It’s still a seller’s market for U.S. real estate. According to ATTOM Data Solutions’ year-end 2016 report, those who sold a home last year saw the highest average profits since 2007. Forty-four percent of housing markets reached all-time price peaks in 2016. Nationwide, the median home price in 2016 was $218,175, a 6.8 percent increase from 2015 and a 45 percent increase from the 2011 low. The share of distressed sales dropped to 16.2 percent, a nine-year low, and below the 18.8 percent mark of 2015. Short sales—or sales of homes that sold for less than the value of their loans—accounted for 5.5 percent of home sales in 2016, an eight-year low.
“The housing market hit several important milestones in 2016, with distressed sales at a nine-year low and home prices at a 10- year high, just barely below the pre-recession peak in 2006,” said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at ATTOM Data Solutions, on ATTOM’s website. “This was all good news for home sellers, who realized their biggest average profits since purchase nationwide in 2016. Even distressed property sellers are benefitting from this hot seller’s market, with a record-high share of homes at foreclosure auction being purchased by third-party buyers rather than reverting back to the foreclosing bank.”
