Home prices just took their biggest jump in 4 years

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Homebuyers, hold on to your wallets. The gains in home prices are getting bigger as the supply of homes for sale gets leaner.

The median price of a home sold in March surged 8.9 percent compared to March of 2017, according to Redfin, a real estate brokerage.

It is the biggest annual increase in four years. Redfin tracks prices in 174 local markets and calculated the median home price at $297,000.

High prices are the result of very, very low inventory. The supply of homes for sale was down 11.9 percent in March, compared to a year ago. As a result, sales fell 3.7 percent. The number of new listings in March dropped 5.6 percent annually, although part of that may have been due to the Easter holiday falling early this year.

"Sellers are slow to list this year and we aren't seeing enough new construction homes to fill the gap," said Redfin chief economist Nela Richardson. "If we don't see the new listings number turn around next month or a pickup in new housing starts, inventory will be a persistent drag on sales for the remainder of the year."

Homebuilders are not helping much. Housing starts disappointed in March, with single-family construction falling 3.7 percent for the month. Building permits, an indicator of future construction, declined 5.5 percent for the month and are barely 2 percent higher compared to a year ago. In contrast, multi-family construction is increasing considerably. Builders are banking on continued, strong demand for rental apartments, as homebuyers struggle to find affordable homes.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/home-prices-just-took-their-biggest-jump-in-4-years/ar-AAw3TbX?li=BBnbfcN

[Guilded Lilly]

1. I live this nightmare. Homes and condos around here (Central Ohio)...

are insane. Utterly mad.

Desirable condos and houses are going for easily $15,000+ over list price from the moment they go on the market. Realtors low ball the listings to generate bidding wars. Multiple offers are almost automatic within hours of the mls listing going live.

Insane buyers are making curbside offers that are wildly inflating the homes values and risking low appraisal rejections from banks but writing in contracts that they will pay the difference in appraisals in cash.

Then the values in the entire neighborhood are skewed unrealistically and it just multiplies.
From the moment a house closes, the return on your investment will be negative because when this insane bubble bursts the values will crash.

I sold a condo to be closer to my daughter and the well planned profit made in long term paying down my mortgage is being eaten alive by high rents.

It’s frightening. I’m semi-retired and not in career mode. There are no empty lots anywhere and when builders are building single family, they make far inferior products than just a decade ago. High rise rentals are going up everywhere.

Crazy.