If anything can be said about the current state of the real estate market, it’s that change is coming. For the last two years, the pandemic has kept mortgage rates extremely low across the U.S.—with rates dipping below 3% at certain points. Those record-low mortgage rates made it a lot less expensive for buyers to borrow money for home purchases, despite home purchase prices skyrocketing in markets across the nation.
That trend has now changed course. As of the week of Feb. 11, rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage loans had topped 4% for the first time since 2019. That’s not only a jump from the week prior when rates hovered around 3.83%, but is also an unwelcome milestone for borrowers who were looking to purchase homes at record-low rates. This rate shift could also have a significant impact on other areas of the market—from refinancing loans to the rate of mortgage applications—over time.
That’s not the only significant real estate market shift that has occurred this week either. Not only are buyers facing rising interest rates, but home prices continue to soar, too. Right now, homebuyers are currently facing one of the priciest housing markets in history—and, in turn, the average purchase loan size has grown. The average purchase loan size for conventional loans set a new record of $453,000. The larger average mortgage loan is a clear sign homebuyers are borrowing larger sums of money to purchase homes in this expensive market.
To help you stay current on what’s happening in the housing market, we at ZeroDown compiled a weekly real estate market report using data from Redfin. National housing market statistics feature data for the four weeks ending Jan. 30, 2022. Metros with more than 50 homes sold during the time period were considered for metro-level rankings for each statistic.
TRACK: Stay even more up to date using our housing market analysis dashboard to get up-to-date, reliable, and comprehensive information on every housing market. Discover stats on market conditions, median home prices, price growths and drops, inventory levels and supply vs. demand, average days on market, real estate trends, and more...
All metros:
- Median sales price: $353,250
- One-year change: +13.5%
Metros with highest median sales price
#1. San Francisco, CA metro area: $1.4 million
#2. San Jose, CA metro area: $1.4 million
#3. Santa Cruz, CA metro area: $1.1 million
Metros with lowest median sales price
#1. Cumberland, MD metro area: $119,208
#2. Bay City, MI metro area: $119,612
#3. Saginaw, MI metro area: $132,788
All metros:
- Median sales price per square foot: $195
- One-year change: +17.6%
Metros with highest median sales price per square foot
#1. San Francisco, CA metro area: $989
#2. San Jose, CA metro area: $823
#3. Kahului, HI metro area: $821
Metros with lowest median sales price per square foot
#1. Cumberland, MD metro area: $80
#2. Bay City, MI metro area: $87
#3. Youngstown, OH metro area: $88
All metros:
- Average sales to list price ratio: 1.00
- One-year change: +0.01
Metros with highest sales to list price ratio
#1. San Jose, CA metro area: 1.10
#2. Oakland, CA metro area: 1.07
#3. San Francisco, CA metro area: 1.07
Metros with lowest sales to list price ratio
#1. Rome, GA metro area: 0.96
#2. Cumberland, MD metro area: 0.96
#3. St. Joseph, MO metro area: 0.96
All metros:
- Homes sold with price drops: 19.9%
- One-year change: -1.4%
Metros with most homes sold with price drops
#1. Grants Pass, OR metro area: 39.3%
#2. Morristown, TN metro area: 37.2%
#3. Eau Claire, WI metro area: 36.3%
Metros with least homes sold with price drop
#1. Hinesville, GA metro area: 7.6%
#2. Clarksville, TN metro area: 8.2%
#3. San Jose, CA metro area: 8.4%
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All metros:
- Off market in two weeks: 50.2%
- One-year change: +6.0%
Metros with the most homes off market in two weeks
#1. Seattle, WA metro area: 80.9%
#2. Denver, CO metro area: 79.7%
#3. Coeur d'Alene, ID metro area: 75.9%
Metros with the least homes off market in two weeks
#1. Myrtle Beach, SC metro area: 0.8%
#2. Oshkosh, WI metro area: 3.8%
#3. Green Bay, WI metro area: 4.4%
All metros:
- Months of supply: 7.9 months
- One-year change: -2.0 months
Metros with the most months of supply
#1. Atlantic City, NJ metro area: 23.9 months
#2. Beaumont, TX metro area: 23.2 months
#3. Cumberland, MD metro area: 20.9 months
Metros with least months of supply
#1. Lewiston, ME metro area: 1.6 months
#2. Portland, ME metro area: 2.8 months
#3. Olympia, WA metro area: 3.0 months
To ensure that the buyer (and lender) is paying a fair amount for the home, buyers insert an appraisal contingency, which allows the buyer the ability to walk away from the purchase without penalty if the appraisal returns a value lower than a set value (usually the purchase price). Aside from walking away, the buyer can renegotiate for a lower price with the seller, request that their lender make an exception, and approve their loan as if the property had appraised to match the purchase price or make up the difference between the purchase price and appraised value via their own funds. In most cases, if the buyer makes use of the appraisal contingency to walk away, they are likely to receive a complete refund of their earnest money. However, buyers must be cautious and include this in the contract to avoid problems at a later stage.
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