Sellers seeing higher home price gains

Homeowners in the United States sold their houses for $30,500 more than they purchased for on average in March.

According to RealtyTrac, this represents a 17 percent average gain in price, which is the highest average price gain for sellers since December 2007.

In Pennsylvania, all metro areas included posted seller gains. Philadelphia had the biggest year-to-year increase in median prices. The city saw a 29 percent increase compared to last March. Pittsburgh also saw a large year-over-year increase in share of distressed sales, up 16 percent.

“Home sellers in many markets are now seeing average price gains close to or above what home sellers experienced during the last housing boom,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at RealtyTrac. “That should encourage more homeowners to take advantage of the prime seller’s market and list their homes for sale this year. Banks are already taking advantage of that market as evidenced by the uptick in the distressed sales share over the last two quarters.

Single-family homes and condos sold for a median price of $210,000, a 9 percent increase from February, and an 11 percent increase from March 2015. The report stated that March was the 49^th consecutive month with a year-over-year increase in the nation’s median home price. However, the median price is still 8 percent below its previous high of $228,000 in July 2005.

Thirty-six percent of the metro areas analyzed, which included 125 areas, have reached new all-time home price peaks since January 2015. Fifteen percent, or 19 markets, in March sold on average less than what they had paid for their homes originally.

On average, those who sold in March had owned their homes for 7.67 years, a slight increase of 4 percent from 7.37 years of those who sold in March of last year.