The Average House Price is Back on the Rise

 According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the median home sales price is $431,00. That’s up $14,900 from the previous quarter but down $37,000 from the previous year.

{Credit: Jack Caporal}

House prices grew quickly from mid-2021 through late 2022, but the market has started to cool off. House prices grew for the first time in 2023 in the third quarter, following two quarters of declines.

Mortgage rates fell significantly in 2020, driving up demand as home buyers looked to take advantage. The COVID-19 pandemic also led to consumers shifting spending to housing and pushed more millennials toward homeownership. Starting in 2022, however, mortgage rates began to rise rapidly, and house prices fell in the first two quarters of 2023 for the first time since 2020. But prices now appear to be rising again.

Key Findings

• The median home sales price in the United States is $431,000 as of the third quarter of 2023. That’s up 4% from the second quarter of 2023, when the median home sales price was $416,100.

  Hawaii is the most expensive state to buy a house, with a median home value of $972,885, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

  West Virginia is the least expensive state to buy a house, with a median home value of $158,495 according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

  Average home price in the United States: $430,300

  The median home sales price is $431,000 as of the third quarter of 2023. That’s a 31% increase from the start of 2020, when the median was $329,000.

  The average cost of a house in the United States has increased over the past four decades.  

  Between 1980 and 2020, the median home sales price increased by 416%. From 1980 to the third quarter of 2023, home sales prices rose 576%.

  The gap between those percentage changes is a result of home prices rapidly rising from 2020 through late 2022. From the first quarter of 2020 to the fourth quarter of 2022, the median home sales price rose 46% from $329,000 to $479,500, among the fastest rate of median home sales price increases in U.S. history.

  Florida

  Typical home price in Florida: $407,218 (116% of typical U.S. price)

  Typical single-family home value in the third quarter of 2023: $407,218

  Median household income as a percentage of home value: 17%

  The typical home in Florida is valued 16% higher than the typical U.S. home and the median household income in the state is 7% lower than the median U.S. income, resulting in a low income-to-home-value ratio and creating affordability concerns.

  Michigan

  Typical home price in Michigan: $235,236 (67% of typical U.S. price)

  Typical single-family home value in the third quarter of 2023: $235,236

  Median household income as a percentage of home value: 28%

  The typical Michigan home is on the affordable side due to low home values and the median income being close to the national median. 

   

  (Source: U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Median Sales Price of Houses Sold for the United States [MSPUS], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; November 9, 2023.)

 By Jack Caporal, Updated November 9, 2023

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