Sellers nab highest profit in nearly a decade in 2016

In 2016, homesellers saw an average of 21 percent gain on their homes.

Those who sold last year, on average, received $38,206 more than they paid for their home, according to recently-released data from  ATTOM Data Solutions. This an increase of 8 percent from 2015, and the highest profit homesellers have seen since 2007.

Across the country, the median home sale price was $218,175, an increase of 6.8 percent from the previous year, and just .4 percent below the median home sale in 2006. Analyzing 201 metro areas, 89 percent saw a year-to-year increase last year. Philadelphia was one city still below the pre-recession peaks.

ATTOM Data Solutions also found that third-party buyers purchased 28.5 percent of foreclosures, or 96,438 single-family homes, an increase of 5 percent compared to 2015, and the highest level since the study began in 2000. Philadelphia was one of the cities with the highest number of third-party purchases for foreclosures, at 4,043.

All-cash purchases saw a decrease in 2016. For all home sales in the country, all-cash homebuyers made up 28.3 percent, a decrease of 3.2 percent from the previous year, and the lowest level since 2007.

“The housing market hit several important milestones in 2016, with distressed sales at a nine-year low and home prices at a 10-year high, just barely below the pre-recession peak in 2006,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions. “This was all good news for home sellers, who realized their biggest average profits since purchase nationwide in 2016. Even distressed property sellers are benefitting from this hot seller’s market, with a record-high share of homes at foreclosure auction being purchased by third-party buyers rather than reverting back to the foreclosing bank.”