Houses Sold and Median Sale Prices of Single-Family Homes
January 12,
2018 by Jane Chero in General 
The Housing Industry continues its upward momentum with median prices among both existing and new homes catapulting by over 40 percent since 2011. This is the first factoid in a series of four factoids detailing the steady rise of home prices paired with both housing inventories and median incomes that are unable to keep the same pace.
At a 98.5 index growth (2007 = 100) in 2017, existing home sales continue to edge closer to pre-recession levels. Although still 21.8 percent shy of 2007 sales levels, new home sales have increased an average of 13 percent each year since 2011. The National Association of Realtors projects the number of existing home sales will increase 2.6 percent this year and inventory tighten further in 2018 at 1.8 percent growth.
For existing home sales, prices have increased an annual average of 6.7 percent since 2011. The median price of existing homes at press time totaled $242,150 – up 11.8 percent from pre-recession prices. At year end, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) projected existing home prices will grow 5.2 percent this year compared to last then moderate slightly into the 3 to 4 percent growth range over the next two years.
New home prices have jumped by 28.7 percent since 2007 and have maintained an upward track post-recession (2011) – growing a yearly average of 5.8 percent and finishing the second quarter of 2017 with a median home price of $313,767. Growth in the median price of new homes is expected to moderate in the last half of this year and the National Association of Realtors forecasts new home costs increasing over 3 percent next year.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Rate for New Single-Family Houses Sold, National Association of Realtors (NAR), historical and forecasted
*based on houses sold through July 2017