In August, the average American home listing price climbed 4.9% year over year, reaching a high of $309,000, according to Realtor.com’s Housing Trend Report.
While this is an increase from last year’s price levels, the company indicates that August’s rate of growth was much slower than 2018’s pace of appreciation.
“The nationwide median home list price was $309,000, 4.9% higher than a year ago. However, price growth is slower than last August, when the median list price grew by 7.3%,” Realtor.com writes. “Additionally, the median listing price in August fell by 1.8% compared to July.”
Although drops in monthly listing prices have occurred before, the company notes that this is the largest drop from July to August since 2012.
“August’s data shows that economic anxieties could be causing an earlier seasonal slowdown, despite an expected boost in demand due to lower interest rates, which have increased buyer purchasing power,” Realtor.com writes. “Inventory growth in the U.S. has once again turned negative, however, the time a typical property spends on the market is now three days more than last year.”
According to the company, the nation’s inventory declined 1.8% year over year in August. Additionally, homes spent a median of 62 days on the market.
In July, Realtor.com warned that the nation’s homebuyers were being pushed out of the market due to a mismatch between demand and supply.
This discrepancy led the company to warn of an impending market shift that could affect homebuyers well into next year.
And now it seems Realtor.com has doubled down on its projections, but with the added promise that the nation’s economic woes will also impact buyers even further.
“The state of the housing market heading into the end of the year will be the result of a battle between two opposing forces: increased affordability and economic anxiety. Lower interest rates have resulted in an increase in affordability, saving home shoppers approximately 5% on monthly mortgage payment costs compared to August of last year,” Realtor.com writes. “However, concerns over a prolonged trade war, cutbacks in corporate spending, and contagion from a European recession may push some homebuyers to postpone their plans.”
