Your inside source for real estate, development and construction information serving the counties of Mecklenburg, Union & Iredell VOLUME 107 NUMBER 7 ■ MECKTIMES.COM
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TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2023 ■ $2.00
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U.S. Home seller profits top 50 percent in 2022 despite market slowdown ATTOM has released its Year-End 2022 U.S. Home Sales Report, which shows that home sellers nationwide realized a profit of $112,000 on the typical sale in 2022, up 21 percent from $92,500 in 2021 and up 78 percent from $63,000 two years ago. Despite a market slowdown in the second half of last year, profits rose from 2021 to 2022 in 98 percent of housing markets with enough data to analyze. The latest nationwide profit figure, based on median purchase and resale prices, marked the highest level in the United States since at least 2008. The $112,000 profit on median-priced home sales in 2022 represented a 51.4 percent return on investment compared to the original purchase price, up from 44.6 percent last year and from 32.8 percent in 2020. The latest profit margin also represented a high point since at least 2008. “It seems pretty likely that home seller profits peaked for this cycle in 2022,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “Median prices have declined on a monthly basis since mortgage rates doubled between January and October and are likely to decline further in many markets across the country in 2023, reducing profitability for home sellers.” Both raw profits and ROI have improved nationwide for 11 straight years, shooting up again in 2022 as the national median home price increased 10 percent to $330,000 – yet another annual record. At the same time, though, profits increased at a slower pace than in 2021, reflecting a year when the nation’s decade-long housing boom stalled. The national median home value dipped 8 percent over the second half of last year as home-mortgage rates doubled,
consumer price inflation soared to a 40-year high and the stock market slumped. Those forces cut into the amounts potential home buyers could afford, generating multiple headwinds that threaten to further erode the housing market, cutting demand and potentially pushing seller profits down. Total sales last year declined after rising in eight of the previous 10 years. Among 157 metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 200,000 and sufficient sales data, those in western and southern states reaped the highest returns on investment in 2022. The West and South regions had 14 of the 15 metro areas with the highest ROIs on typical home sales last year, led by Hilo, HI (100 percent return on investment); Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ (88.4 percent); Spokane, WA (86.2 percent); Fort Myers, FL (85.4 percent) and Port St. Lucie, FL (84.8 percent).
Prices up at least 10 percent in more than half the country as most markets again hit new highs
The U.S. median home price increased 10 percent in 2022, hitting another all-time annual high of $330,000. The full-year median home-price appreciation in 2022 fell below the 17.6 percent nationwide gain in 2021. Still, the latest increase in the national median value remained among the best over the past decade. Since 2012, when the U.S. housing market was just starting to recover from the Great Recession of the late 2000s, the national median price has grown 120 percent. Median prices rose from 2021 to 2022 in all but two of the 157 metropolitan statistical
areas around the U.S. with a population of 200,000 or more and sufficient home price data in 2022. Values shot up at least 10 percent in 85 of those metros (54 percent). Those with the biggest year-over-year increases were in Florida, led by Naples, FL (median up 26.9 percent); Fort Myers, FL (up 26.7 percent); Lakeland, FL (up 25.7 percent); Port St. Lucie, FL (up 24.6 percent) and Ocala, FL (up 23.8 percent). The largest median-price increases in metro areas with a population of at least 1 million in 2022 came in Tampa, FL (up 21.9 percent); Raleigh, NC (up 17.9 percent); Austin, TX (up 17.9 percent); Orlando, FL (up 17.7 percent) and Tucson, AZ (up 17.2 percent). Typical home prices in 2022 reached new peaks in 153 of the 157 metros analyzed (97 percent), including New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX, and Houston, TX. Metro areas where median prices dropped in 2022, or rose by the smallest amounts, were Davenport, IA (down 2 percent); Shreveport, LA (down 1.7 percent); Baltimore, MD (up 2.7 percent); Pittsburgh, PA (up 2.7 percent) and Toledo, OH (up 2.8 percent).
Profit margins increase in 90 percent of nation
Profit margins on typical home sales improved from 2021 to 2022 in 141 of the 157 metro areas with sufficient data to analyze (90 percent). That happened as the 10 percent jump in sale prices nationwide in 2022 surpassed the 5 percent increases recent sellers had been paying when they
PLEASE SEE HOME SELLER ON PAGE 3
“Renters have been squeezed by record-fast rent growth while incomes haven’t kept up. That’s true for those making minimum wage, but especially so where the minimum wage hasn’t budged for more than a decade.” Nicole Bachaud, Zillow.
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