Home buyers still have the upper hand as listing prices for homes for sale held steady and did not shoot up in the second quarter, based on a study by Altos Research on house prices in ten major U.S. cities, namely Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Washington, D.C. and New York.
In June, the median listing price for single-family pre-owned homes was $477,937, just $146 down from the $478,083 median in the previous month. The composite median price for the ten cities was lowest in January last year when it fell to $470,017, but it gradually improved to reach $509,030 six months later in July. Thereafter, the median price dropped month over month, until it finally started to reverse its trend and improve in March.
Of the 26 housing markets tracked by Altos, 13 cities posted increases in asking prices for homes in June while 14 cities posted increases in the second quarter. The city of San Francisco posted the highest increases in both time frames, posting a two-percent rise in June and a 4.4-percent jump in the second quarter. San Jose was second, with a jump of 1.5 percent in June and an increase of 2.5 percent in the second quarter. The cities of Austin, Dallas and Cleveland rounded up the top five cities in median price increases.
The market with the biggest fall in listing prices for homes for sale was Phoenix, where asking prices dropped by 2.4 percent in June and fell by 3.9 percent in the second quarter. Miami was second, posting a drop of 2.3 percent in June and 4 percent during the quarter. Third was Washington, D.C. where listing prices fell by 0.8 percent in June and 0.4 percent in the April to June quarter. Las Vegas and Boston rounded up the top five cities in price declines.
Home buyers did not only get to find attractive prices, they also got to explore plenty of choices, as listing inventory grew in the ten-city composite to a total of 304,831 homes for sale, up by almost three percent in June and by 5.4 percent in the second quarter. It was only in Chicago where the listing inventory dropped in June while it was only in Detroit where the inventory dropped in the second quarter. Again, San Francisco led all the other cities in inventory of homes for sale, posting an increase of 7.6 percent in June and a 13.5-percent jump in the second quarter.
Nationwide, based on another study, the supply of homes in June was equivalent to 8.5 months, higher than the six-month inventory which is considered a balanced housing supply level. With homes nationwide being sold at the average price median of $211,530, home buyers still hold the upper hand.