NAR Quarterly Report Shows Sizzling Price Hikes, Points to Broadening RE Investment Potential

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) today released its first-quarter 2021 report on median area prices and affordability, saying that 99% of the 183 metro areas the trade group tracks reported price gains from the first quarter of 2020, and 89% notched double-digit gains. The median existing single-family sales price jumped an annualized 16.2% in the quarter to $319,200, the highest since the NAR began keeping count in 1989. The NAR said that last year at this time, when inventory better matched demand, 46 out of 181, or 25%, of the metro areas it was tracking saw double-digit median price increases from the same quarter in 2019, compared with 163 out of 183 this time around, for 89%.