Home prices were up 14% and pending sales rose 4% from a year earlier despite a record low number of homes for sale

(NASDAQ: RDFN) — The housing market started off the new year with fewer homes for sale than ever before as active listings fell 27% from a year earlier, according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.

The number of newly-listed homes for sale fell 10%, but anecdotes from Redfin agents suggest that listings may soon begin to pick up.

“We’re kicking off yet another year with a whole lot of buyers whose home search has been ongoing for months, and they are as eager as ever,” said Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather. “This month, the stage will be set for the 2022 housing market, and we’ll be closely watching whether prices climb like they usually do in January or whether they start off high and stagnate. We’re also keeping a close eye on new listings. I’ve already been hearing from Redfin agents in extremely supply-constrained markets like Austin that they are getting more interest than usual from homeowners about selling early this year. A lot of these people spent the last couple months getting their homes spruced up and ready to list. This gives me hope that more sellers will be motivated to take action now that the new year has arrived.”

Key housing market takeaways for 400+ U.S. metro areas:

Unless otherwise noted, this data covers the four-week period ending January 2. Redfin’s housing market data goes back through 2012.

• The median home-sale price increased 14% year over year to $358,460, just shy of an all-time high.
• The median asking price of newly listed homes increased 12% year over year to $341,200.
• Pending home sales were up 3.5% year over year.
• New listings of homes for sale were down 10% from a year earlier.
• Active listings (the number of homes listed for sale at any point during the period) fell 27% year over year, dropping below $500,000 for the first time to an all-time low of $482,000.
• The share of homes that went under contract that had an accepted offer within the first two weeks on the market was 40%, above the 35% rate of a year earlier.
• 29% of homes that went under contract had an accepted offer within one week of hitting the market, up from 25% during the same period a year earlier.
• Homes that sold were on the market for a median of 27 days, down from 34 days a year earlier.
• 41% of homes sold above list price, up from 33% a year earlier.
• On average, 2.4% of homes for sale each week had a price drop, up 0.5 percentage points from the same time in 2021.
• The average sale-to-list price ratio, which measures how close homes are selling to their asking prices, was 100.3%. In other words, the average home sold for 0.3% above its asking price.

Other leading indicators of homebuying activity:

• Mortgage purchase applications decreased 4% week over week (seasonally adjusted) during the week ending December 31. For the week ending December 30, 30-year mortgage rates inched up to 3.11%.
• The Redfin Homebuyer Demand Index rose 7% during the week ending January 2 and was up 18% from a year earlier.

To view the full report, including charts and methodology, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-inventory-falls-below-500000/

About Redfin

Redfin (www.redfin.com) is a technology-powered real estate company. We help people find a place to live with brokerage, instant home-buying (iBuying), rentals, lending, title insurance, and renovations services. We sell homes for more money and charge half the fee. We also run the country's #1 real-estate brokerage site. Our home-buying customers see homes first with on-demand tours, and our lending and title services help them close quickly. Customers selling a home can take an instant cash offer from Redfin or have our renovations crew fix up their home to sell for top dollar. Our rentals business empowers millions nationwide to find apartments and houses for rent. Since launching in 2006, we've saved customers more than $1 billion in commissions. We serve more than 100 markets across the U.S. and Canada and employ over 6,000 people.

For more information or to contact a local Redfin real estate agent, visit www.redfin.com. To learn about housing market trends and download data, visit the Redfin Data Center. To be added to Redfin's press release distribution list, email press@redfin.com. To view Redfin's press center, click here.

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