According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, mortgage applications are down 5% since last week. With mortgage rates rising and median home prices trending in the same direction the declining trend in home sales (down 4.5% year over year) looks to continue.
As of March 2022, the National Association of Realtors has found that median home prices have gone up 15% year over year, jumping up to $375,300. Rising interest rates combined with a low inventory of homes has put a wrench in the hope of buyers all across the U.S.
Freddie Mac this week reported that the average loan rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage hit 5.11% This is only a 0.11% rise from last week. Nonetheless, continuing rate increases seem to be putting a pin in many people’s ambitions for homeownership.
“Ongoing concerns about rapid inflation and tighter U.S. monetary policy continued to push Treasury yields higher, driving mortgage rates to their highest level in over a decade. Rates increased across the board for all loan types, with the 30-year fixed rate hitting [nearly] 5.2%, the highest level since 2010,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting.
To help you stay current on the market, ZeroDown compiled a weekly real estate market report using data from Redfin. Statistics are as of the four weeks ending April 17, 2022. Metros with more than 50 homes sold during this time period were considered for metro-level rankings for each statistic.
Median sales price
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Median sales price: $288,312
– One-year change: +14.8%
Median sales price per square foot
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Median sales price per square foot: $148
– One-year change: +14.0%
Sales to list price ratio
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Average sales to list price ratio: 1.02
– One-year change: +0.02
Homes sold with price drops
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Homes sold with price drops: 13.1%
– One-year change: -0.5%
Off market in two weeks
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Off market in two weeks: 12.1%
– One-year change: -11.4%
Months of supply
Birmingham, AL metro area:
– Months of supply: 8.0 months
– One-year change: -1.8 months
This story originally appeared on ZeroDown and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.