Forget everything you once knew about seasonality in the housing market because the numbers seem anything but typical this year. Around this time of the year, home prices begin to drop off after peaking in late June or early July, but prices leapt 10% year-over-year for the four weeks ending August 9, according to Redfin. This is the largest increase in more than six years, bringing the median home price to $314,000. Month-over-month, home prices increased by 3.5%, but in 2019, prices fell by 1.7% in the same timeframe.
The median price of homes that sold during the four-week period ending August 9 was up 10% year over year—the largest increase in over six years—and hit a new all-time high of $314,000. In the last week of the period, prices were up 12% from a year earlier. Thanks to seemingly insatiable homebuyer demand, the typical seasonal patterns of the housing market have been short-circuited this year.
“With the coronavirus and the presidential election, things have been anything but typical this year,” said Spokane, WA Redfin agent Brynn Rea. “I don’t feel it slowing down at all right now like it usually does when people are typically spending more of their time on vacations and getting ready to go back to school.”
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