Home sale prices hit peak in June

The median sale price of single-family homes and condos reached an all-time high in June.

The median price of $231,000 is up 6 percent from May, and 1 percent from July 2005, its all-time high when it topped $228,000, according to a recent release from ATTOM Data Solutions. For the 52^nd consecutive month, median home prices saw an increase compared to the same time last year.

One hundred and thirty areas were examined for the study, and 30 percent saw a new all-time high in home price peaks. Since 2012, 48 percent of areas studied have found new all-time home price peaks.

“The all-time home price highs nationwide an in many local markets are being enabled by historically low mortgage rates — which are falling once again this year,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “It is likely that some of the most interest rate sensitive local markets will see home price appreciation knocked down when the low rate rug is finally pulled out from under the housing recovery. We are seeing signs of weakening appreciation in many bellwether markets already in spite of the rock-bottom rates.”

It shouldn’t come as a shock then that homesellers in June sold their homes for an average of 22 percent, or $41,000 more, than they bought them for. This is highest average price gain sellers have seen in nearly a decade.

Additionally, distressed sales, which includes bank-owned sales in this report, along with in-foreclosure sales and short sales, were 14.8 percent of single- family home and condo sales in the second quarter of 2016, a decrease of 3.8 percent from the first quarter, and down 1.9 percent in a year.