As home-buying demand declines into the fall, I’m only encouraging people who have urgency to sell now. Otherwise, I’m advising them to wait until the new year.”
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Another sign of continued strong demand is the 4% year-over-year increase in pending home sales. This also represents a 46% increase compared to the same time period in 2019, according to Redfin.
While demand has remained high, inventory continues to drop with new listings of homes down 8% from a year prior and the total number of active listings down 21% from 2020.
As a result of this high demand and low inventory, the median home-sale price rose 13% from a year prior to $355,600. Asking prices of newly listed homes also rose, reaching a median of $362,047, marking a 12% increase from a year ago. However, this is 0.7% lower than the all-time high set during the previous four-week period ending Oct. 3. Decreases like this are typical for this time of year, according to the report.
Even with high asking prices, due to the highly competitive nature of the market, 46% of home still sold for above list price, which is up from 34% during the same time period in 2020, but also the smallest share since April 2021. Additionally, the average sale-to-list price ratio fell to 100.7%, also the lowest level since April.
Although there are numerous indicators of a still red-hot market, one indicator of a possible seasonal cooling off is the percentage of homes for sale each week undergoing a price drop rising to 5.1%, the highest level it has been since the four-week period ending October 13, 2019.
