40% of homes sold above list price in December
By Patrick Kearns | Jan 13, 2021
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Roughly 40% of homes were sold for more than they were initially listed in the nation’s 50 top metros in December, the lowest total since OJO Labs began tracking the monthly competition metric in July 2021 and down from 41.1% in November. It’s the sixth consecutive month that competition declined on a month-over-month basis, a positive sign for homebuying hopefuls that have been waiting on the sideline of a hot housing market.
Competition declined in 41 of the nation’s top 50 metros in terms of homes sold, according to data from Movoto by OJO, the OJO Labs residential real estate search site. Some of the outlying markets where competition actually increased included San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington, and Boise, Idaho, with the latter seeing the biggest rise of nearly 6%.
Despite the steady month-over-month declines, the housing market still hasn’t dropped low enough to approach last year’s level of competition. In December 2020, only 30.9% of homes sold above list price.
U.S. homes, in November, sold for an average of $2,519 above list price across the same metro areas, according to the data. That’s a 39.8% decrease from last month when homes sold for an average of $4,186 above list price. It’s also a trend reversal from the prior month when the average amount that homes sold above list price actually increased month over month.
Despite the dip, it’s far ahead of the discount at which homes were selling below list price in the same month in 2020. In December 2020, homes were selling at $4,760 below initial list price.
San Francisco, California, remained the nation’s most competitive metro — with 66.9% of homes selling above list price. Homes in San Francisco sold for, on average, $96,630 above list price.
San Diego, California — with its new surge in competition — passed both Los Angeles, California and Boston, Massachusetts to take second place on the list of the nation’s most competitive markets. In December, 55.9% of homes sold above list price, up from 53.6% the month prior and 43.8% in December 2020. Homes, on average, sold for $10,929 above list price in San Diego in December.
Los Angeles, Boston and Sacramento, California, rounded out the top five of the nation’s most competitive metros, meaning four of the five most competitive metropolitan areas are in California.
At the other end of the spectrum, Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News, Virginia, remained the nation’s least competitive metro area with just 5.1% of homes sold above list price in November. Four of the bottom five metros in terms of competition were in Florida. Pensacola, Ft. Meyers, Miami, and West Palm Beach all had fewer than 30% of homes sold for above list price in December.