Condo Sales and Popularity Rising
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“Home Sweet Home” never looked more appealing than it has over the past several years with the “stay-at-home” COVID pandemic. The desire for home ownership surged. But while single family home (SFR) pricing, availability and sales increased significantly in 2020 and 2021, it appeared homeownership was out of reach for the many home-buyers flooding into the real estate market. With the shortage of inventory, millennials stepping up to purchase their first home, increased desire to work from home to stay healthy, and parents taking back their children’s education to home-school, many of the new forces that pushed home prices and ownership beyond reach for many, demanded buyers look beyond single family homes. Suddenly, condominiums looked increasingly appealing and were often the only option for many homebuyers, especially first-time home-buyers.
According to Dana Anderson, data journalist at Redfin, “the typical U.S. condominium sold for a record $319,000 in February 2022. That’s up 14.6% from a year earlier and 22.7% from two years earlier, just before the pandemic began.” Anderson reports “condos are selling two weeks faster than they were a year ago.” Anderson went on to report “a record 55.1% of condos went off the market within two weeks in February, up from 47.9% a year earlier.”
Anderson said “The typical condo that sold in February went under contract in 30 days, 13 days faster than a year earlier. By comparison, 62.1% of single-family homes sold within two weeks (versus 58.2% a year earlier), and the typical single-family home sold in 24 days (seven days faster than a year earlier). Anderson concludes that demand for single-family homes surged during the pandemic, but it surged so much that condos are now all some homebuyers can afford, creating a hot condo-buying market.
To read Anderson’s full report, including charts and metro-level condo market data, please visit: https://www.redfin.com/news/condo-prices-record-high-february-2022/