- The US housing market is on track to hit a record $50 trillion in value, Redfin said.
- US homes gained $3 trillion in value last year, thanks to supply and demand imbalances.
- Experts say prices will remain elevated for some time.
The US housing market has never been worth more, and it's on track to cross a record $50 trillion valuation, according to Redfin.
Home prices have been on a rapid climb amid ongoing supply an-demand imbalances in the market. A dearth of supply of homes for sale has led the value of all US homes to climb to a record $49.6 trillion as of June of this year, the real estate listings site estimated in a new report.
After a $3.1 trillion rise in just the last year, the US housing market is on track to cross the $50 trillion mark by next June, the real estate listings site said.
"The value of America's housing market will likely cross the $50 trillion threshold in the next 12 months as there are not enough homes being listed to push prices down," Chen Zhao, the head of Redfin Economics Research, said in a statement. "Mortgage rates have started falling, but many potential sellers and buyers are waiting to make a move, meaning we are likely to continue seeing a pattern where prices slowly tick up."
High mortgage rates have kept existing homeowners locked in to their properties, fueling a supply-demand mismatch in recent years. And while mortgage rates have eased, borrowing costs remain elevated, with the 30-year fixed mortgage rate clocking in at 6.47% the last week, according to Freddie Mac.
Existing home sales dropped 5.4% year-over-year in June, the National Association of Realtors said.
Home prices, meanwhile, grew 4.7% that month, per an estimate from CoreLogic.
Some areas in the housing market, though, are seeing a slower pace of price growth or outright price declines as demand cools off from its pandemic highs. Cities in the Sun Belt, where Americans flocked to during the pandemic, are seeing the steepest declines in the country, with home prices dropping as much as 11% in some areas, Redfin said in a separate report.