Homes Sell Closer To List Price Than Ever

The median home-sale price increased 16% year-over-over to $323,600 according to a report from Redfin. This marks a new record for home-sale price increase according to the report, though, it's not the only new high as Redfin reports homes are selling closer to list price than ever before.

"The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, increased to 99.6%—1.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier and an all-time high. During the 7-day period ending Feb. 28, the ratio shot up to 99.9%, also an all-time high," according to the report.

Additionally, pending home sales jumped 18% year-over-year and asking prices of newly listed homes hit an all-time high of $347,475. The report also revealed that 55% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market, well above the 44% rate during the same period a year ago, another new all-time high for this measure since at least 2012 (as far back as Redfin's data for this measure goes). During the week ending Feb. 21, 57% of homes sold in two weeks or less.

"Over the last few weeks winter storms have disrupted the housing market, and mortgage rates have risen sharply," said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. "Although pending sales and new listings have taken a small hit in the last couple of weeks, home price gains are showing no signs of slowing down. However, It's just too early to tell what the impact of these changes will be to the spring housing market. The effects of the storms should be temporary, but higher mortgage rates could make some buyers less willing to bid up home prices."

New listings of homes for sale fell 17% year-over-year and active listings were down 40% from 2020, representing a new all-time low.

Click here to read more from the report.