While list prices are still soaring, competition for homes is continuing to cool
By Patrick Kearns | Feb 10, 2022
View all data
While home prices continue to soar, the number of homes selling above those ever-rising list prices stays far below the highs of the summer months. Only 37.1% of homes were sold above list price in the nation’s top 50 metros in January, essentially unchanged from the prior month’s average, according to data compiled by real estate technology company OJO Labs. It’s a sign that homes face less competition at their current price point, which is a positive development for would-be buyers.
Competition increased in 19 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.
Despite falling from the summer highs — OJO Labs previously reported at 49.7% of homes sold above initial list price in July 2021 — the housing market still hasn’t dropped low enough to approach the level of competition seen before that summer spike. According to the data, in January 2020, only 28.9% of homes sold above list price.
U.S. homes, in January, sold for an average of $2,010 above list price across the same metro areas, according to the data. That premium is a 7% decrease from the previous month when homes sold for an average of $2,162 above the list price. In January 2020, homes were selling for, on average, $4,189 below the initial list price.
San Francisco, California, was the nation’s most competitive metro area, as has been the case every month since OJO Labs began tracking the data. In January, 64.6% of homes in San Francisco sold above list price, and the average home was sold for $85,424 above initial list price.
San Diego, California, continued to see competition increase for the second consecutive month and is slowly closing the gap with San Francisco, regarding the percentage of homes sold above list price. In January, 56.1% of homes in San Diego sold above list price, and the average home was sold for $17,111 above list price.
Buffalo, New York; Los Angeles, California; and Boston, Massachusetts, rounded out the top five most competitive metro areas, all of which saw slightly more than half of all homes sell above list price. Sacramento, California, was the only other metro where more than half of homes sold above price.
Green Bay, Wisconsin, was the nation’s least competitive metro area, with only 1.8% of homes selling above list price. Norfolk, Virginia; Madison, Wisconsin; Boise, Idaho; and Fort Meyers, Florida rounded out the bottom five in terms of competition, all of which saw fewer than a quarter of homes sell above list price. The biggest list price discount came in Miami, Florida, where homes sold for, on average, $25,846 below list price.