Analysis sees further increases in home prices nationally

Zillow economist Jeff Tucker

New Hampshire, where the seemingly unrelenting increase in home prices has not been abated by the Covid-19 pandemic, is not alone, according to a new national analysis.

According to the online real estate database company Zillow, sale price growth across the country has continued since the pandemic, although not at quite the same rate. But it looks to be headed for an upswing in the coming months.

The median price of U.S. homes sold in May was $263,408, up 4.6% year over year, Zillow said. That was down from the 5.3% year-over-year growth in April, which followed a 5.5% year-over-year increase in March.

But recent data suggest sale price growth is likely to reverse course soon. New listings of high-end homes have surged, raising the median list price accordingly – list prices were up 4.3% annually as of early July, and have grown 5.8% just in the past two months, Zillow said.

In New Hampshire, the median price for a single-family home in May was up 6.6%, to $319,900.

Buyers are outnumbering sellers, causing homes to typically sell just 20 days after hitting the market – the lowest level ever recorded by Zillow – and allowing sellers to hold firm on their asking prices, with only 4.1% of active listings in the last week of June having undergone a price cut.

“As surprising as it might have seemed at the time, sellers who forged ahead with listing their homes this spring were richly rewarded, when buyers buoyed by record-low mortgage rates flooded their listings with offers,” said Zillow economist Jeff Tucker. “Now, word is getting out that the housing market is on solid ground, so more listings are belatedly rushing to market, extending the busy spring shopping season well into summer.”

He added that the “huge millennial first-time home-buying wave is still cresting, pushing demand above what’s still very limited supply, so sellers are likely to find eager buyers for months or even years to come.”