Average Home Sale Profit Hit a 12-Year High in 2018

It had been more than a decade since U.S. home sellers netted a greater profit than they did in 2018, according to ATTOM Data Solutions' Year-End U.S. Home Sales Report. The average home sale last year gained a massive $61,000 since purchase, good for a 32.6% return on investment; both of those amounts were the largest since 2006. That year, homes sold for a net gain of $68,000, or 43.3% ROI, on average. By comparison, 2017's home sellers saw profits of only $50,000 (27% ROI).

When it comes to ROI, no region saw happier sellers than the west coast. In fact, among 217 metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 200,000 and sufficient historical data, the highest average home seller ROI were in San Jose, California (108.8%); San Francisco, California (78.6%); Seattle, Washington (70.7%); Merced, California (66.4%); and Santa Rosa, California (66.1%).

These remarkable sale results were in part fueled by rapid growth in U.S. home prices, with the median home price in 2018 increasing by 5.5% from 2017 to a new all-time high of $248,000. The metro areas which experienced the largest year-over-year increase in home prices were Mobile, Alabama (21%); Flint, Michigan (19%); San Jose, California (18.9%); Atlantic City, New Jersey (16.4%); and Las Vegas, Nevada (13.5%).

Another factor which contributed to higher ROI was an increase in average home ownership tenure at the time of sale. Homeowners who sold in the fourth quarter of 2018 had been in their homes an average of 8.3 years, the longest amount of time observed since the number was first tracked in Q1 2000. This increase in time since purchase allowed for greater price appreciation than would otherwise be expected.

You can learn about more interesting trends in U.S. home sales by visiting attomdata.com!